I hope that everybody will agree with me that when a fight of two dogs bred to fight who tear each other to pieces, it is morally unacceptable. But as it is said, there is dog fighting and then there is dog fighting.



It is a natural and common thing that dogs use to play with each other, especially if they are young. It is called "play fighting" and we are free to say that it does good to dogs. On the contrary, if it deals with a serious dog fight which results in heavy injuries of participating dogs and leaves them mutilated, we are morally obligated to say that such an affair is very bad and should not be permitted.

However, many breeds of dog have a fighting past as they were used for combat. Such breeds of dog are for example American Pit Bull Terrier, Boerboel, Bull Mastiff, Dogue de Bordeaux, English Mastiff, Neapolitan Mastiff, Presa Canario and to a degree also Caucasian Ovcharka, Central Asian Ovcharka, Kangal and many other. Some people say that if these dogs were fighting through thousands or at least hundreds of years, then when they will not fight at all, it will spoil their original nature and temperament.

Many experienced dogmen claim that both is wrong - both no dog fighting and the real one that damages dogs. And this was also the reason for the inception of a practice, which is something between the safe play fighting and the real dog fighting. The best known such practices are temperament tests of wolfdogs practiced in Russia. Other forms of milder dog fighting are dog wrestling or fitness dog fighting. One way or other, mild dog fighting practiced with young dogs who are not fully adult is not that dangerous like when fully adult dogs.

The worst problem of dog fighting are gamebred dogs. Gameness is the breakment of social behavior of dogs and it is a very bad phenomenon, the inception of which was caused by the people who wanted to fight their dogs in the worst possible way - to the end of their life. The fight often was not interrupted at all despite severe injuries of the fighting dogs. That is why I would strictly ban all the gamebred dogs and their gameness as such.

My personal opinion is that dog fighting could be okay, but only if it's mild form serving breeding purposes. This means that the breeds of dog who were fighting all through their history would be allowed to show their natural dominance in a test that they would participate in at a young age and that is all. No bloody dog fighting, no more gamebred dogs. Only the keeping of natural behavior of dogs toward one another and for this purpose will do temperament tests - if there will be good and safe rules to prevent dogs from injuries. Anyway, everything depends on the people who make laws, which are different in every country.