ABSTRACT
This chapter situates the much under-studied animal-sport complex in historical perspective, offering an examination of so-called blood sports, and considers how sociologists, including deviancy theorists, might 'imagine' the often controversial relationship between animals and humans. It explores some of the key factors necessary in perpetuating 'tolerable' deviance involving animals in sport. Animals have been used for 'sport' and human entertainment in almost all corners of the globe since ancient times. Animal 'blood sports' are competitions or games involving animals (and sometimes humans) in which there is a risk or probability that one of the 'participants' will be harmed, wounded or killed during the course of competition. A modern-day residue of baiting cultures is the practice of dogfighting. An older and more globally popular form of animal pit fighting is cockfighting. Sociological investigations into animal sports in general or blood sports in particular in North America and elsewhere are rare.
