Petition aims to ban Michael Vick from SUNY Courtland, Jets training camp location

A petition has gained over 2,000 signatures that aims to ban football player Michael Vick from SUNY Courtland's campus.  The Jets will hold its training camp on the university's campus this summer.  The petition, hosted by Change.org. 

The petition states, "Vick has served a short sentence for bankrolling a dogfighting conspiracy, but animal cruelty charges were dropped in return for his guilty plea.  This does not mean, however, that his crimes should be forgotten."  

The statement continues, "He tortured more than fifty dogs, attaching them to car batteries via jumper cables and throwing them into water to watch them drown, beating and hanging them, slamming their heads and spines into the ground until they died, setting them against each other in brutal fights, rendering them defenseless and using them as bait for training, and more."

According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Michael Vick animal fighting case study states after his three co-conspirators pled guilty on August 27, 2007, "Vick also pled guilty, admitting to funding the dogfighting operation and the associated gambling operation. He admitted to knowing about four dogs that his co-conspirators killed in 2002, and he admitted to agreeing to the hanging and drowning of 6-8 dogs who underperformed in 2007. Vick admitted he provided most of the operation and gambling monies, but he claimed he did not gamble by placing side bets or receiving proceeds from the purses."

On October 12, 2007, investigators received conflicting information about Vick's hands-on participation in the killing of "poor performing" dogs.  After further questions, Vick confessed to killing two dogs.  Accodgin to Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gill, Vick admitted to the polygrapher, "I carried a dog over to Quanis Phillips, who tied a rope around its neck. I dropped the dog."

When asked by The Wall Street Journal if the public should forgive him, Vick said, "I think at some point you let bygones be bygones.  I think some people will never forget, some people will, but that's just the reality of the situation that I created for myself."  He then goes on to saying when he was going through that period of time in court, he thought about what it would do to his legacy, image, and brand but he is confident in his fans.