DOG FIGHT

Mathew Wright’s report on dog fighting in London, and the soaring numbers of abandoned dogs too, was shocking. If Britain was once famous for kindness to pets, it has vanished, if London is the example. A US professor wrote to us when the riots started asking ‘what’s going on with your people?’ and if we are animals too, this shows something dark is up. It was tragic to to see pitbulls, trained for fighting, mutilated and having to be put down. Young boys and men using them as fighting accessories may be the real sign of fear on the streets, but it’s also a sign of a dislocation with ourselves, that such brutality is bred in, and fear and aggression supports itself.

It needs action and even tough love, as is suggested by a sign in Battersea Dogs Home – You can tell the heart of a man from his treatment of animals’.It happened in Chicago too, that became the savage dog fighting capital of America, but the lesson from there, in the programme they instituted, is as ever, get tough, encourage zero tolerance, but also turn the poachers gamekeepers. So a guy famous for seeing the deaths of thousands of fighting dogs , is being paid to institute a programme of training and involvement. The dignity then shown to animals gives young men dignity, and greater knowledge and understanding. But they have to take the lead from the ‘tough guys’.