From lab rats to fighting rings – it’s a dog’s life
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
By Jake Nichols
The arrest and conviction of the NFL’s Michael Vick took dog fighting
from seedy barnyard and basement pits to just the place dogfighters
hate to see it: in the headlines.
Wyoming and Idaho remain the only
states where the illegal practice of dog fighting has not been made a
felony. The American Pit Bull Terrier reigns supreme as the breed of
choice for “dog men,” as they’re known in professional circles.
The
breed is renowned for its courage – referred to as “gameness” by
fighters and breeders – and can thank scrupulous breeding for its
dominance in the pit and fear-mongering in the media. The concept of
“quit” has been culled from the pit bull. These animals are not
inherently aggressive, but they never back down.
DOG FIGHTING ALIVE AND WELL ON THE REZJackson Hole, Wyo.-On
a November day in 2004, Gunda Gamble received a visit at her Riverton
vet clinic. A carload of Native American men pulled up with a pregnant
pit bull that needed help birthing her litter. Gamble agreed to help
the dog only if the men agreed to surrender a small female pit bull she
noticed in the front seat that looked in such poor health that Gamble
wanted to euthanize it humanely.
“She had hundreds of dog bites
on her, over 300 puncture wounds,” Gamble recalled. “She had a real
distended belly, poor hair coat, and her ears were all torn up. She was
cowering and growling. They grabbed her and threw her across the
pavement of the parking lot. I honestly didn’t think she would survive
the night.”
Gamble ended up saving the small female and keeping
her for a family pet. “Pooh Bear,” a dog bred and trained to kill for
money and prestige, now lives with the Gambles. “She is very
affectionate with our kids,” she says. “She is very [accepting] of our
other dogs. But without a hierarchy that has no human on the top, you
could see how easily these dogs could become fighting dogs. Many dogs,
if they are abused or starved or whatever, would tuck tail and cower.
That’s just not in these dogs. They are very dog-aggressive.”
Eastern
Shoshone tribal member BeDeaux Wesaw operates the Wind River
Reservation’s only animal shelter. He started the nonprofit in 2006
when he got tired of seeing so many strays run loose on the
Reservation. He knows there is illegal dog fighting going on in Ft.
Washakie, Ethete, Arapahoe and in other parts on the rez. He sees the
aftermath every day.
“We found a pit bull earlier this year in
the tribal dump,” he says. “The owner went ahead and dragged it after
it lost a fight until it was almost dead. The trash man heard it
whimpering. They couldn’t save it. Dog fighting is rampant here.”
TRAINING THE PIT BULL“Labs
are used for bait dogs,” says Wesaw. “If you are teaching a younger dog
to fight, you are going to start with easy dogs first. They put gun
powder in their meat and that slowly dissolves the brain and makes them
more vicious. They starve the dogs half to death before the fights and
beat and torture them until they are trained to know that if they win a
fight they are going to get a big reward and that’s a lot of food.”
John
Goodwin, an animal fighting expert with the Humane Society of the
United States, said, “Most pits have a willingness and desire to
fight.” He believes there may be as many as 40,000 professional dog
fighters in the United States and up to 100,000 additional amateurs.
“Some of these street fighters may be using bait animals. They are
likely to steal bait dogs.”
“Nonsense,” says pit bull enthusiast
Bill Steward. Steward runs the website Pit Bull Reporter, which offers
advice and tips on training pits and sells back issues of dog fighting
magazines from the heyday era of the sport. “Do racehorse trainers
steal mules and plow horses to train their thoroughbreds with? Many
Pits will not hurt any animal that doesn’t want to fight, anyway. You
couldn’t make them kill one.”
Diane Jessup, a foremost authority
on the pit bull terrier, agrees. “The whole ‘bait dog’ thing is more or
less a media event,” she said. “It is far rarer than the press would
have us think, and it only adds to ill will toward a victimized breed.”
BUNCHERS ON THE DECLINESome
blame Class B Dealers, known as “bunchers,” for many pet
disappearances. The Humane Society believes an estimated 90,000 dogs
and cats are purchased from these middlemen by research facilities each
year in the U.S.
“These people drive around the state and look
for dogs to sell to USDA labs, and they don’t always use legal means to
obtain these animals,” said Kathy Hooper, who owns Big Sky Rottweiler
Rescue. Wyoming has only one licensed Class B dealer, as does Idaho.
There are three USDA licensed research facilities in Wyoming, and four
in Idaho.
USDA spokesperson Jessica Milteer said the number of
random source Class B dealers – the type that gather animals for use in
experimental research – has fallen from 100 in 1999 to 10 nationwide,
as many companies like Proctor & Gamble have dramatically curtailed
the use of dogs and cats in their labs.
Milteer also said the
Animal Welfare Act – passed in 1966 after a pet Dalmatian was
accidentally sold to a lab and killed during an operation – has set
strict guidelines on how animals may be obtained and used by
USDA-monitored agencies.
Photo by JAKE NICHOLSGunda Gamble and her girls play with a former fighting dog named “Pooh Bear.” PERMALINK:
From lab rats to fighting rings – it’s a dog’s life | Planet JH News Article: Cover Stories
Leave a Comment