Tell Nike to drop Michael Vick

This message is being circulated by the Humane Society of the US:

Thank you so much for urging the NFL to suspend Michael Vick! Because of your action and those of more than 263,000 others who contacted the NFL through our campaign, the league yesterday ordered Vick to stay out of training camp. We're pleased, and we will press the NFL to keep Vick off the football field until the resolution of his felony dogfighting charges in federal court.

I'm writing you today to ask you to urge Nike to drop Michael Vick.

The company is the most prominent corporate sponsor of Vick. Although it has pulled Vick-related merchandise from its website -- including, thankfully, a $16 “Vick Hero” tee-shirt for boys that was still being sold two days after Vick’s indictment -- Nike continues to sell Vick-related products in its retail stores.

With public pressure mounting, Nike last week issued a statement condemning cruelty to animals. It called the charges against Vick “disturbing” and added, “we consider any cruelty to animals inhumane and abhorrent.”

Federal authorities have charged Vick with a series of federal offenses, including involvement in a dogfighting ring operated from his property that has left a string of dead, wounded, and suffering animals along the Eastern Seaboard. Nike has said that Vick should be afforded the same due process as any citizen. That, of course, is true. But this is no moment to tell America's youth to look up to such a man.

Please urge Nike to end its relationship with Vick now.

Young people have been seduced by pop culture icons who glamorize the underground world of dogfighting. Every corporate and political leader needs to make it plain that going down this road is a dead end. The Vick case is where that campaign must start.

Thank you for all you do for animals.

Sincerely,

Wayne Pacelle
President & CEO
The Humane Society of the United States
https://community.hsus.org/campaign/US_2007_dogfighting_nike/ingud5x4rm53jjx?