Croydon’s kennels and animal rescue services are in crisis due to an influx of Staffordshire bull terriers.

The dogs have become a status symbol for young men in the borough and high demand has lead to illegal over-breeding of the dogs.

Because of their appearance, they can be used to intimidate and as fighting dogs and when they outlive their usefulness as fighters, or become too much for their owners to cope with, they are abandoned.

Rescue centres have been receiving Staffordshires and Staffordshire crosses in such high numbers that they are being forced to put them down, including litters of new-born puppies.

Last September, every one of the RSPCA’s kennels in Godstone held one of the terriers.

Emma Semple, 31, who runs Furry Friends Animal Rescue in Old Coulsdon, works with death row dogs, the majority of which are Staffordshires.

She said: “I’ve had to put down puppies as young as six week’s old before. Kennels are reluctant to take them on and even if they can rehome them, they know that they will only get them back later.”

It costs £7 a day to keep a dog in kennels. In addition, all dogs are neutered and microchipped so kennels can end up spending a minimum of £200 per dog.

Miss Semple has rescued a lot of fighters in Croydon.

“These young boys deliberately breed a vicious male with a vicious female to get vicious puppies,” she said.

However, not all of the dogs are aggressive. One example is Piglet, a good-natured dog who refused to fight.

“He was brought to us under the cover of darkness because his owner was going to stab him to death because he would not fight,” Miss Semple explained.

If dogs will not fight then they are used as bait dogs to give other fighting dogs a taste for blood.

Once, Miss Semple rescued a greyhound who had its teeth pulled out by it’s owners who tied it to a radiator and set three Staffies on it to train them. It had its skin ripped off.

She said: “That is the mentality of the people that use these dogs. The greyhound survived and is now in a loving home.”

Rosemary Hosking from the RSPCA said that not everyone buys so-called dangerous dogs for illegal purposes.

She said: “They [the dogs] have received a bad press. In reality they are very affectionate and make great family pets,” she said.

“The dogs have to be trained as fighters. Young men hang them from trees to make their jaws stronger and drag them up hills to build up their muscles. Dog fighting is not a secretive thing they do it in public, in parks.”