Dogfighting app pulled from Android Market

A dogfighting game was pulled from Google's Android Market after animal-rights groups and Michael Vick waged a campaign to have it killed. 

"Dog Wars" allowed users to raise a puppy, give it virtual steroid injections and pit it against other smartphone users in violent fights. 

A Google spokesman said in reports that the app was pulled "based on a trademark infringement complaint" and did not mention the animal-rights campaign. 

Michael Vick, the football star famously jailed for real-life dogfighting, condemned "Dog Wars" this week. 

"I’ve come to learn the hard way that dogfighting is a dead-end street," Vick said in a press statement. "I think it’s important to send the smart message to kids, and not glorify this form of animal cruelty — even in an Android app.”

The Humane Society and PETA vocally opposed the game. 

PETA said in its campaign: "Who doesn't know by now that dogs used for fighting are kept penned or chained (often with heavy logging chains) and that many are taunted and starved in order to trigger extreme survival instincts and aggression?"

Kage Games, which created "Dog Wars," called the game a "satire about the ridiculousness of dogfighting."

"We DO NOT CONDONE violence towards animals or humans, and we are confident in humankind's ability to distinguish between a rudimentary game and the consequences of real life," the company said in a statement.