Weasel Words Over Fighting Dogs

Something struck me, as I read the BBC’s report about the rise in organised dog fighting. And that was their extraordinary coyness about who, exactly, was responsible for this:

The RSPCA had long regarded dog-fighting as the preserve of white working class men attending fights in the countryside.

Well, of course they did…

What the fight in Alum Rock revealed was the first glimpse of organised dog fighting in the Asian community taking place in urban surroundings and tens of thousands of pounds gambled on the result.

Eh..? ‘Asian community’..?

Are you sure?

Since then subsequent raids have revealed that dog-fighting has become a problem in some sections of the Asian community.

Have any figures to support it?

Ian Briggs, chief inspector of the RSPCA's Special Operations Unit said dog-fighting is up 400% in the past three years in the UK.

"Out of all the work we do 98% is Asian".

Blimey!

I’ll look askance at the owners when I next go into my local Thai restaurant. Though I’m not sure their little Llasa-apso crossbreed would put up much of a fight…

And to the best of my knowledge, my Indian-born Sikh neighbour down the road doesn’t even have a dog. I think she has a cat. So does the young Chinese couple across the street.

So, where are these ‘Asians’ who are indulging in…

Aha! A clue:

Meanwhile there is evidence that young British Asians are having an impact on dog fighting back in Pakistan.

Basharat Najiba, a youth worker in Birmingham, said that a sizeable number of spectators make the trip from the UK with some even owning the fighting dogs and paying money to locals to look after them.

He said: "I think British Asians are big players because of the financial attachments that they can bring from here."

So, we are using the ‘Asian’ tag here to mean, pretty exclusively, that section of the immigrant and naturalised community from Pakistan or Afghanistan.

Why not be honest, and say what you really mean, Beeb?

Young men openly parade their illegal pit bull terriers saying how police cannot tell the difference - while the police with stretched resources can only play a limited role in tackling the problem.

Chalk up another triumph for the ‘Dangerous Dogs Act’…

Dog fighting is part of life in rural Punjab and Kashmir and there are fears that its acceptability could be increasing among a new generation of young Asians in the UK aware of fathers, uncles and cousins attending dog fights in Pakistan.

Ahh, feel the benefits of ‘diversity’ and ‘multiculturalism’….

And while the majority of the community find the fights abhorrent, there is among others, as one Asian youth worker explained, certain apathy.

"People say 'the dog wants to fight' and I don't believe that at all because it's the human being that's taking the dog to fight. They haven't got a choice about being in that ring," he said.

"It's the same like drugs - it's always going to happen. It's the same like prostitution it will always happen, it's like one of them kind of things where it's being abused to bad limits behind closed doors and people need to know about it because it does happen."

Well, he seems pretty apathetic about it himself, doesn’t he?