The League Against Cruel Sports is increasingly focusing more of its time and attention on the sadistic practice of urban dog fighting. Dog fighting was the focus of a special meeting the League held last month, and of the annual lecture delivered at the AGM. But dog fighting is not new. Similarly, it is a crime that can seemingly be hidden within plain sight.
As the newly-appointed Wales Campaigner, the news that someone involved in dog fighting from the Caerphilly-area was sentenced to prison earlier this month, and banned from keeping dogs for ten years, filled me with mixed emotions. I am glad that the individual has been imprisoned. But I also feel shame that this is happening somewhere only a short distance from where I grew up.
I guess that’s the point. Urban dog fighting, while perhaps most closely associated with inner-city environments, is something that can happen quite easily within our own communities.
In many ways urban dog fighting is an even more horrific ‘sport’ than fox- or stag-hunting. Urban dog fighting is inextricably associated with criminal behaviour. In involves deliberately mistreating animals – your own animals – so that they are deliberately more aggressive. It is also an issue where none of the arguments feebly trotted out by the pro-hunt brigade can be used. But all this does not stop urban dog fighting happening.
There are numerous things you can do to support the League in tackling this horrific activity. Together, we can condemn this horrific ‘sport’ to the past – where it most definitely belongs