The Cruel Blood Sport of Dog Fighting

Fight or die

Dogfighting is an inhumane blood sport where dogs have been deliberately bred and trained for the sole purpose of fighting each other, sometimes to the death, in a typical 14 by 20 square-foot pit designed to contain the animals, to entertain spectators, which includes young children, and make money for the owners.

Fights can last from a few minutes up to one or two hours and end when one of the dogs either die or are unable to continue.

Dogfighting can be traced all the way back to the 1750s, with professional dogfighters increasing in number in the 1860s.

Although dogfighting is illegal and participating in dog fights is considered a felony in all 50 states of America, organized dog fighting is still taking place regularly in many parts of the country.

As with any other illegal underground activity, it is impossible to determine exactly how many people are involved in dogfighting. Experts estimate that at least tens of thousands of people are involved in professional dogfighting, while another hundred thousand more may be participating in informal dog fights, or “street-fighting”.

Dogfighting operates on three levels. The first level includes street fighters. These fight all sorts of breeds of dogs and normally do not keep track of a dog’s bloodlines. The dogs are forced into fights in urban parks or housing estates without much planning or rules.

The second level includes hobbyists. Often these people aspire to be professional dogfighters. Many are usually affiliated with gangs and have criminal records. These fights involve more rules and formalised training regimes.

The last level involves professional dogfighters. These dogfighters generally travel the country and around the world breeding and fighting dogs for profit. Some even do it as a living. Strict training regimes and rules apply and large sums of cash are wagered on the outcome of fights that typically last from 30 minutes to two hours.

The dogs that are most commonly bred for fighting are pit bulls, which includes the Staffordshire terriers, American Staffordshire terriers, American bulldogs, and American pit bull terriers.

Dogs are highly social pack animals that thrive in an environment that offers the companionship of other dogs. However, dogs that are used for fighting are typically raised in isolation. They spend most of their lives penned or chained with heavy logging chains and are often taunted and starved in order to encourage aggression and trigger extreme survival instincts.

These dogs are also regularly given a variety of legal and illegal drugs to encourage their fighting instincts, including the use of anabolic steroids to enhance muscle mass.

Fighting dogs are also more commonly subjected to mutilations such as ear cropping and tail docking to minimize their normal body language cues, making it harder for the other dog to read the animal’s moods.

This is to also limit areas that another dog can grab or bite during a right. Fighters usually perform this mutilation themselves using inhumane techniques, without any pain relievers or anesthetic.

Sometimes the dogs also have their teeth sharpened and will have roach poison added into their food so that their fur would taste bad to another dog.

At around 15 months, fighting dogs will usually be trained to fight by running on a treadmill while a caged rabbit, chicken, cat or other terrified animals are dangled in front of them, almost similar to how dog racers train greyhounds to race.

However, many professional dogfighters actually invest time and money to properly train their dogs, giving them quality food and basic veterinary care and also regular exercise under a controlled environment.

The injuries typically inflicted and sustained by fighting dogs are very severe and often fatal. Common injuries include severe puncture wounds, lacerations, blood loss, and broken bones.

Even if their fight was not to the death, many dogs succumb to their injuries, and dogs that have lost fights are usually discarded, brutally killed [being set on fire, electrocuted, shot, drowned, or beaten to death], or are used as “bait” animals.

Some ways you can easily spot signs of dogfighting activity is to look out for pit bulls that weigh approximately 40 to 50 pounds, dogs with cropped ears or docked tails and with multiple scars, dogs on heavy chains or dogs penned in a secluded area with the intention to be kept out of the public’s view.

If you suspect any dogfighting activities going on, alert your local authorities immediately. We should all do our part to put an end to this barbaric and cruel form of “entertainment”.