Bloodsport or blood sport is a category of sports or entertainment that involves any sport or entertainment that causes bloodshed, in any game, sport or contest involving bloodshed and defined by Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary as "a sport or contest (as hunting or cockfighting) involving bloodshed" which may be further exampled by human-baiting as a blood sport involving the baiting of humans or human-animal blood sport exampled by the ancient Roman venatio. On the other hand Cambridge Online Dictionary defines blood sport as any sport that involves animals being killed or hurt to make the people watching or taking part feel excitement, which may more correctly be identified and defined as animal blood sport or human-animal blood sport since human blood sports are lacking from that definition.
Bloodsport includes coursing, combat sports such as cockfighting and dog fighting, or other activities of human-animal blood sport. These usually involve blood being drawn, and often result in the death of one or more animals.
Read more about Blood Sport: Etymology, Current Issues, List of Blood Sports, Organizations Opposed To Bloodsports
Famous quotes containing the words blood and/or sport:
“What if I look upon a man
As though on my beloved,
And my blood be cold the while
And my heart unmoved?
Why should he think me cruel
Or that he is betrayed?”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“If a walker is indeed an individualist there is nowhere he can’t go at dawn and not many places he can’t go at noon. But just as it demeans life to live alongside a great river you can no longer swim in or drink from, to be crowded into safer areas and hours takes much of the gloss off walking—one sport you shouldn’t have to reserve a time and a court for.”
—Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)