And there will inevitably be blood on the hands of anyone caught fighting a dog. In an educational video released by the Humane Society of the United States titled The Final Round , grisly footage shows one dog on its back, belly dark and slick with blood, kicking feebly at its still-attacking opponent while onlookers cheer. In another scene a bleeding dog with a broken front leg tries to hide behind its owner in the ring, tail between its legs, as another dog comes after it. Eric Sakach directs the Humane Society's West Coast regional office in Sacramento. He is also one of the country's foremost experts on dogfighting, having helped bust numerous dogfighting rings, and he delivers training programs to law enforcement departments around the country.
Hobbyists are smaller time, less interested in bloodlines and more focused on gambling.
They typically use a single location for staged fights rather than travel around the country as professionals do. Often associated with gang activity, streetfighting usually happens in areas that are depressed economically. It's far less organized than professional or hobby fighting, and while participants often wager, streetfighting is as much about machismo as winning money. It can involve people who range in age from preteen on up. That definition makes the arrest that happened in Sunnyvale's Orchard Gardens Park on June 17 practically textbook.