"Free to a good Home" -- Why this should NEVER be done

I wandered down a strange e-street the other night and was horrified & sickened by some of the stuff I found on dog fighting.  Actually I had started out by going to the websites of some of the top animal welfare organizations, & one particular website (mentioned in the video below) had a lot of info on dog fighting, so things switched in one click from warm fuzzies to deadly. 

I took a look at craigslist's "Pets" forum in my area and was staggered by the number of "Free to a good home" ads there were.  The ones that asked a rehoming fee asked $10 or so -- considering the amount of money these dogfighting rings are making off of this blood sport, 10 bucks is nothing.  Less than nothing.  They charge 100 bucks a pop for admission to see dogs fight to the death.  A "bait dog" (these are usually the ones that are stolen or adopted "for free") is thrown into the ring to get things going.  It's heinous, grizzly, horrific, barbaric, sickening to think about any animal having to go through this and about the people who exploit the loyalty of pitbulls & train them to this kind of  behavior.  Apparently the dogs are given steroids & amphetamines to make the fight more...entertaining. 

Apparently there's a lot of dog theft going on, as in the following article (no gruesome pictures):  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/02/0218_040218_dogfighting.html

And some more info (also no bad pix here):

http://www.hsus.org/acf/fighting/dogfight/what_you_can_do.html

If you google "stop dog fighting" you will see that there are lots of organizations trying to stop this.  Apparently there was a huge bust in Missouri this summer and something like 400 dogs were confiscated.  But I am sure this is only the tip of the iceberg.  It's a very clandestine operation, as the practice is a felony in all 50 states.  But it's a huge problem & younger & younger kids are being exposed & desensitized to this kind of thing.

Now the following showed the aftermath:  a dog who was used as "bait."  It doesn't show it happenening, but it shows some of his terrible wounds -- & this is a dog who managed to get out alive.  Don't watch it if you don't want to weep, but do watch it if you want to get VERY angry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA11C8

I found a website run by a fighting dog owner that was supposed to teach people how to make money at this, & one of the ways he tried to justify it was by saying that it's what dogs want to do, it's their instinct, it's cruel not to let them do it, they don't have any feelings. People will shut off every good thing in themselves (if there ever was any good thing to begin with) in order to make a buck. 

I am sorry if this upsets anyone, I really am.  I've been just dazed for the last 24 hours.  I had no idea.  But after I got done crying (I did plenty of that) and giving my 2 rescue pups enormous hugs (plenty of that, too) I became absolutely livid thinking about this & wanting to know what I can do to help stop it.

The second link above has a number of resources if you want to do something.  As with everything, if each person does even a small amount, things can really change. 

d.