Dogfighting

A blood sport in which trained dogs are pitted against each other in a physical fight, often to the death, for gambling or entertainment, staged in venues such as barns, basements, warehouses and streets, with a fight typically ending when one dog dies, can no longer continue, or flees the pit. Most countries have criminalized the practice; it is illegal throughout the European Union and most of South America, and in the United States it is a felony in all fifty states and US territories, though it remains legal in some countries including Japan, China and Albania. In the United States, dogfighting is prosecuted under statutes separate from general animal cruelty law and carries stiffer penalties, and forty eight states also make it illegal merely to attend a fight as a spectator; Canada has criminalized dogfighting since 1892, though its law requires police to catch participants during the act itself, which is often difficult.