The Chicago Humanities Festival ended this past weekend, and it included many different lectures about many different subjects. One of these lectures was “Why Dogs Fight,” given by Heidi Nast, a professor of international studies here at DePaul University. She is well-published in a number of subjects, namely gender studies (particularly LGBT studies), African studies, colonial and post-colonial worlds, dog love in Chicago and many more. This interest in dogs and the colonial world is the backbone for “Why Dogs Fight.”
In her lecture Nast covered both of these topics as they relate to each other. She took her audience through the history of dog fighting, starting out in the coalmines of Britain in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Nast made the case that miners identified with their dogs, thinking of themselves as the dogs. They would pit their dogs against each other, using similar terminology to describe these dog fights that were used to describe the blood sport the miners participated in, bare knuckle boxing (such as “pit,” “warrior,” etc.). The workers took great pride in their dogs. However, as with most customs, when other factors were introduced to this sport, the original intent changed as well.
When the wealthy landowners became interested in their workers’ endeavors that did not pertain to work, they were intrigued by these blood sports. So intrigued that they even began to place bets on which dogs would win. Obviously, they did not identify with the dogs the way their workers did. It was mere sport for them. When these games reached the United States, they again took on another meaning.
Slave owners forced their slaves to fight against each other, usually to the death, lording their power over them. They also used dogs to hunt down, capture and even discipline runaway slaves. These slave owners saw their dogs as instruments of their power, not relatable entities.
In the 1980s there was a resurgence of dog fighting, especially in the Latino and African American communities. Those involved in the crime would use pit bulls to guard crack houses and staged dog fights as part of their criminal endeavors. They identify with their dogs in the fact that it makes them feel that, as Nast said in her lecture, “the cards are not stacked against them.”
These are the basic components of Nast’s lecture. When asked to explain in more detail specifically why she decided to research and give a lecture on this topic, she said, “I guess because I’m kind of concerned that dog fighters (are) inhumane.” She wanted to understand herself why people make dogs fight. Nast chose a fascinating subject. When asked about it, people generally express horror at the thought of making dogs fight each other, sometimes even to the death. However, no one probably gives much thought as to the specific reasons for why this happens, let alone why it happened 200 years ago across the Atlantic Ocean.
When it comes down to it, that is why the Chicago Humanities Festival exists in the first place: to help us understand our world, our place in it and how history can yield unexpected answers to these questions.