Analyzing the League Against Cruel Sports' Campaign against Dog Fighting

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Running Head: Dog fighting awareness campaign
activism & Media
Dog fighting awareness campaign

Dog fighting awareness campaign 1
Introduction
The league against cruel sport is a charity which organizes campaigns to protect the security of
animals. It was established in 1924 with the motive of banning dog fighting, stag-hunting, hare-
hunting, and fox-hunting. Dog fighting has been banned since 1835 in the UK, but there are a
large number of people who still organize dog fights. The league against cruel sport run a
campaign against dog fighting which is known as a “bloodline”. Its main motive is to introduce a
large number of people to its dangers.
Background
Dog fighting is considered as a type of blood sport usually described as opposing two game dogs
against one another in a particular ring for entertainment. It has proved very dangerous for
human beings and the dogs too. In this assignment, a campaign report is prepared to make people
aware about the negative effects of dog fighting so that they support us in stopping these types of
illegal activities. Dog fighting is considered one of the most heinous forms of animal cruelty. It
happens in more than 50 countries, such as Europe, America and UK. These types of activities
mostly performed by the person who are addict of the drug and the other bad things
(http://www.aspca.org/animal-cruelty/dog-fighting/closer-look-dog-fighting). In rural areas, dog
fighting is generally conducted outdoors or in barn pits, on the other hand, in urban areas events
are mainly organized at warehouses, basements, garages, back alleys, neighborhood
playgrounds, and in the streets. Conducting a campaign against dog fighting helps us in
removing these bad habits and can enhance awareness regarding the dog fighting.

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Aim
The main aim of the organization behind organizing the campaign against dog fighting is to
promote awareness to people of different countries about the negative effects of the dog fighting
and how it proves dangerous for the dogs.
Discussion
Generally, the dogs who are participating in the fights are frequent, and severe injuries that
contain broken bones and puncture wounds. These dogs bring human beings in the condition of
death. Dog fighting is considered a strict crime in every country where it is happening. It
influences the society in a larger manner. All the trained dogs which participated in the dog
fighting injure the innocent people in a greater manner without any cause. Children influenced
by dog fighting in greater manner because they have the danger of attack from the dogs. They are
often hearted by the spectators while exposed to gangs, gambling, violence, weapons, and drugs
at dog fights. Dog fighters are mostly involved in sale and possession of illegal weapons, largely
involve in gambling. With the help of dog fighting they mainly spread violence and criminal
behavior towards human beings (YILMAZ, 2015). Thus, it can be said that the dog fighting
influence the society as well as children in a greater manner. The league against cruel sport
campaign proved successful in removing such type of illegal acts up to a limit
(http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/cruel-sports/dogfighting/
). For fulfilling its motive, it utilizes different types of media techniques as well as
communication technologies. It is the responsibility of the government of every country to take
initiatives to stop such type of illegal acts because they may prove dangerous for the society to a
larger extent “(https://www.animallaw.info/article/detailed-discussion-dog-fighting)”.

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Communication is considered an important tool for sharing information (Broad, 2013). If an
organization don't utilize proper media technologies, it may not accomplish the objective of its
campaign. The campaign of the league against cruel sport mainly utilizes four types of media
technologies such as audible media, visual media, print media, and the social media. All these
technologies prove very helpful in raising awareness among the people regarding the dog
fighting. Generally, the audible media is utilized by the league sport to inform the different
audience about its campaign such as radio. This will help them in getting more and more support
from the public (https://www.league.org.uk/dog-fighting). The main source of audible media
which is used by the organization for promoting its campaign are electronic books and the radio.
Both tools of the audible media play a significant role in transmitting the message of the
organization campaign to a large number of people during 2015. Audible media spread the
message with high speed. This will prove beneficial for the organization in attracting greater
numbers, so that they can support the campaign and also give their contribution in making it
successful.
Second and the foremost media technology used by the organization is social media which is
very popular and has gained significant attention these days. The initial phases of the internet
saw the users using this technology to read associated articles and information and get involved
in online shopping activities and so on. However, the advent of internet technologies such as
social media has seen a completely new aspect of the ongoing activities. Social media has
proved an efficient tool in promoting the campaign of the organization and generated more and
more support of public (http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/32295829/social-media-used-to-
promote-dog-fighting-recruiting). With the help of social media, the organization is able to create
its content regarding the campaign which can successfully be transmitted to others. After

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receiving the message, they can share it with their friends, families, and public, in general, the
organization may be able to receive maximum support from them. This advancement of the
internet has been denoted as Web 2.0 (Lindsay, 2013). The Web 2.0 stands for the internet
services that is of the second generation. It includes various modern applications such as social
networking, online encyclopedias, podcasts and much more which helps the organization in
spreading campaign message to a large number of people as much as possible. From the point of
view of most researchers, the Web 2.0 has improved the way of transmitting a message to
everyone (Lavery, 2016). Using these internet technologies enhance the public support for the
campaign of league sport for protection of dog fighting. It has acted as catalysts and
revolutionized the way people used to interact with each other. Due to this, the different public
members actively shared their views to the others and demand more and more support for the
campaign of the organization against dog fighting. In general, they can also provide easy
feedback regarding the organization campaign by operating online or offline. This has provided
lots of opportunity to the organization to receive feedback and move further towards getting
success. The Web 2.0 has witnessed the advent of social media. The concept of social media
allowed the general public with more freedom regarding communicating with their peers and
share whatever they want and the way they want, be it video, written or audio in a matter of
seconds. It proves a significant tool that helps the organization and the others in communicating
and transfer information in a cooperative manner to each other. The term social media is not
confined only to the Facebook or Twitter it also refers to wide range communication platforms
such as macro or microblogs, and social bookmarking and others with which the organization got
wide coverage regarding campaign and able to involve more and more society members. Social
media is, for the most part, characterized as, " Web 2.0” based destinations which unite

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distinctive individuals in a virtual stage and guarantee a more profound social communication,
more grounded group and execution of participation ventures (Broad, 2013). Thus, it can be said
that social media proves an important tool in raising awareness regarding the campaign of dog
fighting.
The third most important media technology is visual media. With the help of visual media, the
organization has shown its different steps and findings of the campaign and informed the people
regarding the negative effects of the dog fighting. Visual media allows it to convey its message
by providing different types of visual examples (Picture 1). This has helped the organization in
conveying the effects of dog fighting on the children as well as the public. With the help of
visual media the organization has been able to attract the attention of large number people by
shared a visual story with different types of picture (See Picture 1, 2). Picture 2 is successful
because it gives a clear message to public. It may be possible that audio and social media
technology are not able to attract people attention as desired because most of the people ignore
the unwanted things such as when a person open internet network he or she fight face dog
fighting advertisements but they think them useless and avoid it. But with visual media the
league cruel sport able to move its campaign in a positive direction.
Within just a short space of time the organization received 40 pieces of intelligence which gave it
an insight into the dark world of dog fighting. Information the league cruel support was given
included:
 Reports of dogs possibly trained for fighting by being ‘body slammed’ and ‘head slammed’,
techniques involving punching or hitting the dog’s head against a wall to toughen them up
 The bodies of dead dogs, which have been used for fighting, being dumped near farmland

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 Prohibited breeds being bred in the area in order to supply the dog fighting and status dogs
market
 A significant clandestine market in the trade of potential fighting dogs – our investigators were
offered dogs by a masked man during the operation. Pitbull ‘type’ puppies were being sold for
£1,000
 We also were introduced to Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Cupcake, who had been used for fighting,
its teeth ground down probably through trying to bite through the bars of a cage or a chain
Dog Fighting Statistics
To collect the necessary data on dog fighting, the league cruel support utilize a report of dog
fighting which is published under RSPCA. The organization uses below mentioned data to look
the issues of dog fighting:
Year Total no. of
conviction
secured
Complaints
received to NCC
about “dog
fighting”
Complaints to
NCC “organized
dog fighting”
Grand Total of
complaints
received pa
2010 10 362 395 757
2011 33 267 472 739
2012 48 286 411 697
2013 44 292 447 739
2014 31 299 467 766
(Source: Dog Fighting UUnderstanding The Issue And Tackling The Cruelty)

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It can be said that the organization successfully accomplished its motive by getting support from
more than 1, 00,000 people. The social media technology of internet utilized by the organization
were very innovative and beneficial. All these technologies helped the organization lots in
getting the support of more and more people (Muthiani, 2015). It is able to educate different
policy makers of the country regarding the effects of dog fighting. The organization also take
initiatives to investigate those people who engage in dog fighting such as it gives prices to those
people who inform about occurrence of dog fighting in their neighborhood or anywhere else.
They get success because more than 1,000 people informed the organization about dog fighting
(https://www.league.org.uk/dog-fighting). By identifying such people, it wants to gives strict
punishment and also wants to make them aware about the negative effects of their actions. By
doing so, the organization has successfully identified people and awarded significant education
to them. Furthermore, the league cruel sport also got public support in conducting their activities
regarding the campaign. All this is possible due to the support of the government or the other
education institutions such as the Humane society of the United States
(http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/dogfighting/end_dogfighting.html?referrer=https://
www.google.co.in/). To create success, the organization has also established contacts with
different small level campaigns like humane society so that they can also support it in fulfilling
their ultimate objectives of the campaign. All this is done by the organization in a small time
period of six months because it has worked very hard to attain its objective and support of a
maximum number of people because it is said that majority able to get success ever and ever
(Aikimbayev, 2014). By accomplishing its objective, it supported the global sphere of the public
in an efficient manner.

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Conclusion
After studying all this, it can be concluded that the organization was successfully able to share its
message with a large number of people. Dog fighting campaign of league cruel sport was
possible only due to its communication technology used to share information. It can be said that
media has brought success for the league cruel sport. In the absence of media, it was not able to
get the support from a large number of people. After studying above facts and initiatives of the
league cruel sport we can say that the organization tackled criminals efficiently and successfully
taught the negative impacts of dog fighting to lives of human beings as well as children
(Lockwood, 2013). It got huge media coverage with which it was successfully able to achieve
large media coverage to prevent the dog fighting. It took the help of different small campaigns in
the promotion of the main campaign which successfully able to bring the attention of people
towards its campaign. The organization has utilized different types of imagery in the campaign to
make the visual presentation of the campaign very attractive (Picture 1 or 2). Thus, it can be said
that with large effort everything can change to become successful.

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References
"Dog Fighting UUnderstanding The Issue And Tackling The Cruelty".
A Closer Look at Dog Fighting. ASPCA. Retrieved from
http://www.aspca.org/animal-cruelty/dog-fighting/closer-look-dog-fighting
Aikimbayev, A., Briggs, D., Coltan, G., Dodet, B., Farahtaj, F., Imnadze, P., ... & Vodopija, R.
(2014). Fighting Rabies in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia‐Experts Call for a
Regional Initiative for Rabies Elimination. Zoonoses and public health, 61(3), 219-226.
Broad, G. M. (2013). Vegans for Vick: Dogfighting, intersectional politics, and the limits of
mainstream discourse. International Journal of Communication, 7, 780-800.
Detailed Discussion of Dog Fighting | Animal Legal & Historical Center. Animallaw.info.
Retrieved from https://www.animallaw.info/article/detailed-discussion-dog-fighting
Dogfighting. PETA. Retrieved from http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/cruel-
sports/dogfighting/
Dog Fighting. (2015). League Against Cruel Sports. Retrieved, from
https://www.league.org.uk/dog-fighting
End Dogfighting : The Humane Society of the United States. Humanesociety.org. Retrieved from
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/dogfighting/end_dogfighting.html?referrer=https://
www.google.co.in/
Lockwood, R. (2013). Animal fighting. Shelter medicine for veterinarians and staff, 441-452.

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Lindsay, S. R. (2013). Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training, Adaptation and
Learning. John Wiley & Sons.
Lavery, C., Grant, H., & Spanol, K. (2016). Towards a Typology of Dog Fighting: An
Examination of Motive and Behavior Typologies and Recommendations for Criminal Justice and
Mental Health Practitioners. Behavioral Health, 4(2).
Muthiani, Y., Traoré, A., Mauti, S., Zinsstag, J., & Hattendorf, J. (2015). Low coverage of
central point vaccination against dog rabies in Bamako, Mali. Preventive veterinary
medicine, 120(2), 203-209.
Miller, K. A., Touroo, R., Spain, C. V., Jones, K., Reid, P., & Lockwood, R. (2016).
Relationship between scarring and dog aggression in pit bull-type dogs involved in organized
dogfighting. Animals, 6(11), 72.
Picture 1

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Picture 2
Ryder, K. (2016). Survey on illegal dog fighting. Veterinary Record, 179(10), 260-260.
Staff, W. Social media used to promote dog fighting, recruiting. Wmcactionnews5.com.
Retrieved from http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/32295829/social-media-used-to-
promote-dog-fighting-recruiting

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Weaver, H. (2013). " Becoming in Kind": Race, Class, Gender, and Nation in Cultures of Dog
Rescue and Dogfighting. American Quarterly, 65(3), 689-709.
YILMAZ, O., Coskun, F., & Ertugrul, M. (2015). Human Factor in Dog Fighting. Journal of
Veterinary Advances, 5(4), 853-856.

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