Only in America can you take your pooch to a doggie day spa, buy him organic biscuits and dress him up as Spider-Man for Halloween.

So it should be no surprise to see the public outrage over Atlanta Falcon’s quarterback Michael Vick’s alleged involvement in a macabre dog-fighting ring. 

On July 26, Vick pleaded not guilty to federal dog-fighting charges. The 27-year-old superstar athlete was released without bond until his Nov. 26 trial.  According to news reports, Vick is accused of running an illegal operation called Bad Newz Kennels on a property he owns in Virginia. Among the charges, Vick and three others are accused of electrocuting, hanging, drowning and shooting dogs who weren’t strong fighters.

In a country where Fido snoozes in his master’s bed and camps out on the sofa all day, Vick’s PR people have the improbable task of turning venom into vino.

You can tell much about a country’s humanity, as well as its prosperity, in the way it treats animals. That standard also applies to military people. If you’ve ever read the markers at the old pet cemeteries on post, you realize quickly what these animals meant to their human companions. From goldfish to golden retrievers, military families go to great lengths to ensure their pets come along with them from one assignment to the next.

Despite the horrors of war, veterans always soften when recalling the local mutts their units adopted. Some resourceful soldiers even found ways to bring those animals back to the United States. While military life isn’t always conducive to having a pet, the all-volunteer Military Pets Foster Project (www.netpets.com ) helps find temporary foster homes for deployed servicemembers’ pets.

I discovered not everyone is ga-ga over pets in the American manner when I taught English and lived in Korea with a Korean family for a year. My Korean family found it humorous and odd that we Americans have framed photographs of our pets displayed in our homes.  

Of course, the 66 dogs, many of them pit bulls, seized from Vick’s property weren’t pets, but victims of ghoulish entertainment where they fought to the death.

Vick, who has a $130 million deal playing football for the Falcons, is now enduring some pain of his own. The NFL has banned him from training camp, which should be the least of his worries. He faces up to six years in prison if convicted. In a statement read by his lawyer, Vick said he’s innocent of the charges and looks forward to clearing his name. Clearing his name? It’s more like picking up the shattered pieces.