Animal lovers, would you want Michael Vick to have dogs again? Tuesday he told Newark, N.J., school kids he wished he could.

"I wish I could have a dog right now more than anything in the world," Vick said while acknowledging that his judge has banned him from owning dogs. "My goal now is to help more animals than I hurt and help turn a negative situation into a positive."

Raising and training pit bulls on his rural Virginia home got Vick booted out of the NFL for two years straight, landing him in the federal pen at Leavenworth.

His New Jersey appearance speaking against dogfighting was about the sixth he's made with the Humane Society of the United States since his release from prison and house arrest back in July, according to this story on NBCNewYork.com. And there will be more.

"He's said he will do this for many years," said Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle.

Pacelle said Vick's appearances are voluntary, not part of any parole.

"I should have known better," Vick admitted to a couple of hundred kids at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Newark.

He said he's hopeful one day he'll have a dog again. "I don't know when that day is going to come. It's up to my judge at his discretion," he said.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/pawprintpost/post/2009/12/vick-wishes-he-could-have-dogs-again/1