Animal Fighting 345 Table Total dog fighting prosecutions and convictions recorded by the Ministry of Justice, 2009–2014 Outcome 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Proceeded Against Found guilty 13 7 17 10 Although they had sourced previous reports from the RSPCA, no commentary has been supplied as to whether the figures year on year are comparable Furthermore, Harding and Nurse (2015, p 43) contend that a range of organisations, such as the League Against Cruel Sports, are involved in compiling animal fighting figures, but this is somewhat misleading While many organisations may comment from a distance on crimes against animals and indeed discuss unrecorded or under-reported crimes of this nature, the detection, investigation and prosecution is largely left to the RSPCA in England and Wales and far less frequently, the police, who often have little or no resource with which to act alone The RSPCA’s data would suggest that in fact dog fighting has remained relatively consistent over a 10 year period However, the figures for convictions not reveal the number of defendants In many cases, one defendant will receive several fighting convictions It is also not possible to determine the breakdown for informal and formal classifications of dog fighting within these figures or thereby, if there has been an increase in one category corresponding to a decrease in another Evidence is emerging that the phenomenon of status dogs may have had an impact on the reporting of street dog fighting Local authorities in the UK, such as those in inner city London may sometimes collect reports from within their own managed housing estates or in other areas where they operate or participate in responsible dog ownership schemes Some of these councils who have previously received a number of dog fighting complaints are now reporting fewer concerns from residents Their own research has revealed that these reports were often from people who had been influenced by the media and succumbed to the associated moral panic When they observed dogs hanging by their jaws from tree branches, they had assumed they were witnessing the preparation for a dog fight In reality there was very little to support the notion of actual dog fighting (Lawson forthcoming) There is an innate difficulty in determining the extent of professional dog fighting in the UK, given its clandestine and impregnable networks When offences have been detected it can still be a challenge to secure a successful conviction given the seemingly innocent way in which dogs can be kept and their injuries and minor paraphernalia explained away in court One of the