Issue date: 10/9/07 Section: News

Media Credit: File - The Battalion [Click to enlarge]

Those who will attend Texas A&M's football game Saturday in Lubbock might see a unwelcome sight. Two Texas Tech students are selling controversial T-shirts bearing the image of A&M's mascot, Reveille.

The T-shirt, red with black text and images, displays the words "Vick 'em" across the chest. The back bears the image of a football player wearing a number 7, dangling a dog labeled "Reveille" by a rope. The "Vick 'em" and the football player are meant to portray Michael Vick, the professional football player who was convicted in August of running a multi-state dog-fighting ring.

Geoffrey Candia, the shirt's creator and a student at Texas Tech, said he wanted to sell the shirt through his fraternity, but the university turned down the group's request to sell the shirts on campus.

"I'm a business student and I saw the profitability and went ahead and printed the shirts," he said.

Candia said the shirt does not mean to advocate animal cruelty. It is simply for fun.

"The original idea, when it was still through a student organization, was to give 50 percent of our profit to the Animal Defense League here in Lubbock, simply because we knew there would be a controversy about the shirts, you know, animal rights, stuff like that," he said.

Robyn Katz, president of Texas Tech's chapter of the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, said she would refuse the money if Candia tried to donate it.

"We're not taking dirty money, and that's what it is," Katz said. "It's really disgusting to see Tech students doing this and profiting from it. It's an embarassment to Tech."

Katz said she has contacted Texas Tech's president, general counsel and business school seeking action against the shirt's creator.

The shirts have caused an uproar on Internet message boards like TexAgs.com and Rivals.com, and Facebook groups deriding the shirts have popped up in response to Candia's group promoting them.

"I understand that both schools poke fun at each other, but there's a point where it goes too far," said Kyndle Lucas, a junior biomedical sciences major at A&M. "It's very unethical. It crosses the line," she added.

Continued...

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