CLARKE COUNTY, Ala.) February 12 - If a picture's worth a thousand words, the image of a terrified, penned pig wrestled down by a blood-thirsty dog speaks volumes. To the hundreds of people who make the trek to rural Clarke County, Alabama to attend these so called hog/dog rodeos, the words that come to mind are sport, tradition, and as one woman told NBC 15, "addictive".

Recently our NBC 15 undercover team broke into this world where watching torture and bloodshed is a family pastime for all ages. It's a game of catch. Dogs, mostly pit bulls, showing off their hunting skills. Those that latch their powerful jaws on a penned wild pig the fastest win prize money and trophies.

The day NBC 15's Mike Rush attended, he witnessed pigs screeching in pain as dogs chewed ears, a tail and a snout. The battles were over as soon as the handlers could pry the dogs off the terrified hogs.

Joseph Ebey has attended many of these rodeos. His grandson is one of the "handlers". They're the guys in the ring who control the pigs, sometimes by kicking them in the face or wrestling them to the ground.

Ebey says the events are good for the community. "They got a lot of young people around in this part of the country that don't have much to do around here and that gives them an outlet," Ebey told Mike Rush.

Our hidden cameras caught that outlet in action. In between fights, children battled each other to be the first to tackle a pig with a taped snout and, according to the announcer, a broken leg.

With music blaring from a sound system, an admission charge and bleachers, this is a business. One that Coffeeville Police Chief Frankie Crawford would like to see shut down. The fights are out of his jurisdiction, but their effects travel to his nearby town.

"People's cars getting vandalized in the parking lot, we've had complaints on dog fights in the parking lots, children getting hurt on 3 wheelers, fights," said Crawford.

Referring to the events, Keahey told Mike Rush, "You got a prima facia case to sign a warrant for cruelty to animals."

Keahey says he first heard of the rodeos at least a couple of years ago. He's done nothing to stop them because he says the Clarke County Sheriff's Department has failed to arrest anyone. "They ask me, I'll help them. I'll go with them, I'll do anything," said Keahey.

But the sheriff has a different story. "I think it's very unfair that it should come down to me," said Clarke County Sheriff Jack Day.

Day says he tried to shut down the fights a few years ago on the basis of animal cruelty, but the district attorney, he says, wouldn't play. "I had a deputy ask him about prosecuting it and he said no, he's not going to prosecute it, it was not unlawful," Day said.

The sheriff says because of our interest, he'll ask Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor for his opinion. It's not the first time. More than three years ago, Mobile's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Mobile County's District Attorney's office asked Pryor to weigh in. The attorney general didn't get involved then and recently turned down our repeated requests to show him our video. His office stated it's a county matter.

So amidst all this political finger pointing, the pig rodeos have persisted. Crawford understands the outcome for both animals can be grim. "The ones that have been hurt pretty bad will be destroyed."

A culture of carnage that's practically challenging the law to latch on.

Since NBC 15 first spoke with Sheriff Day, he told us he's discussed the matter again with District Attorney Keahey and both agree the hog/dog rodeos are against the law.