An animal rights activist, who works as animal researcher at Animal Kingdom Foundation Inc., declared dogfights as illegal.

        The Animal Kingdom is an advocacy group that doggedly pushes for the enforcement of RA 8485 or the Animal Welfare Act of 1998 that protects animals from cruelty, specifically dogs.

        Greg Quimpo of the Animal Kingdom asserted that even as dogfight aficionados claim that the game is likened to boxing to rationalize the use of raw power in the game, still the dog has no option but face death inside the arena that constitutes cruelty.

        Quimpo said that RA 8485 prescribes a maximum of six months in jail and a minimum fine of P1,000 and maximum fine of P5,000 for the offenders.

        He said the Animal Kingdom works with the law enforcement agencies of the government in unraveling the dog trade going to Northern Luzon.

        But Quimpo confessed they only received information regarding pit bull dogfights from secondary sources.

        Quimpo believed that the dogfight aficionados would not even feel the pinch of the fine of just several thousand bucks imposed on offenders compared to the hundred thousand bucks gambled at the table.

        The animal rights activist reacted on a page one story of the Bicol Mail that exposed the first dogfight ever held in Camarines Sur.

        The dogfight, which many may condemn as bloody and inhumane, is a fight-to-the-death game that is gaining followers here with one or two exclusive loose groups of dog fighters’ breeders already existing in at least three provinces of Bicol and that are networked to regional and national groups of breeders.

        Quimpo said that as far as their group is concerned they have not received enough information on the growing practice of using pit bull breeds in dogfights.

        He said their information on the illegal game is still nil and the authorities has still to investigate and probe deeper to come-up with intelligence information that could help them check the practice.