Approval versus disapproval of dogfighting and cockfighting among college students

We explored the extent of approval/disapproval of dogfighting and cockfighting in 206 community college students with 97.1% disapproving of dogfighting and 93.8% disapproving of cockfighting. Disapproval of dogfighting was associated with higher scores on the Pet Attitude Scale (Templer, Salter, Dickey, Baldwin, & Veleber, 1981), scoring in the continuous rather than dichotomous direction on the Animal-Human Continuity Scale (Templer, Connelly, Bassman, & Hart, 2006), and high scoring in empathy toward humans on the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980). Disapproval of cockfighting was associated with women. Despite the finding of an extremely high percentage of disapproval of dogfighting and cockfighting, continued educational programs and preventive efforts are recommended to achieve our aim, which is zero dogfighting and cockfighting.