A Person

going undercover for the HSUS gives a detailed account of the sordid "sport" of dogfighting:

The referee then calls for the dogs to get ready, calls, "Let go!" and the dog that committed the turn is released first. Depending on the rules being used, the dog has 10 to 20 seconds to "scratch to" his opponent – to charge across the pit. If he does, the fight resumes. If the dog fails to do that, the match is over. Generally fighting continues until they're out of holds (they quit biting).

Fights average about 45 minutes. But they can be over fairly quickly, five to 10 minutes, if one dog is not wanting to fight. The longest recorded is 5 hours, 33 minutes. The longest I ever saw was about an hour.

I have not seen a dog killed in the arena, but certainly afterward. Bites are strong enough to break bone. [Dogs] suffer from dehydration, blood loss, shock. The dead are taken off to the side, some are thrown in pits — some guys have burn pits — some are thrown in the back of a pickup. More often you see owners, if the dog is in shock, set up an IV kit, getting fluids into the dog.