Why Dogs Fight: History of Dog Fighting

We like to think of dogs as our best friends. But the relationship has a dark side. Witness the long history of pit bull fighting. Emerging at the turn of the 18th century in the coal-mining regions of Great Britain, it quickly moved into urban working-class areas, and came to the United States with immigrants from these regions. On these shores, it took hold in the mining towns of the Northeast, the pubs of Boston and New York, and across the South, where pit bulls were also used to catch and torture runaway slaves. DePaul University professor Heidi J. Nast traces the interwoven history of the pit bull and the poor, tracing a history of disenfranchisement that extends to the present day. In her research and this program, Nast reconsiders pit bull fighting as a complex historical and social phenomenon tied to economies of despair, and shares her thoughts on our perceptions of dog fighting today.