This past summer PETA famously offered to pay for a scan of the prefrontal region of Sharon Stone’s brain. They claimed it was probably underdeveloped since she clearly lacks empathy for others, both human and animal. PETA often writes these open letters to celebs as a way to get attention and free press. Their offers/pleas are generally ridiculous and I don’t think they ever expect anyone to take them up on it.

But they’ve made a very serious demand – not an offer – to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell that he require dog fighting player Michael Vick to get a brain scan to rule out psychopathy before he’s allowed to play again. Vick won’t get out of prison until this summer, but the organization is damn serious about this.

The only bright side for Vick may be a PETA campaign that could be overplaying its hand.

PETA is demanding that Vick be barred from the league unless he has a brain scan to prove he’s not a psychopath. It has written a letter to Goodell to press its case and is urging supporters to write e-mails to Goodell.

From the PETA Web site:

“Vick’s behavior seems to fit the American Psychiatric Association profile for anti-social personality disorder (APD). People with APD are commonly referred to as “psychopaths”. They are usually male, often charming, prone to lying and manipulation, and incapable of genuine remorse. They can also take pleasure in inflicting cruelty.

Before the NFL even considers the possibility of allowing Vick back into the League, where he will be in a position to influence many fans, including countless children, PETA wants the League to require him to undergo a brain scan, coupled with a structured, standardized test (e.g, the Psychopathy Checklist, approved by the American Psychiatric Association). If Vick emerges from these examinations without evidence of psychopathy, this may mean that he has the capacity to express true remorse. If he is a psychopath, the chances of recidivism are great and remorse is virtually impossible.”

Extra point: The use of brain scans to predict future criminality is a controversial subject, and has some Orwellian undertones. After his two years of prison are over, do you think Vick deserves to be reinstated? Would you be comfortable if your team signed him? Chris Harry of The Orlando Sentinel is predicting that Vick will first play for the U.F.L. franchise in Orlando.

[From the New York Times]

The entire contents of PETA’s letter can be read here. I go back and forth on PETA, but I always give their marketing people a lot of credit for innovative ideas. This particular issue doesn’t seem to be about marketing though; they’re not targeting Vick for his celebrity but due to the heinousness of his crimes. I’ve never been tempted to sign anything on their site, but they do have a form letter you can submit urging the NFL not to reinstate Vick without the brain scan, and I’m thinking about sending one.

But frankly I’d rather send one saying not to let him play at all. It makes no difference to me whether or not he’s a psychopath, he did what he did. I expect he’ll get a fresh round of negative publicity when he’s released from prison in July, and I hope a PETA protest follows him everywhere he goes. And that’s like wishing plagues and boils on someone.

Here are PETA activists outside a sentencing hearing for Vick in federal court in December 2007 in Richmond, Virginia. Header of Vick speaking to reporters after agreeing to a guilty plea in August 2007.