Dog fighting is 'more lucrative than dealing drugs': Organisers say prize pots ... trends now
Illegal dog fights are 'more lucrative than dealing drugs' with winning owners earning £100,000, according to a new documentary on the blood sport in Britain.
The Channel 4 documentary called 'Untold: Inside Britain's Dog Fighting Gangs' features members of the underworld talking candidly about the illicit trade.
The programme shows the aftermath of a dog fight between two London gangs which is likened to a 'murder scene' with blood covering the floor and walls.
Filmed between London and the Midlands, the investigation shows trainers talking about losing 50 dogs to fights- detailing the harrowing injuries suffered.
These include ears being ripped off, broken legs, stomach lacerations and perhaps most brutally of all 'snout breaking' where the dog can no longer use its mouth.
Dogs are trained to resist to pain and can be starved before a bout to make them fight harder
The documentary called 'Untold: Inside Britain's Dog Fighting Gangs' looks at the illicit trade
'Jules' told the documentary the fights can be to the last dog standing or to the death
One trainer called 'Jules' says: 'I am not going to sugarcoat it. It is brutal. It is nasty. It is vile. But that is what they were bred for'.
And a dog owner in the Midlands who is proud of his fighting record says: 'It's the money. When you realise what money you could make, you would get into it.'
It is also revealed in the show - available on YouTube - that gangs in London are now using dog fights to settle debts and feuds rather than facing off in street battles.
During the programme the host Benjamin Zand is taken to a council estate in the capital and listens to two dogs fight to settle a debt between two gangs.
By the end of the fight he is allowed inside the room where the fight was held and sees walls covered in blood and a dog so wounded it can no longer walk.
A gang member before the fight arranged with a rival to settle a debt, in the documentary
The owner of 'Ghost' who lost in the gang fight at the London council estate leading him away
Jules uses a hardened length of leather to teach Rottweilers to be 'desensitised to pain'
Mr Zand says: 'Their rational is, it is either me or the dog. In some sick, twisted way, you can kind of understand that. But why is it either of those options?'
The purpose of the documentary is to address the rise in the sport- and perhaps unsurprisingly money has a lot to do with it.
Wearing a balaclava and with his voice doctored, one owner from London says simply: 'It is lucrative. Drugs is small money compared to dog fighting. Minimum £50,000 to £80,000.'
But far from being a fringe event, the money involved means anyone entering dogs or hosting fights comes in with connections: 'This is an elite world. Everybody has got that money to spend, in this world.'
