Dog fighting is illegal in all 50 US states and many countries, yet continues as an underground activity causing extreme suffering to dogs bred and conditioned for violence.
Dog fighting inflicts severe welfare harm across the dog lifecycle: puppies selected for fighting breeds are bred for aggression and subjected to harsh conditioning; fighting dogs are chained on short tethers, receive no socialization, and fight with injuries untreated; losing dogs are killed or abandoned. Survivors from fighting operations are traumatized but can often be rehabilitated — Michael Vick football star case dogs became therapy dogs after years of rehabilitation work.