Sold into slaughter: The beloved pets bought to be savaged by dogs in depraved blood sport

This year the charity's serious investigations unit (SIU) have investigated more than 721 incidents – more than double the number they looked at in 2017 – involving animal baiting.

Many of the cases involved domestic pets being used as training material to generate "bloodlust" in dogs, before they are set loose on other dogs, foxes and badgers.

It comes a week after an Ayrshire man was sentenced to 10 months in prison and banned for a decade from owning animals, when he bought up to 50 household pets online to use as bait for his dogs.

Mark Cuthbert, 42, used his Patterdale terriers to savage dozens of cats and rats he obtained from unwitting owners across Glasgow and the west of Scotland, who had advertised their household pets for sale due to illness, relocation or a change in family circumstances.

Many of the animals were savaged and killed less than a day after Cuthbert got hold of them, despite his promises that he would look after them.

The Herald on Sunday has obtained images of some of the dozens of animals Cuthbert may have acquired to train his dogs, many of which were well-loved household pets whose owners believed they were going to a good home.

Mike Flynn, chief superintendent at the Scottish SPCA said: "To get terriers used to killing foxes and things, get them used to bloodlust, Cuthbert was getting a lot of animals from sites like Gumtree.

"He was an incredibly sick individual.

"For whatever reason people were moving home, divorce, illness etc and had to rehome their cats and they were just looking for a good home. He was turning up, saying ‘Oh it’s ginger like the one we lost a couple of years ago, we’ll love it and look after it’. Within 24 hours the cat was back at his house getting fed to these terriers."

Flynn, who has been working at the charity for decades, said Cuthbert's case is just one example of the underground fighting scene which covers the whole of Scotland. In some cases, dog owners from England, Wales and Ireland have also been known to travel to Scotland for large-scale fighting sessions.

While most people are at home in bed, shady groups of criminals are taking their dogs to badger sets or to remote waste ground and setting them loose on defenceless pets such as rabbits, cats and rats in preparation for such fights.

Often the animals are restrained or put in cages with dogs before being savaged and killed.

Flynn explained: "These dogs are very rarely seen in public, the owners don’t walk them through the parks and they rarely go to the vets because a vet would instantly know the difference between a scrap in the street and injuries through organised fighting.They are kept in kennels, put in the back of a van, brought to a location to do their thing and then put back in the kennels.

"Sometimes a girlfriend or a wife has got that fed up seeing a dog which they really liked come back all minced up. A lot of these guys use it as a status symbol, and often they are involved in other crimes involving violence or drugs.

"I've seen photographs of dogs with half of their faces hanging off, from badger baiting for example. You can tell that it is not just happened once, the scarring on their faces shows a pattern of injury.

"The owners take photographs of it, it's a pride thing and they want to show off how 'game’ their dog is. It's a huge status symbol. In a perverse way some of them actually think they are looking after the dog.

"I have been at dog fighting when the commentator says 'Look how much the dogs are enjoying it, they're wagging their tails'. The dogs are ripping each other to shreds – that is not enjoyment. These people are just extremely depraved, sick individuals, and they take photographs of everything to show it off.

"That is how we caught Mr Cuthbert. He had photographs and films with his dogs, and he was goading them to kill cats and other animals."

While there is usually little money to be made from dog and animal fights, the organised groups involved are trying to show how "tough" their dog is, to then use it for breeding to make more money.

Puppies bred from a dog which has won a number of fights, or who is known to continue fighting despite severe injury, can be worth between £3000 and £4000, according to Flynn.

An undercover investigator told The Herald on Sunday that they believe similar practices to be happening in almost every community across the country.

The investigator, who cannot be identified, said: "This type of activity is highly prevalent in pre-industrial towns but it is happening everywhere – rural areas, urban. It is a lot more common than people realise.

"When I first joined the unit we were aware of it but since we have started targeting individuals, because we have had so many successes we have opened it up, and as a unit we can’t cope with the sheer volume of this.

"At the moment we are executing 2-3 warrants a month, but it takes a huge amount of work to get to that stage, and as we are such a small team we can only do so much."

They explained that owners training their dogs for fighting will use "whatever they can get their hands on" to practice with, and has warned pet owners who are considering selling their animals online to be careful..

They said: "If dogs are being trained for dog fighting, they will even use other dogs as bait. Usually for animal fighting cats are more common, rabbits too, whatever they can get their hands on.

"Ideally the best option is to bring the animal to a rehoming centre, one of our centres at the Scottish SPCA or another animal welfare charities. That is the best solution. If people are using online sites, they need to vet the person as fully as possible.

"They should ask if they have any other animals at their home addresses, do follow-up visits to make sure the animal is in a safe and secure environment and keep in contact with the people who have rehomed the anima. They should ask for regular photographs to show the animal is being treated well and is in a good home environment."

Along with cats, rats and rabbits suffering a miserable death, often the dogs involved in the fighting are discarded if they are not "successful" in their owner's eyes.

If they are rescued, sometimes their injuries are so severe or they are so maladapted to live around humans that they have to be put down.

In Cuthbert's case, one of his three dogs had to be euthanised after attacking a member of Scottish SPCA staff. The two other terriers have now been rehomed successfully.

INVESTIGATORS have appealed to people who gave their pets to Cuthbert, or others suspected of being involved in dog fighting, to contact them.

Since his conviction last week, none of the owners of any of the animals listed for sale on Gumtree or other websites have contacted the authorities.

Images of some of the pets Cuthbert may have bought have been published today in the hope their former owners will contact the Scottish SPCA, to help them strengthen their understanding of his practices and prevent similar incidents in future.

Mike Flynn, the charity's chief inspector, said: " People may think they would get into trouble, but we just want to learn more about what Cuthbert was doing and how he was obtaining these animals."

Similarly, those who are concerned about animals being used for fighting or as bait should contact also the charity on 03000 999 999.