CHAKWAL, Nov 4: The cruelty and bloodletting of gladiator sports might be a thing of the past but in rural communities there are still certain activities falling under the domain of ‘rural sports’, which can be looked upon as inhumane.

One such sport is pig and dog fight.

The sport has a history and tradition in Punjab and Sindh, and special dogs are trained for the activity.

Some dogs used for hunting pigs are brought up with utmost care. Many hunters buy dogs from Sindh and their prices can range from Rs40,000 to Rs100,000.

In Chakwal there is a team of pig-hunters in every village.

Till recent years, hunters would hunt for pigs in jungles located in the vicinity but due to deforestation, they now have to go to Taxila.

Recently a team of hunters from Dhakku and Lakhwal villages went to jungles of Taxila and caught a pig and brought it back, to showcase it in a gladiatorial-like setting, where everyone came just to see the ‘blood flow’.

On Saturday morning, people from the villages of Dhakku, Odherwal, Chakora and Lakhwal all conglomerated on a ground 8km away from Chakwal city. In a short time the ground was packed with people of all ages.

Soon all eyes were set on the road where a pickup van made a foreboding appearance. As the van got closer, the crowd got excited and started shouting.

The van was carrying a wild boar which was caught by the hounds owned by local hunters.

When the boar was offloaded, one noticed that the animal was injured and tied with a rope. “Only one dog would be set loose on the pig,” shouted Mushtaq, the leader of the hunting crew.

Thus the painful event began. Dogs attacked the pig one after the other — it was like a blood fest.

When the hunters noticed that the pig had fallen to the ground, they threw water over it, in order to revive it for another fight but it was too late, the animal was already dead.

On the question of curbing such activities, District Wildlife Officer Khalid Sahi said, while talking to Dawn, that wild boars are not under the protection of wildlife department that is why the department cannot take any action against hunters. “There was a time when the government used to encourage the killing of wild boars as they destroyed crops”, he elaborated.