The Culture

Dog fighting is a terrible act of animal cruelty and the people who think it is okay to fight dogs until they die should be found and punished. Although it just isn’t that easy, unfortunately dog fighting is something that continues to spread rapidly even though it is banned in all 50 states. “An estimated 40,000 people in the US are thought to be involved in "professional" dog fighting, using some 250,000 dogs.” People of all different kinds join to watch the event and take pleasure in watching these helpless animals fight with one another for sometimes over an hour. During the fight bets are being placed and money is running high among all the spectators and gamblers.

Before the fights take place the dogs are brutally trained to until their trainer feels the dog has reached its highest peak of aggression. The dogs are tossed in the ring and blood then begins to fly. The underground networks publicize these events to where they charge people to watch even if they are not there to gamble. According to the Humane Society some bets get as high as 100,000 dollars and up and winners take home a large amount of money after a successful day in the ring. In most cases the dog that is the champion that day will live to see more fights and hopefully continue to win. The more fights one dog has under his or her belt the higher the bets are which make the fight more exciting for those who wish to gamble on the dogs. Not all the time does the winner live, there are many things that can still kill the dog after the fight is over. Things like blood loss and shock can cause the dog to die if it’s not treated properly, and if the dog is injured to badly the owner will kill the dog themselves and move on to the next big winner. “When Vick's property in Virginia was raided, 54 pit bull terriers were found, some with apparent dog fighting injuries, as well as training equipment like a treadmill and a stick used to pry open dogs' jaws.” The culture of dog fighting is extremely diverse just like America is today. It is widespread and people can join at all different levels of dog fighting depending on how much they are willing to put into their dog and all the levels of necessary training. Even superstars like Mike Vick are into the dog fighting business and think it is alright to kill innocent dogs, but after doing some time in the penitentiary I think he realizes what he did was wrong and sick.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6960788.stm

http://www.animallaw.info/articles/ddusdogfighting.htm