Dogsey

Let's hope they consider removing some 'potentially dangeerous' (I'd say DEFINITELY dangerous) humans from the streets too.

Seems a strange thing for the inspector to say. The dogs didn't organise the dog fighting themselves.

Treadmills, E-collars, and "medicines" are not always dog fighting paraphernalia. Many pit bull owners use treadmills as a good way to exercise their dog(s) which are very high energy in place of super long walks. The dogs seem to enjoy it and aren't fighting dogs. We all know e-collars are not used only for fighting dogs (and rarely are from what I gather anyway).

ONE dog had suffered "minor" injuries and they suspect the people of dog fighting? Wow. That is something else. I've never seen a fighting group of dogs with 6 dogs where only ONE had minor injuries.

Hard for me to believe that only one dog had minor injuries if they were fighting dogs. But then these stories are often lacking in depth and missing information or vague IMO.

I've never seen any fighting dogs or organised dog fights. But I expect they were acting on a tip off.

Seems it is on the 'ownership of banned breeds they will be prosecuted'

That is fine, and it is unsurprising to me that they aren't charging them with cruelty or fighting. There is not any solid evidence of fighting based on the story I heard. If they were being charged with fighting etc. I'd be like "whatever".

I have seen both fighting dogs as well as dog fights between vicious and unrelenting dogs (my previous dog included in a few of these unfortunately and he was NOT trained to fight nor was he a pit bull). I have also seen documentaries of Turkish Kangal (known as Anatolian Shepherds to most) dog fights in the middle east.

All the dogs are injured and wounded for life after only one fight. So if they were true fighting dogs, they'd have multiple noticeable injuries. All of them, not one. Only one dog with minor injuries is nothing close to dog fighting.

The keeping of illegal breeds is of course odd. You'd think they'd not keep illegal breeds just to be rebellious, so perhaps the dogs were just starting training and had never been fought or something. Who knows?

According to the article here:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lancashire-27505427

I understand the suspicion part, but I don't see how a conviction for dog fighting can be made with only one dog with minor injuries was found out of a group of 6 dogs. Guess perhaps that is just me... but it's not making a lot of sense.

To be honest, a few people having multiple bull terrier type dogs with all the mentioned stuff just screams dog fighting. The fact that not all of them had wounds doesn't prove anything, they might not have been used yet.
The investigation is obviously still ongoing but people using treadmills and shock collars on dogs (even not for fighting) don't deserve to have them in my opinion.

On a side note: I find treadmills one of the worst and very counterproductive 'training' and excercise tools for dogs, especially bull terrier types that get easily overexcited. They need more slow, stimulating excercise that doesn't spike their adrenaline levels through the roof.

Hmm, I don't think treadmills are bad for dogs. They aren't bad for us, so don't see why they are bad for dogs. I don't even own one and if I did, I highly doubt anybody (whether person or dog) would use it but still.

BTW, Bull Terrier and American pit bull terrier are two different breeds. Bull Terriers (often called English Bull Terrier) are not banned, pit bull terriers are. So I'd like a bit more clarification on that, as well.

Bull terrier type dogs is simply a general term for english bulls, pit bulls, amstaffs, staffies. They all have similar temperaments and physical characteristics (english bull a bit different).

Treadmills are bad because they give the dog a physical workout with no mental stimulation. If you understand a bit how stress works in dogs (and humans alike) you will see that high impact excercise like this will make a dog more stressed, more wired and more overexcited than a walk in the park. Just because they're good for humans doesn't mean they're ok for dogs. It's also difficult for the dog to show when he's tired.
Dog's with 'endless' energy (like staffies and pit bulls are often described) don't actually have endless energy. They're just running on adrenaline which in the long term can have bad effects like hyperadrenocorticism, overreaction to stimuli and chronic stress.