Blood, violence draws crowds to dogfights

ATLANTA, Aug 27 (Reuters) Fans of dogfighting, an illegal sport that has brought down one of US football's brightest stars, say they are drawn to its secret matches for the exhilaration of seeing two animals tear at each other with their powerful jaws.

Those who participate either as breeders of the pit bulls often used in the sport, gamblers or spectators do not believe they are psychopaths or sadists who hate animals.

Instead, they say they love their dogs but want to satisfy a competitive urge in themselves to prove which of two dogs will prove the tougher in combat.

''At first I can remember vividly I was kind of scared because of the rush (of adrenaline) that you are actually seeing two dogs go at,'' said one Atlanta-based man whose uncle took him to dozens of dogfights near his home town in rural Georgia.

''But as I kept going I got used to it and it was fun to watch two strong, masculine dogs fighting,'' he said, adding that he saw men and women, whites and blacks at the events.

The sport hit the headlines this month when federal prosecutors indicted Atlanta Falcons star quarterback Michael Vick on dogfighting charges.

Vick was criticized in the media as a thug by many people who said they were unaware dogfighting even existed. He is to formally enter a guilty plea in the case today, and has been suspended indefinitely without pay by the National Football League.

Up to 40,000 people participate in dogfighting in the United States and 250,000 dogs are victimized each year by the industry, said Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States.

Dogfighting is illegal in all 50 US states and people who have watched fights only agreed to be interviewed on condition of anonymity. They said the sport, though hidden, was organized and fairly widespread.

DEEP IN THE WOODS Dogfighting is decades old and grew up in rural areas.

One man who watched dogfights in Virginia, where Vick's kennels were located, said he went to one fight deep in a forest at the back of a friend's property a few years ago.

On the way through the forest he passed dogs tied to trees and eventually got to the ring itself, which resembled a boxing ring.

There he watched a series of fights.

''Everybody's got dogs but it's so secret that you are not going to know until somebody shows you. It is way back in the woods,'' he said.

The man who attended dogfights in Georgia described the atmosphere as serious, in part because people involved had a financial stake in the outcome.

Professional pit bull breeders often pay attention to bloodlines and train their dogs to develop their biting power, tenacity and aggression, he said.

The toughest dogs would gain reputations that spread for miles and people would bring dogs from other countries to fight, increasing the money involved, he said, adding that he'd once witnessed a fight that lasted for 45 minutes.

Increasingly dogfighting is found in cities where it is linked to gangs and other types of crime, said Pacelle.

''There's been an epidemic of pit bulls, especially in urban communities. People want these dogs for the wrong reasons. They want them as guard animals, they want them as macho displays, and they want them for fighting,'' said Pacelle.

In interviews people said they had seen dogfights in Atlanta but said they were impromptu affairs in the street or in the backyard of a dog owner.

Pit bulls trained to fight are very difficult to be kept as pets because they are unpredictable and so judges often order that they be put down, said James Bias, president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Texas.

''Pit bulls are inundating the animal shelters .... More often than not the judges order them to be euthanized,'' said Bias.

One of the elements of Vick's indictment that attracted most outrage was the accusation that dogs that were weak or lost fights were sometimes shot, drowned, hanged, electrocuted or killed by being slammed to the ground.

The man who witnessed fights in Georgia said he had never seen or heard of a dog being tortured or killed cruelly and argued that owners, who consider themselves dog lovers, would likely be repulsed by it.

''If you fight and your dog loses and he is hurt pretty bad ...

nine times out of 10 you're going to put him to sleep. There are ways that you can do it. The simplest and quickest way is to shoot them,'' he said, adding: ''These guys love these animals but that's just what they do.'' REUTERS RN BD0923