Dogs finally having their day - In the wake of the Michael Vick scandal, a little-seen 2005 documentary on the fighting gets attention.

It took him 14 years. He began in 1991, got derailed, restarted, even got busted at one of the 12 dogfights he witnessed. Brown was intent on sounding an alarm, he says, about a cruel, menacing and illegal activity taking place in basements, barnyards, clearings in the woods and abandoned warehouses all across America.

When Brown finished "Off the Chain," he shopped it around and got no takers. With help from actor Troy Garity ("Barbershop"), Brown's buddy from New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the 60-minute documentary was picked up by Allumination FilmWorks and released to DVD in 2005. It got the "must-see" stamp of approval from the Humane Society but didn't have the impact Brown craved.

"It's unfortunate that a celebrity has to get charged to bring this to light," said Brown, an actor and businessman who grew up in suburban Washington. "I was trying to get the public interested in this years ago, and they weren't interested."

Now that the Vick case has moved organized dogfighting to the forefront, Brown has become an instant analyst on talk shows. Best Buy has picked up his film. Cheryl Freeman, chief executive officer of Allumination FilmWorks, reports a hike in sales since news broke this summer of Vick's involvement in the dogfighting enterprise Bad Newz Kennels.

'Not a Wal-Mart film'

Thirty thousand copies of "Off the Chain" have been sold, which might not seem like much, she said, "but with a title like this, that's a lot of units. This is not a Wal-Mart film. The normal consumer is not going to pick up this title."

The "normal consumer" has been processing a range of emotions conjured by the latest case of a star athlete in trouble -- and not just about the merits of pitting dogs against each other for sport and electrocuting those that don't perform well. On Monday outside the courthouse in Richmond, Va., where Vick pleaded guilty to federal dogfighting charges, a kind of street-corner debate was on display. Vick's fans were singing hymns and wearing his No. 7 Atlanta Falcons jersey. The quarterback's opponents brandished photos of brutalized dogs and demanded no leniency.