A barbaric dog fighting ring is believed to be operating after dark on a quiet city industrial estate, the Citizen can reveal.

It is understood pitbull terriers are being smuggled in from Europe and made to brawl to the death.

A bloodthirsty audience places bets of anything up of to £2,000 on each sickening bout, while the organisers get rich pocketing
their percentage.

The Citizen is determined to stamp out this brutal practice and is pleading for people across Milton Keynes to get in touch with any
information.

We will sensitively and confidentially pass on your information to the RSPCA and police in a bid to stamp out this cruel activity.

The seedy underworld 'sport' came to light after a stolen dog escaped moments before a fight last week but was tragically killed in a
road accident as it fled in terror.

The incident in Old Wolverton sickened the local business community on the otherwise peaceful industrial estate.

A witness, who has refused to be named for fear of reprisals, said it has long been suspected that dog fighting was happening on the estate.

He said: "People have thought it for some time and I often see people walking around and letting pitbull-type dogs do their business on the grass.

"But this incident was terrible, it has shocked us all here and it is a truly barbaric practice.

"I came out the day after and saw dogs licking the blood of the dog that died, it was tragic."

Another source told the Citizen: "The poor dogs are made to fight each other until the loser is dead or almost dead.

"Sometimes if it is a valuable fighting dog the organisers will try and stitch up its wounds themselves so as not to cause suspicion at a
vets.

"Invariably the poor dogs die anyway in a painful horrible way.

The RSPCA has confirmed the incident was reported to it by police and that it has expressed fears about dog fighting at this location.

Spokesman Sophie Wilkinson said their intelligence department was now following up those reports.