{"id":757662,"date":"2019-07-07T07:58:53","date_gmt":"2019-07-07T11:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=757662"},"modified":"2019-07-07T07:58:53","modified_gmt":"2019-07-07T11:58:53","slug":"dog-fighting-still-alive-in-the-us-after-missouri-500-dog-bust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=757662","title":{"rendered":"Dog Fighting Still Alive in the US After \u2018Missouri 500\u2019 Dog Bust"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<blockquote  class=\"bs-quote bs-quote-1 bsq-t1 bsq-s1 bsq-left\">\n\t\t<div class=\"quote-content\">\n\t\t\t<p>This brutal blood sport is on the rise, with an estimated 16,000 dogs dying from this heinous activity each year. Dogs are tortured and forced to fight to death for the sake of money and amusement.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>CHRIS FORD:<\/strong> <em>&#8216;In July 2009, a massive dog rescue operation took place, with the raid and rescue assisted by the Humane Society of Missouri (HSMO). During the raid, more than 400 dogs were rescued, with 26 people connected to the illegal fighting arrested&#8230; This largest dog fighting bust in U.S. history became known as the \u201cMissouri 500\u201d bust. Kathy Warnick, president of the Humane Society of Missouri, described dog fighting as a \u201cheinous blood sport\u201d and \u201csystematic torture of dogs for sport and profit.\u201d \u201cDog fighting is happening in every community in our state, right under our noses,\u201d she said. \u201cHopefully, public awareness and outrage will bring an end to this cruel and heinous form of animal abuse&#8221;&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Although dog fighting is illegal, that doesn\u2019t prevent it from occurring. Many dogs are raised and bred to fight, and they know no other life, constantly chained up, underfed, and with horrific injuries sustained during the fights\u2014often they are forced to fight to the death. Other dogs are stolen from backyards across the United States and forced to fight. This brutal blood sport is on the rise, with an estimated 16,000 dogs dying from this heinous activity each year, according to StopDogFighting. Dogs are tortured and forced to fight to death for the sake of money and amusement. Although it is a felony in 50 states across the United States, this underground activity has been thriving. Dog fighting is part of organized crime, and difficult to uncover&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>The victims are the dogs, many with injuries too horrific to enable them to lead a normal life. But once successfully rehabilitated, they can lead normal lives in a foster home until they are adopted&#8230; \u201cThese are animals which are so eager to please. Yet they have been bred to fight and die for human amusement,\u201d said Dr. Randall Lockwood, a senior behavioral psychologist for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He worked together with law enforcement officials on the raids. \u201cI do see dog-fighting as the greatest violation of that special bond between people and dogs&#8221;.&#8217;<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/dog-fighting-still-alive-in-the-us-after-missouri-500-dog-bust_2950021.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>SOURCE&#8230;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED VIDEO:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PXbrYCpXA_o\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CHRIS FORD: &#8216;In July 2009, a massive dog rescue operation took place, with the raid and rescue assisted by the Humane Society of Missouri (HSMO). During the raid, more than 400 dogs were rescued, with 26 people connected to the illegal fighting arrested&#8230; This largest dog fighting bust in U.S. history became known as the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":757663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16,20,25],"tags":[27,28,30,37],"class_list":["post-757662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-justice","category-welfare","tag-cruelty","tag-entertainment","tag-exploitation","tag-speciesism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=757662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":757664,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757662\/revisions\/757664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/757663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=757662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=757662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=757662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}