Grab a shovel, Michael and friends

They were hung from trees in the woods behind Michael Vick’s house, eight dogs left there to die, kicking and screaming.

The pit bulls had made the mistake of failing the test. They weren’t mean enough, quick enough, strong enough in the ring, so they were of no more use to Vick’s Bad Newz dogfighting operation.

Imagine, killing a dog because it’s just too nice.

Five of the dogs finally kicked their last breaths away as the ropes cut deeper and deeper into their throats. Three somehow clung to life.

Vick and two of his henchmen, growing impatient, cut those three down and one by one shoved their heads into five-gallon buckets filled with water, drowning them to finish them off.

Try keeping your breakfast down after hearing that report on ESPN.

The inhumanity, the callousness, the abuse of these innocent, helpless animals is almost beyond comprehension.

That’s why there’s only one place for Michael Vick to scramble now, only one way to run: He must become PETA’s No. 1 spokesman.

It may sound like a joke and certainly all members of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will recoil at the idea, but what better punishment than to throw Vick to the very wolves who are clamoring for his hide?

The details of the final moments for those eight pit bulls came from reporters clustered at the Richmond, Va., federal courthouse Friday morning, where two members of Vick’s operation entered guilty pleas on dogfighting charges and one signed a statement alleging Vick’s participation.

What we must remember is that this is but a single incident. How many dogs actually died behind Vick’s house in Surry County, or in his dogfighting rings, may never be known.

There were already reports of dogs being doused with water so they could be more effectively electrocuted.

Sentencing for the two men was scheduled for Nov. 30, and a third co-defendant will be sentenced in December. Maximum sentence would be five years and a $250,000 fine, but in a plea arrangement with federal prosecutors, each is expected to receive a 12-to-18-month sentence.

Vick is in a jam like he’s never seen on a football field. Amid reports that Vick’s attorneys had recommended he accept a plea arrangement that would send him to jail for at least a year, another grand jury convenes Monday with the possibility that Vick could also face racketeering charges that would drastically increase his potential prison time.

Prison’s too good for people like this. It really is.

I’d hoped that Vick’s involvement in dogfighting was no worse than financial, or as a blood-thirsty spectator, not that that would make him any less guilty. But based on what’s being reported, he literally got his hands bloody, too.

That’s why justice clamors for something more. Besides their prison sentences, each of these men should spend eight hours a day for the next five years cleaning cages at an animal shelter as a form of community service.

They need to shovel dog poop for a long, long time.

Vick should become the poster child for speaking out against the evils of dogfighting and animal abuse. To save whatever shred of humanity he still has, he needs to throw himself on the mercy of those who have dedicated their lives to rescuing and caring for animals.

Football? Forget about it. This isn’t about his football career anymore. It’s about his life and whether he can ever again convince people he’s anything more than a sub-human who once tortured dogs for sport.

Don’t think for a minute that this only happens someplace else. Texas is a hotbed for dogfighting, and it even happens right here in Fort Worth.

“We frequently see victims of dog fights,” said Peggy Brown-Aguilar, shelter manager at the Humane Society of North Texas. “They come in here injured, starved, ears ripped off, legs partially ripped off … catastrophic injuries. Some of them are just family pets who have been stolen and then used as bait dogs to train fighting dogs.”

As horrendous as it is, it’s a difficult crime to stop.

“The people involved in it are naturally very cautious about who they talk about it to,” Brown-Aguilar said. “It’s a hard world to infiltrate.”

If there’s any good to come out of Vick’s incredibly tragic story, it’s the attention it has brought to a world most of us, thankfully, know absolutely nothing about.

“The indictment of Michael Vick and his co-defendants is just a symptom of the larger problem in society,” Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of United States, wrote in a recent blog. “There are tens of thousands of people involved in this sordid and sickening industry, and eradication of the entire industry is our goal.

The HSUS is doubling its reward from $2,500 to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest of anyone involved in animal fighting.

Then there’s the problem of pit bulls themselves. Nationally, about one-third of the dogs entering shelters are pit bulls, and in some shelters it runs as high as 70 percent. Dogs trained for fighting become so aggressive that it is almost impossible for them to assimilate back into the role of simply pet. While the HSUS does not favor breed bans, it does support local spaying and neutering ordinances.

And no, I’m not talking about Vick and his cohorts.

After they’ve spent a year or more behind bars, thinking about what they’ve done, just put them knee-deep in dog poop at the nearest shelter and hand them a shovel.

Even that’s too good for them.