KEY POINTS:
When Robert Byrd, the longest-serving senator in United States history, takes the floor on Capitol Hill, it is usually to denounce the Iraq war or expound in his courtly Southern style on the neglected splendours of the American constitution.
But last Friday, the two dozen tourists in the visitors gallery above an otherwise virtually empty Senate chamber had a surprise.
His robust voice belying the bodily frailty of almost 90 years, Byrd launched into a typically florid address. He was talking, of all things, about dog-fighting.
Every now and then, some celebrity slip-up turns the spotlight on a nasty hidden corner of American life.
The latest star to stumble is Michael Vick, superstar quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons NFL football team and one of the half-dozen highest-paid professional athletes in the US.
Last Wednesday, Vick and three associates were indicted for running a dog-fighting ring, called Bad Newz Kennels, from a house he bought six years ago.
The charges detail the gory evidence that leaves no doubt that dog-fighting took place place in a complex of sheds and outhouses behind the main property in Smithfield, south-eastern Virginia.
Vick is accused of arranging, financing and betting on fights since 2001, and of being present at the brutal killing of animals that failed to measure up in test fights, or "rolls".
He will appear in court next week, on the same day his Falcons teammates assemble for training for the season that starts in September.
Dog-fighting is a crime in all but two of the 50 US states, and if convicted Vick faces up to six years in jail and a US$350,000 ($440,000) fine.
Thus far he has been convicted of nothing and denies all involvement - though you wouldn't think so from Byrd's overheated oratory.
"I am confident," he thundered, "that the hottest places in Hell are reserved for the souls of sick and brutal people who hold God's creatures in such brutal and cruel contempt."
On a more mundane level, Nike has suspended the introduction of a new sports shoe named after Vick. His NFL career is also in jeopardy.
Its image tarred by a string of incidents implicating players with guns, drugs and domestic abuse, the league has started a disciplinary crackdown against offenders.
One player has been banned for a full season. Vick may be similarly punished, whether he is convicted or not.
Vick's case illustrates the familiar theme of the vulnerable young athlete who suddenly finds himself earning a vast amount of money - the Falcons' quarterback is midway through a US$130 million contract - with no experience to handle it.
Like cock-fighting (which Louisiana became the last state to ban a few weeks ago), dog-fighting has been around at least since the early 19th century and probably before that.
For a long time it was mainly a rural pursuit, entrenched in the South and in the mid-Atlantic states, where the Vick case occurred.
But today, dog-fighting is spreading across the country - as attested by recent police busts in Illinois, Arizona and California.
And it now flourishes in America's cities too. Glorified by rap songs, it has evolved into a macho subculture, part of contemporary urban cool. As the Vick case also suggests, it has growing links with professional sport, notably football and basketball.
About 90 per cent of fight dogs are American pit bull terriers. They are elaborately bred for toughness and aggressiveness, and even more elaborately trained. Test fights weed out the weakest, which are usually killed. According to the Vick case indictment, dogs were drowned, shot and battered to death; one was allegedly electrocuted after first being doused in water.
Investigators say they found 54 live pit bulls, plus the corpses of half a dozen others on Vick's property.
And, if anything, this grisly business is growing further, despite intensified police efforts. Dog-fighting, said a Humane Society official, "is more pervasive than people realise".
A DOG'S LIFE
* The US Humane Society says up to 40,000 people are involved nationwide.
* Stakes of US$10,000 or US$20,000 are routine at major contests.
Those involved operate at three levels:
* 'Off the chain'. Enthusiasts who own one or two dogs and get together for fights.
* 'Hobbyists'. Usually own several dogs and organise fights on a loose local basis.
* 'Professionals'. Have sophisticated operations involving dozens of animals fighting for up to US$50,000.
- INDEPENDENT
