I kind of disagree with a couple things here. When I lived in Texas, I had a co-worker that went to dog fights and **** fights very regularly. Now, this was 15 years ago, but the impression that I got from him was that it is a very common thing in certain places. My guess is, in certain areas of the US, it is very common. The only reason why this is so high profile is that there is a high profile person in this case. My guess is, the penalties will be stiffer because the whole country is watching. We'll have to see. I may be all washed up on this, but this is my opinion.
There are also people every day that commit serious crimes against other people. Many of these are not high profile people at all and yet they get off with a slap on their hand.
Please don't get me wrong, I love dogs and animals and hope he gets punished hard, but I certainly wouldn't call for a hanging.