After bullbaiting and bearbaiting were outlawed in England in 1835, the Staffordshire coal miners bred their dogs for dogfighting. Today’s pit bulls trace their lineage back to that time​—hence their present name, American Staffordshire terriers. They are also called American pit bull terriers.

With squat, muscular bodies and heavy steel-trap jaws that can exert a pressure of 1,800 pounds per square inch [130 kg/​sq cm], pit bulls are formidable fighting machines.

Sixty percent of the 3,000 pit bulls in Philadelphia are used for dogfighting. To make them mean while still young, some are given kittens and small dogs to tear to bits.

Dogfighting is illegal in all 50 states and a felony crime in 36, but ‘you can find a dogfight on any weekend in any of the 50 states,’ says Eric Sakach of the Humane Society in Sacramento, California.