History Main / BeastlyBloodsports

* ''{{Series/Friends}}'': When Ross was looking for zoos to take his monkey Marcel, one of the prospects asks how good Marcel is with a knife, and it quickly becomes apparent that he's running some sort of animal fighting park.

* ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'': In "Inhumane Society", the career of a promising young boxer is derailed when authorities discover he's at the center of a dog fighting ring.

* A ''{{Series/Seinfeld}}'' episode involves Kramer realizing that he has improbably come into custody of a fighting cock. When the fight comes, [[BigDamnHeroes Kramer leaps in to save the cock.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/LoveDeathAndRobots'': "Sonnie's Edge" features battles to the death between bioengineered beasts controlled remotely by human pilots.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' has "Cock Magic", in which chickens are forced to play TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering in underground tournaments.

* This is one of the fates in store for many of the poached creatures during the Poaching Arc of ''FanFic/TheTaintedGrimoire''.

* In the first ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' movie, two of the title team are among those attending [[SpaceX space cockfighting]] on [[WretchedHive Knowhere]]. It involves betting on multiple small alien lizards that get chased and eaten by a larger alien, the last small lizard standing wins.

** While Pokemon may be encouraged to fight each other, [[{{Reconstruction}}in other respects trainers are obliged]] to [[VideoGameCaringPotential take good care of them]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingMaurice'': On discovering Sardines is wearing a hat , the ratcacthers decide to make him the star attraction in the Pit. This is where rat coursing takes place: a 'sport' where spectators bet on how long it will take a dog to kill a pit full of rats.

** [[{{Reconstruction}} While Pokemon may be encouraged to fight each other, in other respects trainers are obliged to]] [[VideoGameCaringPotential take good care of them.]]

* Cockfighting, while illegal in most of the world, is still a popular gambling activity. Actor [[Creator/WilfordBrimley Wilford "Diabeetus" Brimley]] has become notorious for campaigning for its legalization on the grounds that roosters often fight each other for mates in the wild, anyway (metal spurs and other performance enhancers notwithstanding, but these would presumably be banned from a legal, officially regulated version).
** In the Philippines, where it is legal, cockfighting is SeriousBusiness. Many of the larger breeders treat their cocks in the same manner as professional athletes with facilities for exercise and sparring, as well as experts on hand for proper nutrition and veterinary care. The country also usually hosts the World Slasher Cup, basically the World Cup of cockfighting, on a biannual basis.
** There is an ancient Greek story that a Spartan was once offered a couple of fighting cocks on the market. When he asked whether they are good, the merchant told him "sir, they fight until they die". The Spartan thought and said "nah, I need ones that fight until they kill".
** Agricultural historians suspect that the main reason chicken-breeding spread across the Pacific was because of this trope. Seabirds provided a more convenient source of meat, eggs and feathers for islanders than domestic fowl could, considering the extra labor involved in tending to captive poultry, but a victorious fighting cock could win its owner a ''much'' better payoff, both economically and socially.

** Cricket fighting is also popular in Asia, but unlike the beetle fights, these are more violent as the crickets are well capable of killing each other.
** A variation is practiced in the Southwestern U.S., using scorpions instead of beetles to make the whole thing more dramatic.
** Insect fighting rings are popular in some places, pitting vicious creepy-crawlies likes scorpions, hornets, mantises, and tarantulas against each other to the death. In fact, the aforementioned cricket fights formed the basis for the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' franchise.

* One now-illegal bloodsport popular in western countries in the past was rat-baiting, in which a dog (usually a terrier) would be placed in a large pit full of rats. Bets were made over how many rodents the dog could kill in a certain time limit.

* UsefulNotes/RobotCombat sports could be considered a cruelty- and blood-free successor to this nonhuman-combatants-rip-each-other-up-for-entertainment trope. [[note]] But what if robots were/are sentient all along? [[/note]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' episode "Ace in the Hole" tells the story of Bruce's dog Ace, who had been raised for dogfighting, escaped during a police raid, and met Bruce during one of his annual [[GraveMarkingScene visits to Crime Alley]]. Ace [[TheDogBitesBack spots and chases the dogfighting operation ringleader]], which leads to Batman tracking him down and finding out he's only gotten worse over the years, using an experimental growth hormone on the dogs to turn them into monsters. After fighting the biggest one, Batman puts him out of business.

Fox hunting is a hybrid, with human and animal vs. animal, with humans and dogs double-teaming foxes. Whereas most animal bloodsports seem to mark the [[LowerClassLout dark side of the lower classes,]] fox hunts are the the province of [[AristocratsAreEvil the upper-crust.]] Rat baiting was a combination sport and dog-training method, as professional rat-catchers would release the rodents into pits and then set their terriers on them for practice, often taking bets on how many each dog would kill.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' episode "Chicken Jack" the eponymous samurai is [[ForcedTransformation polymorphed into]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a chicken]], and then forced to fight robot animals.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' episode "Chicken Jack" the eponymous samurai is [[ForcedTransfomation polymorphed into]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a chicken]], and then forced to fight robot animals.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' episode "Chicken Jack" the eponymous samurai is [[BalefulPolymorph polymorphed into]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a chicken]], and then forced to fight robot animals.

* In ''Dead Witch Walking'', the first book of ''Literature/TheHollows'' series, Rachel Morgan is [[BalefulPolymorph transformed into a mink]] and placed into bloodsport matches against other predators; some of whom are also transformed humans.

* The town of Toroledo in ''VideoGame/{{Alundra 2}}'' has a bullfighting ring as a Betting Minigame. The twist is that the fights are bull vs bull rather than bull vs matador.

* ''Series/{{Being Human|UK}}'' ([[Series/BeingHumanUS both versions]]): Vampires in this universe take the traditional dog fight and [[UpToEleven crank it up a notch]]. The result? [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Werewolf fights]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', a skooma den near Riften had evidence of this going on such as caged pit wolves and a small arena area with a bloody wolf corpse inside it.
** Another one is in a fort occupied by bandits and you can actually see wolves fighting when you enter the room where the fighting takes place. It's also revealed later into the fort that the bandits' cook has been killing the wolves for meat to feed the bandits, who refuse to eat anything but meat.

** In ''Literature/NjalsSaga'', Thorgeir Starkadsson and his brothers challenge Gunnar to let their best fighting horse fight against Gunnar's favourite stallion, with the transparent hope of increasing their social prestige by humiliating Gunnar. During the fight, Thorgeir tries to knock Gunnar over by pushing his horse into Gunnar, but Gunnar pushes back and knocks him over. Thorgeir starts a fight and knocks out an eye of Gunnar's stallion, before being knocked out by Gunnar. A raging Thorgeir is only hindered by the bystanders to attack Gunnar with a weapon and swears to kill Gunnar. Eventually the Starkadssons lay an ambush for Gunnar in which Gunnar's brother Hjort and fourteen attackers are killed.

* Horse fights are a popular entertainment in the world of the Literature/IcelandicSagas, and will always become the catalyzer of a quarrel or feud. A prominent example occurs in ''Literature/NjalsSaga''.

* Horse fights are a popular entertainment in the world of the Literature/IcelandicSagas, and will always become the catalyzer of a quarrel or feud. A prominent example occurs in ''Njal's Saga''.

* Three mid-boss battles in arcade fighter ''Fighting Layer'' are against animals, depending on the route selected: A tiger, hawk, and ''shark'' (fought in a stage that is ostensibly underwater, though physics are not even affected and the shark just seems to be flying around).

* ''{{ComicBook/Asterix}}'': ''Recap/AsterixInHispania'' has Asterix and a centurion thrown into an arena, which turns out to contain an aurochs rather than lions. Asterix promtly invents bullfighting by dodging the aurochs until it runs into a wall.

* In the short Puerto Rican film ''Film/Modesta'', Modesta's husband ([[TheNameless who is not given a name]]) attends a cockfight. The film shows several shots of the roosters pecking at each other, cheering crowds, etc. Somebody asks the husband about a gamecock of his. He says it was useless and that he told his wife to catch it and stew it for dinner.

[[quoteright:329:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bearbaiting_940.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:329:''Bear Baiting'', 1795 (from ''The Sporting Magazine'', London)]]

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': The climactic fight scene between Bolt and Ike in “The Wind” is treated as a Colosseum-style spectacle by the latter’s fellow stray dogs.

* ''Film/TheCincinnatiKid'' features a cockfight scene, in which the insouciant Melba (Ann-Margret) reveals a sadistic streak. She’s plainly aroused by the bloodshed.

** Another one is in a fort occupied by bandits and you can actually see wolves fighting when you enter the room where the fighting takes place. It’s also revealed later into the fort that the bandits’ cook has been killing the wolves for meat to feed the bandits, who refuse to eat anything but meat.