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Anonymous
>>292646 >>292225 >>291762
I live in Saint Louis, and dog fights are very popular in East Saint Louis (one of the poorest urban areas in the country). If you are from there, it is more than likely that you have no education, money, or prospects. In an environment like that, people frequently turn to either the military or black markets (drugs, unregistered gaming, etc.) to make ends meet. Here, dog fighting is extremely popular and even seen as a more 'legitimate' alternative to selling drugs or professional theft, and it is, in fact, a less severe crime because animal protection laws are weak. Pit bulls (and less frequently other bully breeds), rottweilers, dobermans, and mastiffs, are most popular with pits in an extreme lead because of they have a popular reputation of being tough and dangerous. Because there is such a demand for pits, they are bred constantly, and because people breeding dogs for fights aren't caring guardians they sometimes escape. This leads to pits outnumbering most other dog breeds in numbers picked up as stray. Usually these dogs are too traumatized, injured, or ill to be adopted and are quickly euthanised. Even so, through sheer force of numbers enough survive that pits outnumber other breeds in rescue organizations. Because there exists a very high demand for large numbers of expendable pit bulls, adoption fees for them are higher than other breeds just about everywhere. A similar problem exists with beagles, but because they are a preferred breed for use as bait dogs.
tl;dr There are good sociological reasons for charging for animals.
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