CALL FOR BAN ON DOG FIGHTS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 154, 25 March 1939, Page 6 (Supplement)

CALL FOR BAN ON DOG FIGHTS

M.P.’s are to make a determined effort to put a stop to the scandal of secret dog fights which are being held regularly on lonely moorlands all over Britain, says the “Sunday Chronicle.” Sir Robert Vaughan Gower, M.P. for Gillingham, and head of the R.S.P.C.A. and the National Canine Defence League, is planning the campaign. He will raise the matter in the Commons. Among the M.P.’s who will support him are Sir Cooper Rawson, Sir Thomas Moore. Mr. H. G. Williams and Mr. A. A. Somerville. Mr. R. H. Johns, assistant secretary of the National Canine Defence League, said that valuable dogs were torn to bits in organized fights, and elaborate precautions were taken to keep the “meets” secret.

“Big money—sometimes £lo—is gambled on the result of the fights,” he said- “They are usually held on the moorlands, and a 14ft. square pit is used.

“The home of dog-fighting is in Staffordshire, but. others are held regularly on the Sussex Downs, in Dorset, and round Plymouth. The dogs used are specially-trained terriers, born fighters. Some of them are given ferocious names, such as 'Jack the Ripper’ and ‘The Killer’.”

Sometimes, added Mr. Johns, a dog was so badly injured that it was thrown into a river to hide traces of the “meet.”