Mary Allen
The history of bloody dog fights is long and still causes great animal suffering today. Because although the brutal spectacles have long been banned in most countries around the world, criminal organizations earn considerable sums from them.
Over the millennia, humans have abused four-legged friends to engage in merciless (death) fights. This heritage weighs heavily on some races. Because although dog fights are now banned in most countries around the world, their brutal history causes controversial discussions on the one hand, and on the other hand unscrupulous animal abusers try to continue the cruel tradition underground.
Even in ancient times, dogs in Mesopotamia and among the Greeks and Assyrians were armed and used for military service. Organized animal fights later became part of the cruel everyday life of the Roman Empire, and even afterward, throughout the Middle Ages and into the early modern period, clashes between dogs, bears, and bulls for entertainment purposes were not uncommon. The organizers did not just come from the lower class but were – like England’s Queen Elizabeth I (*1533) – partly members of the high nobility.
To ensure “spectacular” fights, individuals with a high potential for aggression and powerful physical traits were mated to each other. According to the cynologist Dieter Fleig, who died in 2001 and wrote numerous non-fiction books on the subject, breeds such as the Tibetan Mastiff, the Great Dane, the Bullenbeisser, and the Greek Molosser were particularly popular.
Horrible Reality to This Day
It was not until 1835 that fighting between dogs, bears, and bulls were banned in Britain, which in turn led to the increasing popularity of dog fights, in which two dogs competed against each other. Also in the still-young United States of America, there were documented dog fights from the 18th century, which developed into a mass phenomenon after the Civil War. Although officially banned towards the end of the 19th century, the gruesome spectacles of illegality continued to take place.
More than 100 years later, cases like the scandal involving American football player Michael Vick, who was convicted and imprisoned for dogfighting, still shock the public. According to experts, these cases are only the tip of the iceberg. During a house search in April 2007, around 60 trained dogs with signs of fighting and relevant equipment were confiscated from one of Vick’s properties. The 23-month prison sentence and the fact that the former Atlanta Falcons star quarterback was allowed to play in the top league of American football around three years after his suspension from the NFL paints a sad picture of the value attached to exploited animals will.
Countless animal welfare organizations around the world are working to ensure that dog fights are not only banned but also sanctioned with appropriate penalties. The fact is that without malicious human action, “fighting dogs”* would not exist as such. Because they are animals that have often been abused for generations for cruel purposes. There are indeed demanding breeds with great physical strength and four-legged friends with a tendency to have a lower stimulus threshold – but it is the task of reputable breeders to keep this within a socially acceptable framework; the loving upbringing and species-appropriate utilization without violence is the responsibility of every owner.