We in the United States seem to be obsessed with celebrity culture and all things related to fame and fortune. Celebrities invade our homes through television and the Internet with their crazy antics, their outrageous reality TV shows and their copious amounts of partying. But we always forgive them for what they have done, so long as they go to rehab. No amount of drug arrests or sex tape releases will keep us from finding those imperfect celebrities endearing.

Where I draw the line, though, is when a celebrity decides to profit from forcing dogs to viciously fight each other.

Yes, I am talking about Michael Vick, and yes, his actions are essentially old news. But Vick has recently been in headlines again, and this time his publicist was probably okay with it.

On Feb. 5, Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway, who will step in as acting mayor when current Mayor Tom Leppart leaves office, gave Vick an unofficial key to the City of Dallas to award him for turning his life around and being a role model for children.

This is a man who had a compound made especially for dogfights. He admitted to personally drowning and hanging dogs because they were not fit for fighting. He has been in repeated trouble with the law because of drugs and other illicit activities, including failing to inform Sonya Elliott, his ex-girlfriend, that he had a venereal disease and subsequently passing it on to her.

Sure, he has donated money to charities and opened up admirable non-profit foundations, but these good deeds do not outweigh the fact that he has done many terrible things in the past. It almost seems like he only did charitable works to appease those who he has offended or to make up for his wrongdoings. Still, someone thinks Vick deserves the key to a city he is not even from. This cannot be right.

Everyone makes mistakes, and sometimes a second chance is in order. But Vick’s own father, Michael Boddie, has made claims that Vick’s dogfights have been going on since 2001. If Vick was caught in 2007, that means that he had been keeping this inhumane crime from the public for six years.

The Bad Newz Kennel, as it was called, was Vick’s very profitable, high-stakes-gambling dogfight club. The fact that he formed a club for such a disgusting activity is nothing short of sadistic, and could be psychopathic at worst.

In the public eye he has expressed remorse, but Vick’s history does not lie. If you can perpetrate such horrific abuse for years and years, then it has to take more than a few months in jail to change. I certainly would not want him to have a key to my city.