From USA Today

Window on a cruel world - Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070720/cm_usatoday/windowonacruelworld

Fri Jul 20, 12:22 AM ET

Until this week, dogfighting was something many Americans heard about in passing and quickly forgot. With Tuesday's federal indictment of Atlanta Falcons star quarterback Michael Vick, forgetting will be tougher.

In gruesome detail, the indictment links Vick and three associates to a dogfighting operation in rural Virginia with the fitting name of Bad Newz Kennels. Amid the 19 grim pages is one particularly haunting sentence: In April 2007, Vick and two associates allegedly "executed approximately eight dogs by various methods, including hanging, drowning, and slamming at least one dog's body to the ground."

The animals' crime? They performed badly in "testing" sessions to see how viciously they would fight.

It will be up to the courts to decide Vick's guilt or innocence. But if the case serves as a window on this seamy, secretive world, it will have a served a worthy purpose. While holding dogfights is illegal in every state — a felony in all but two — weak penalties, legal loopholes, and disinterested police and prosecutors allow it to thrive from the rural reaches of Georgia and Texas to the city streets of New York and Chicago.

Because much of the public has been unaware of the details, enthusiasts have gotten away with calling dogfighting a sport and themselves "fanciers." What they really fancy is cruelty.
The dogs, typically American pit bull terriers, are bred as killing machines. At fight sites shrouded in secrecy, two dogs are placed in pits, usually 16-by-16 feet. Spectators wager, sometimes thousands of dollars. The dogs do battle, tearing into each other's flesh until one is dead or can't move. The loser is sometimes shot. Those are the lucky ones. Others are electrocuted; it makes less noise.

How has this despicable activity been able to flourish?

In many states, authorities must catch owners in the act to prosecute. That's difficult. Fights are held in secret, with spectators told of the location only at the last minute. If caught, participants can claim they are simply spectators: That's a felony in only 22 states and legal in two. And with fines of less than $5,000 in some states, owners can chalk it up to the cost of business. There's big money in wagers on champion dogs.

The hopeful news is that some of this is changing.

In South Carolina, after the attorney general got involved, a legendary breeder was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to 40 years in jail. That's sure to get the attention of other "fanciers."
And with prodding from the Humane Society of the United States and other animal advocates, Congress passed a law this year making interstate transport of fighting dogs a felony, triggering more interest from federal prosecutors.

Educating police and the public on the horrors of dogfighting is the surest way to spur stronger laws, tougher penalties and more prosecutions.

For now, the dogs born into this brutal world have little hope. Those rescued in raids — including many of the 50-plus found on Vick's property — are almost always euthanized. Dogs bred to kill dogs can't be adopted.

Thousands of others remain innocent victims. Only an end to this reprehensible "sport" will stop their suffering.