The truth of Pit Bull fighting

First of all I will explain the basics of Pit Bull fighting:

There are two types of dogfighting: street fighting and professional dogfighting. Street fighting is less professional and serves more as a symbol for the people who take part of gangs.. Up to 100,000 people in the US may be taking part in street fighting. Rival gangs force their dogs to fight against each other in bloody battles that take place in garages, alleys or abandoned buildings.

Professional dogfighting is a highly organized subculture, made up of secret groups. Professional dog fighters publish their own magazines that report the results of fights and chart lineages of successful fighting dogs. They travel widely to show off and fight their dogs. Some do it part-time, staying within the local community. Others make their living by breeding, training, fighting and gambling on the animals. This all seams acceptable, but the dogs live in very bad circumstances.

These dogs are not allowed to live normal lives. Instead, they spend their time chained in place, training or fighting. They often live in small cages and in filthy conditions. Handlers use heavy chains to hold dogs in place, frequently adding weights to them, all with the purpose of increasing a dog’s upper-body strength. Dogs are kept close to each other, but just out of reach in order to increase their antagonism.

Professional dogfighters make training regimens. Food and nutritional intake are meticulously measured. Some trainers give dogs steroids injections and supplements. To build endurance, dogs are forced to run on treadmills and to swim in pools, sometimes for hours. Trainers keep detailed records of their dogs’ exercise and feedings.

To increase aggressiveness, the animals are frequently beaten and antagonized. They may also be starved. As part of training, handlers will take cats or rabbits, often stolen, and use these animals as “bait.” These bait animals are tied up while the dog is restrained, or they’re put in a small enclosure with the dog. After training with the bait, the handler unchains the dog and allows him to kill it.

Handlers make their dogs tug on hanging objects, like tires, to increase jaw strength. Some handlers file their dogs’ teeth to be as sharp as possible so that maximum damage can be caused.

I personally think that Pit Bull fights should be illegal, not Pit bulls. In many states pit bull fighting is legal. The government is blaming the dogs; they are aggressive because we made them that way. It was our choice, now the dogs need to suffer. 

What makes BSL ineffective? (BSL= breed specific legislation)

• Dog attacks are usually the fault of an irresponsible owner, not a specific breed. Therefore,     banning an entire breed will solve nothing. The irresponsible owners will just most likely move on to another breed, and continue making bad choices regarding their dogs. BSL targets the breed, not the owner where the responsibility belongs.

• It’s very costly. It’s costly to the responsible owners, because they are forced to pay for insurance policies, ridiculously tall fences to be built, etc. BSL is also costly to the place enforcing it. There will be kenneling costs and court costs to deal with.

• It’s unfair to responsible owners. It restricts your right as a responsible dog owner to own certain breeds. If the law states that you can own the dog, but there are restrictions (muzzling, short leashes, high fences), you are still punished. When you take your dog in public, you are frowned upon and sometimes harassed by others for owning what they believe to be a “vicious” breed.

• Dogs can only be identified by appearance, and Pit Bulls are especially difficult for the average person to identify. There are far too many people that are not qualified to determine breeds of dogs and therefore Pit Bulls have become scapegoats. Any dog that bites or attacks, has a large head, or cropped ears, often gets called a Pit Bull. Many of these are actually not Pit Bulls at all, or are mixes with another dominant breed. Because of this, many dogs will be wrongly identified, and countless lives taken.