Protest organizers speak on Vick appearance in Butler

SUNDAY, JUNE 12, 2011

BY STEVE JANOSKI
STAFF WRITER

Plans continue to take shape for the protest that's scheduled to coincide with Michael Vick's appearance at Main Street's Butler Sports Cards, with animal rights activists vowing to send the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback "a clear message" that he's not wanted in Butler.
The signing will take place on Sunday, June 19, and store owner Jeff Robbins expects that it will draw somewhere around 200 people, all of whom will be paying for the chance to procure the resurgent quarterback's signature.

The event has also drawn the attention of local animal rights activists, many of whom are planning to take to the street to let Vick know that they haven't forgotten his past sins.

Tracey Bradshaw, 36, is a Rockaway native and one of the organizers of the protest. She said that the activists have "no respect for Vick" and are "offended by the fact that he's coming around our area."

Bradshaw said that even though laws aren't as stringent for killers of dogs as they are for killers of humans, "a murderer is a murderer," and Vick coming to Butler is akin to any other murderer "coming to town and signing autographs."

Another of the protest's organizers, Maria Fortunato, 42, of Wayne, said that it was "vile" that he was able to continue on with his career by "doing a little bit of time, saying, 'I'm sorry,' and moving on."

Fortunato said that the goal of the protest is to keep Vick's name in the public eye and remind people of his crimes.

"The dogs don't have a voice," she said. "We need to be their voices and remind people of what he actually did."

Bradshaw said that she hopes that the protest is seen as a cry for stricter laws on animal abuse and reaches the ears of legislators.

"We want to make our point known that we need stricter laws and penalties," she said.

Candace Bright, founder of the foster service Gentle Giants Inc. of Wayne, works with giant breed dogs, many of which have been used as bait dogs in dogfighting operations.

She said that she wants to help remind the American public that animal rights people don't support Vick, and that he is not someone to be idolized even though he is a star athlete.

"I think that he is not a good figure for kids to look up to," she said.

None of the women are content with the 18-month jail sentence that Vick served. Fortunato said he should be in prison for life for what he did, and Bradshaw said that when a "human murders another human intentionally, they spend a lot longer in jail than a year and a half."

Roughly 100 people are expected to show up for the protest, which will start around noon and take place in a cordoned-off section of parking spots across the street from the card shop.

Many of those involved, including Bradshaw and Fortunato, are involved in animal rescue in one way or another and have called their impromptu group "Justice for the Vicktory Dogs."

They will carry signs and posters as well as a Vick piñata that, instead of being bashed open, will serve as a fund-raising tool. Different sums of money will be inserted through various holes cut into the dummy.

At the end of the rally, the money will be sent to the organization "Dogs Deserve Better," which is seeking to buy the Virginia property that once housed Vick's now infamous "Bad Newz Kennels."

Their plan, Bradshaw said, is to turn it into an animal sanctuary.

There is also word that a counter-protest is being planned against the animal rights people, and Bradshaw said they've "gotten quite aggressive" toward her group. Capt. Ciro Chimento, spokesman for the ButlerPolice Department, said that there will be a law-enforcement presence in the area to accommodate the protestors and counter-protestors, should they show up.

However, the loose organizational structure of the protests has given police problems in calculating exactly how many people to expect.

"We do have some traffic diversions scheduled in the event that it gets to those (higher) numbers of people, but we really don't know," he said.

Butler police are working closely with the Morris County Prosecutor's Office and surrounding jurisdictions to gather intelligence and plan for the day, said Chimento.

"We're not expecting any real problems at this point," he said. "We're planning for the worst and hoping for the best… But we're hoping for a very peaceful assembly.

An unredeemable crime?

It may be possible that in some people's eyes, the quarterback will never be forgiven for what he's done, even though he continues to speak at various schools about the evils of dogfighting as part of his community service program.

Recently, he spoke out against an app for Android phones called "Dog Wars," which reportedly allowed users to train and fight virtual dogs against each other. The app has since been pulled.

Fortunato said that maybe she would believe he changed if he takes on a proactive stance toward saving animals after his probation period is over, such as setting up a foundation or injecting money into local shelters in Philadelphia. Even then, she's not sure.

"I don't know if there's anything he could ever do," she said. "But certainly walking the walk instead of just talking out of his piehole would be a start. I wouldn't want him living next to me, just like I wouldn't want a pedophile or murderer living next to me."

Bradshaw said that he "hasn't shown one ounce of remorse" for the crimes, while Bright said that he would have to continue his public speaking and anti-dogfighting awareness campaign.

"He would have to make some major, major amends before I said, 'OK, he's rehabilitated,'" she said.

The organizers are aware of what people are saying— Bright said she has been called a racist and a Nazi, and they've all been subject to various threats over the past weeks in one way or another.

They're willing to take it though.

"A lot of people think that we're just crazy, to just let him be," said Fortunato. "But I don't know how people can just bypass the extreme way he did things."

E-mail: janoski@northjersey.com