Would you want your kids playing a dogfighting app?
The app is called KG Dogfighting (formerly Dog Wars), made by Kage Games LLC, and is available in the app marketplace for Android phones. In this “game” (I hate using that word for this disgusting app) players feed, train, and fight dogs to earn cash, experience, and status. Much like real-life dogfighting, Dog Wars promotes animal brutality as a way to satisfy personal greed. Yes, the photo at left is really what they use to promote the game.
The real-life consequences of this game are dangerous. It promotes dog-fighting, illegal in 50 states and actively spoken against by the Humane Society and other animal welfare groups. By making a game out of it, Kage Games is minimizing the terrible effects of dogfighting and desensitizing players to animal abuse for personal gain. It’s so violent that a player-made video with tips for the game was removed from YouTube.
It also promotes the myth that pit bulls are inherently violent. They are not – not only has it been proven that any dog can be trained to be violent, but pit bulls were originally bred as nanny dogs for children. But with a game like this promoting pit bull violence to the masses, it encourages unfair stereotypes. These stereotypes lead to massive numbers of pit bulls being put down in shelters because people are afraid to adopt them. It also leads to the ridiculous breed-specific legislation that many cities have, banning pit bulls out of fear and ignorance. This too leads to dogs being killed when pit bulls (and even dogs that aren’t pits but look like them) are found in those cities.
Here’s how you can help get this game removed from the Android marketplace:
• Click here to sign the petition at Change.org asking Google to remove it. Both YouTube (which removed the tips video mentioned above) and Android are owned by Google, so if it’s too violent for one Google property we should be able to convince Google to take it off their Android marketplace.
• Tell your networks about this horror and ask them to sign and share it as well. You can do that by clicking the “Like” button at the top of this post or sharing this post on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
We’ve made our voices heard before – in just 2 weeks nearly 100,000 people signed the petition about eBay dogs for sale – and we need your help again. Please sign the petition and ask Google to stop making a game out of animal cruelty.
Thanks for your help.
UPDATE (4/27/11):
Good news and bad news. The app is not currently available, but it may not be because almost 15,000 of us have signed the Change.org petition. Here's what's happening:
• Google has not released any kind of statement about the game, so it doesn't appear that it was removed by them. If it's anything at Google's end, it could be a server issue with all the traffic from various outlets covering the story over the last few days. Possible, but I'd be surprised if Google couldn't handle the traffic.
• It could also be down because of an active copyright lawsuit against Dog Wars by another game with the same name (completely different role-playing game on Facebook where users play as a dog).
• Kage Games still has the game Dog Bucks up, which is an accompaniment to their dogfighting app Dog Wars, and Kage Games is saying that their Dog Wars will be back. The temporary nature of their approach makes me think it's tied to the lawsuit, which obviously they're hoping to win.
UPDATE (9/4/11):
Kage Games renamed the game KG Dogfighting, currently available in the Android Marketplace. Google's head of public policy, Alan Davidson, testified at a Senate hearing in May 2011 that “Apps that are unlawful or directly related to unlawful activity, we do take those down.” Dogfighting is illegal in all 50 states in the US, yet somehow, Kage Games has been allowed to continue offering an app that is directly related to this cruel, unlawful activity. The petition has passed 44,000 signatures - add your name to the list and pass it on to others.
All this means we still have work to do. Keep spreading the word so we can get this awful game taken down for good!
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