Despite dog fighting being illegal in all 50 U.S. states it still goes on and is estimated to involve tens of thousands of animals.
The brutality that these animals endure at the hands of dog fight organizers is beyond most of our comprehension with many of us not even wanting to consider what these poor animals face.
One woman in Philadelphia opened her front door in 2016 to find a sickening site. Two starving dogs, scared with swollen faces.
Looking at the state of them and talking to animal rescuers Tara Whitaker understood these dogs had been used as bait in illegal dog fights.
Bait dogs are dogs used to test a fighting dog’s instincts or to train a fighting dog without the fighting dog, and the one that can make the trainer a lot of money, getting injured.
These dogs are exposed to extreme cruelty, punished if they respond to the fighting dog and often muzzled so they can’t fight back.
Tara stayed with the dogs for three hours, feeding them and trying to gain their trust until Rescue Dogs Rock NYC arrived and took them back to their shelter.
They were called Sweet Pea and Dizzy and both had open wounds and were emaciated.
“Our 2 Philly Bait Dogs Sweet Pea and Dizzy are grateful to be alive … They are very unsure of humans right now, rightfully so after the house of horrors they have endured,” Rescue Dogs Rock posted.
“We suspect, Sweet Pea was primarily used for breeding and it is evident she has had multiple litters. Dizzy was most definitely used for fighting, clearly was a pawn used as bait for the fighting dogs.”
Sweet Pea was adopted soon after she arrived at the rescue center but as Dizzy was in a worse state it took longer to rehabilitate him before he was ready to go to a forever home.
We hope these dogs are finally getting the love they deserve, I can’t imagine the torture they’ve endured prior to being rescued.
Please share to send all your thanks to the woman that found them and got these sweet animals help.
