Dog fighting is a heinous crime, but when it comes to monitoring their own platform for dog fighting videos, YouTube is falling far short of its obligation.
In just a few clicks, visitors to YouTube may find instructional videos about dog fighting and hours upon hours of material related to it.
A 2021 investigation conducted by animal welfare organization Lady Freethinker found 2,053 videos that depicted animal abuse, garnering a collective 1.2 billion total views.
The videos were posted across approximately 146 channels amassing 30.8 million total subscribers, covering wildlife, companion animals, and farmed animals in categories such as animal fighting, eating animals alive, hunting animals with other animals, monkey torture, and fox-hound hunting.
The charity also found channels on YouTube hosting videos of falsified animal rescues.
The controversial videos show cats and dogs placed in contrived “dangerous” situations in the wild, such as near predators including snakes and crocodiles, only to be “saved” just in time by a human2.
“YouTube must do a better job at monitoring and removing all videos that violate its terms and standards, alerting local law enforcement to illegal content, and holding channels accountable for their actions with suspensions and terminations,” said Nina Jackel, founder and president of Lady Freethinker told the Guardian.
From April to July 2020, YouTube removed 185 of the 2,053 videos identified in Lady Freethinker’s report, but that accounts for only 136.5 million out of 1.2 billion views related to dog fighting.
Often, these disturbing content creators simply rebrand themselves under a different name and continue to upload videos to YouTube.
In bringing these facts up to the company, YouTuber Charlie White, also called penguin0, found that learned that inquiries about removing channels with alleged animal abuse were directed to a separate manual review team.
The idea that the rest of these violent videos cannot be pulled down is an egregious lie, especially a year after the platform succeeded in removing hundreds of videos showing robots battling other robots under claims that they pictured animal abuse.
YouTube should not allow these videos to be featured anywhere on the site as they only promote violence and carnage.
Sign the petition below and demand YouTube’s CEO prohibit dog fighting videos on their platform!
https://theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/clicktogive/ars/petition/YoutubeDogfighting
https://www.facebook.com/marschfuerdietiere/posts/590604385613367
And I mean…Dog fights will still be held illegally in secret in Germany in 2021.
Behind this cruelty to animals is an animal torture mafia, which secretly gets in huge amounts of betting income with the horror.
Dead dogs that are thrown away like rubbish with heartbreaking injuries and entire dog fight rings that are picked up are not uncommon for the everyday police force of the German executive.
Dog fighting isn’t even a “sport” as is so often referred to. It is a criminal business devised by unscrupulous people where two highly bred attack dogs are let loose on each other, usually until one of them is seriously injured or dies.
The dogs are made fit by using bestial practices for weeks for their “work”. They train up to four hours a day on treadmills, fully pumped with anabolic steroids and vitamin cocktails. Baby cats are used as bait and are usually torn to pieces by the tortured dogs.
Some dogs do not take part directly in the fights, but are used as bait to test the fighting dogs’ ability to fight. Often the animals are stolen from private individuals, and most of them have little chance of survival.
In illegal dog fights in Germany, fanatical masters pay up to 500,000 euros to the winner.
Some die after the fight. Others recover or need to be taken to the vet. But one can imagine that a criminal would not be willing to take his dog to the vet every week.
The worst fighters are often hanged, drowned, or left to die in the forest.
And the worst part is – these fights can actually take place anywhere, it’s usually a place where people don’t care what they hear or see.
In 2012, in the basement of a residential building in Ettenheim (a town in Baden-Wuerttemberg), the police discovered a prepared battlefield and eleven pit bull terriers that were being trained there.
In addition to 11 confiscated pit bull terriers, the police found an arena in a cellar that was completely built for the purpose of dog fights, blood-soaked carpets, various medicines and drugs, bolt guns to release half-dead dogs, as well as beer tent sets and alcohol for the well-being of the primitive spectators and bettors.
A cannabis plantation was also secured.
The following year, during a house search in Bayreuth, seven Kangals were found in the premises of the rocker gang “Black Jackets”, as well as video evidence that documented the diabolical hustle and bustle of the competitions.
These two examples are only two of the many that take place in the middle of Germany.
Unfortunately, dog fights do not only take place in Germany, but in many other countries as well.
China, the USA, the Phillipines, Turkey and also European countries such as Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary are plagued by these criminal machinations.
A criminal community of their own was also formed, spreading these bloody battles on social media. Against this must be proceeded with the full severity of the law, and above all with draconian increased penalties.
Dog fights are a symptom of a larger criminal community-internationally, these swamps of crime and animal suffering must be drained.
My best regards to all, Venus
80% of the world’s endangered Humboldt penguin population lives here.
(Photo; long-tailed macaques on breeding farm, Cambodia, credit Cruelty Free International)
World Animals Voice 