When I woke up this morning, I didn't know
there was an app for Android phones that appears to involve raising and
training virutal dogs for the purposes of fighting. I've still not
actually seen it. But I have seen, read, and heard that Michael Vick has spoken out against the app along with various animal rights groups.
"I've come to learn the hard way that dogfighting is a dead-end
street," said Vick in a statement on Monday. "Now, I am on the right
side of this issue, and I think it's important to send the smart message
to kids, and not glorify this form of animal cruelty, even in an
Android app."
Vick's involvement in any movement against an app that glorifies dog
fighting isn't surprising. Since his incarceration after being caught
running a large dog fighting ring, the Eagles' QB has spent a lot of
time speaking out against it and trying to reinforce community standards
that do not permit it. However, while it's obviously better that Vick
condemn the dog fighting app than say, endorse it, I doubt very much
that the number of times the app is deleted from phones today will be
anywhere near the number of times it is downloaded for the first time by
people who hadn't previously heard about it. Maybe I'm wrong in that
guess. Hopefully I am.
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The animal rights groups' goal likely isn't as much about influencing
consumer behavior as putting heat on Google to remove the app from its
marketplace, but if that doesn't work, there's a good chance Vick's
involvement in the cause against the app could just make it more
popular. The game, Dog Wars, has currently been installed on between
50,000 and 100,000 units.