Dog-Fighting Phone App Back with New Name

After briefly disappearing from the Android Market, a smartphone app that allows players to virtually train and fight dogs is available again, but with a different name.

The former “Dog Wars” has been rechristened “KG Dogfighting.”

“The name change does not make it any less sick, disgusting or appalling,” Paul M. Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, told the Los Angeles Times. Weber has been leading a law-enforcement charge against the app.

Animal welfare groups including the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) have condemned the app. Even convicted dog-fighter Michael Vick said the app was a “step backward.”

“I’ve come to learn the hard way that dogfighting is a dead-end street,” Vick said in an HSUS statement. “Now, I am on the right side of this issue, and I think it’s important to send the smart message to kids, and not glorify this form of animal cruelty, even in an Android app.”

A representative from Google, which owns Android Market, told the Los Angeles Times that the app was temporarily removed “based on a trademark infringement complaint.” There is another, unrelated game on Facebook named “Dog Wars” that does not promote dog fighting.

Kage Games, the creators of “KG Dogfighting,” claim the app is educational, and the company is donating part of the profits to animal-welfare organizations and disaster-relief causes in Japan. A Kage Games official, using the alias “Pit Boss,” sent an email to the Los Angeles Times saying critics of the app were missing the point.

“We are in fact animal lovers ourselves,” Pit Boss wrote. “This is our groundbreaking way to raise money/awareness to aid REAL dogs in need, execute freedom of expression and serve as a demonstration to the competing platform that will not allow us as developers to release software without prejudgment.”

Robert Pregulman, of the blog SeattleDogSpot.com, started a petition on Change.org when “Dog Wars” first appeared, demanding that Android Marketplace remove the app. As of Monday, the petition has more than 32,000 signatures.

“Pit Boss and his partners may think we will believe they created KG Dogfighting/Dog Wars for altruistic reasons, but we know they did it because they wanted to glorify dog fighting and make a ton of money,” Pregulman wrote.

In the meantime, PETA has launched its own iPhone app that allows users to take action on animal-related causes, including demanding Google to remove the dog-fighting app.

You can also take action by doing the following:

Sign the petition, which will send emails to the appropriate parties. Share a link to the petition via email, Facebook and Twitter.
Report the app as inappropriate to Android Market. Enter the application name KG Dogfighting and the developer name Kage Games LLC.

PHOTO: liewcf

Laura Goldman

Laura Goldman is senior social media writer for i Love Dogs, Inc. She does love dogs. And elephants and turtles. Along with writing about the loves of her life, Laura likes to play with her two pound pups and tell anyone who’ll listen just how awesome Pit Bulls are.