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Originally Posted by Chris
An activity in which dogs are trained (brutalised) to act contrary to their nature, in unnatural surroundings? I can see what you're trying to do, but you're trying to categorise everything under the heading "sports where animals get hurt" when I would argue "sports where animals do what they do" would be nearer the mark so far as fox hunting is concerned. And dog fighting doesn't fit that category.
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I asking more because of the class aspect. There have been suggestions that Fox Hunting was banned partly to spite the people who take part as they are often rural and would be considered members of the upper class. Dog fighting would be an example of a 'sport' that is banned for reasons of animal welfare that would traditionally be seen as a 'working class' pursuit. The comparison isn't exact but I can't help but think that if Fox Hunting was conducted by a bunch of teenagers with a pitbull chasing Foxes though an urban estate it would have been banned sooner than it was. So I don't buy the notion that this was because of the class of the people who did it.
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Animals fight, that's natural, but they have a flight response as well as a fight response in any given situation and that it both beaten out of them and also physically barred from them in a fighting pit. Likewise for cock fighting, especially when the birds are tooled up with blades on their feet.
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It may not be as cruel but it's still making a sport of animal suffering. It's still somewhat contrived rather than simply being nature in action. Foxhounds tend to be trained for the hunt for example and there would be additional techniques used by the hunters to find and draw out foxes that would not be available to the foxes. So Foxhunting as a sport isn't natural either.