In hog-dog fighting or “catch dog trials,” dogs chase trapped hogs in front of spectators. Players rank the dogs by how quickly they bite into a hog’s face and pull the screaming animal down. Dogs often injure the hogs horribly during the match, and the hogs may gore the dogs with their tusks.

Hog-dog fighting is most popular in the rural South. Ironically, it may be billed as family entertainment, but it is as violent as dogfighting and can similarly teach children to enjoy cruelty.

To give the dogs an advantage, handlers may outfit the dogs in Kevlar vests, or cut the hogs’ tusks off. Dogs in training may be set upon helpless farm hogs. The hogs may die after dogs tear off their snouts, ears, or jaws.

After an exposé on hog-dog fighting, Ala., La., N.C., S.C., Tenn., and Miss. banned it, while attorneys general in Fla. and Texas declared that it violates their states’ cruelty laws.