Afraid of raids, organisers of dog fights now hold the blood sport secretly at remote places across the Kingdom

Lawbreakers have taken dog fights to a deep underground obscurity in order to keep the illegal activity alive following a massive crackdown, it emerged.

Many gangs organising dog fights still operate in secretive and remote areas of Bahrain despite the constant crackdown efforts from the part of authorities.

According to sources and animal rights activists, the practice still exists in the country albeit in a much smaller scale than it did a few years ago.

They said that over the years there has been a marked improvement in the situation as many of the fighting rings were raided and the organisers faced legal action.

Reports published by Tribune in 2015 reported on several dog fight rings operating in various places including Hamala, Tubli, Saar and Hamad town.

However, currently in most cases there are no fixed locations for dog fights as the perpetrators keep changing the location fearing a police raid.

The dramatic reduction in the prevalence of dog fighting has been attributed to efforts exerted by the Ministry of Interior and the BSPCA.

A picture sent to Tribune by a source shows a dog allegedly injured during dog fighting. The dog, which was found by a member of an animal welfare group, had suffered wounds from bites and jabs.