week's programme in the series "The Dog's Tale" shows, man's best friend is also being dragged into an altogether bloodier ritual in Japan. Tosa dogs are 85 lb (38kg) of pure, in-bred muscle. Once the status symbol of
Samurai warriors, they have now been adopted as fighting dogs by the Japanese yakuza - Japan's gangster fraternity. When Nobuharu Hamano lost interest in pit bulls, he bought up a stable of 20 Tosas and 6 wolves. "We
don't fight ourselves," he says, "our dogs fight for us instead. And we get rid of our stress by seeing the dog fight."
The Dog's Tale, Thursday 9.30pm BBC2.
hounds of Mesopotamia, dogs have always been part of human ritual. Once a year in Italy for example, Christians extol the fidelity and obedience of dogs by awarding them their own religious festival. But, as this
