Dog Fighting: More than the Abuse of Dogs
Dog Fighting: More than the Abuse of Dogs
Dog fighting conjures up images of cruelty, animal suffering, and greed – but that’s not the full picture. To that, add crime, gangsterism, violence, and drugs, and then the realities of dog fighting become clearer.
It’s a problem of dangerous, disturbing proportions: people who flout animal protection laws flout other laws, too – just as those who violently hurt animals have no problem with violence towards people, too.
As dog fighting is illegal, the Cape of Good Hope SPCA works with the City of Cape Town’s Law Enforcement (Animal Control Unit) to enforce the law and educate communities about the harms of dog fighting and ways to spot it and report it.
This work pays off, as we saw in March when our Inspectors responded to a tip-off about youngsters inciting their dogs to fight – a regular occurrence, according to the Lotus River resident who reported the matter.
Young people become desensitised to animal suffering by witnessing dog fighting in their communities and imitating it with their own dogs. Numerous studies have also identified how animal abuse is often linked to child abuse and gender-based violence – two of the greatest societal ills in South Africa.
Please help us keep up the pressure to end dog fighting by supporting our anti-dog fighting campaigns. It takes teamwork and a united front to dismantle a secretive system that operates in the shadows of our communities – and in the darkest corners of the human psyche.
Source: SPCA
