U.S. Dog-Fighting Rings Stealing Pets for "Bait"

National Geographic News ^ | February 18, 2004 | Maryann Mott

[ZULU]

U.S. Dog-Fighting Rings Stealing Pets for "Bait"

Maryann Mott for National Geographic News February 18, 2004

For years the Pima County Sheriff's Department found the chewed-up bodies of dead dogs in the Arizona desert. But it wasn't until four years ago that the truth behind the killings emerged: Stolen family pets were being used in bloody training exercises by dog fighting rings. The problem is not confined to Arizona. Animal-welfare groups and law-enforcement officers say pets throughout the country are frequently nabbed for "bait"—animals used to test another dog's fighting instinct. The "bait" is mauled or killed in the process.

Like all good detectives, Mike Duffey of the Pima County Sheriff's Department pieced together the clues. Four years ago he was assigned to investigate animal crimes full-time.

Duffey knew the dead dogs found in the county's rural areas weren't strays, because the pads of their feet and their nails had not been worn down from a life on the streets. So Duffey checked the lost-and-stolen-animal reports kept by the local humane society.

"We found that a lot of the dogs found in these desert dumping areas were in fact, at one time, [reported] stolen," said Duffey, co-chair of the Animal Cruelty Taskforce of Southern Arizona, an organization made up of law-enforcement, criminal-justice, and animal-protection professionals. "So we began looking for a connection."

That connection was made when the veteran detective found a copy of the American Patriot. The journal, he said, was filled with pictures of fighting pit bulls kept in the very same areas where officers were finding the remains of mauled dogs.

Duffey says a large number of animals are reported lost in Pima County. Within the last six months, 3,396 animals have been reported missing. Of that amount, Duffey estimates 50 percent may have been stolen.

"Animal control has enough people out on patrol, so if [an animal] was truly a stray, they'd encounter it," Duffey said. "But they never turn up as strays; they just turn up as missing. Then somewhere down the line, we find one in the desert that matches the description of four or five that were reported stolen."

In January the sheriff's department began to tally local pets stolen by dog-fighting operations. Officers match the descriptions of animals found dumped in the desert to those reported missing.

National statistics on how many pets are taken each year and used as bait by dog-fighting rings are not available.

"I think every state has a problem with it, whether they know it or not," said Patricia Wagner, head of the National Illegal Animal Fighting Task Force for the Humane Society of the United States.

Wagner said news reports about stolen pets in the U.S. have appeared in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas, among other states.

To protect pets from being stolen, owners should care for their animals like they would a four-year-old child says Marsh Myers, director of education and community outreach for the Humane Society of Southern Arizona in Tucson. Both children and pets, he says, have similar levels of curiosity and vulnerability.

"Pet owners need to play that role of parent," Myers said. "We live in a society that has some dangerous people in it, and they will target your pets if they're allowed to."

Small dogs, kittens, and rabbits are more at risk of being stolen for bait, experts say. Pit bulls, though, are commonly targeted by dog fighting rings for potential breeding stock.

In Arizona state representative Ted Downing introduced a bill last month that would make stealing an animal for use in dog fighting a felony with penalties up to two years in jail and fines as high as U.S. $150,000. If the bill becomes state law, Downing says, it could be the first of its kind in the country.

Cruel Contest

Dog fighting is illegal in all 50 states and a felony in 47. Still, law-enforcement officials and animal-care professionals say they've seen a recent increase in the blood sport.

"There's so much of it going on [nationally]," said detective Mike Vadnal, who for 12 years has investigated animal crimes for the Broward Sheriff's Office in Broward County, Florida. "It's out of control."

Last April the alleged publisher of Sporting Dog Journal, which is thought to be the largest underground magazine for the dog-fighting industry, was arrested in New York, according to Vadnal.

Vadnal said the last printed edition of the magazine listed about a thousand fight reports. The fights were by "professionals" who breed and fight animals throughout the country for profit, Vadnal said. There are also other, less organized groups who spar their dogs for bragging rights and quick cash.

In such contests, according to law-enforcement officials, two dogs are placed in a pit or similar area enclosed with plywood walls. They attack each other while crowds of up to 200 people watch and cheer. Bets ranging from U.S. $10,000 to $50,000 are made on fights.

The bloody battle often lasts two hours or more, ending when one dog is no longer able to continue. The breed most often used is the American pit bull terrier. Experts say dogs that survive often die hours, sometimes even days, after the fight—usually of blood loss, shock, or infection.

The practice has been linked to other crimes. In Arizona, for example, Duffey said spectators and dogfight operators are often involved in auto theft, drug dealing, arms smuggling, and money laundering.

The Humane Society of the United States keeps a database of news reports on dog fighting. It estimates 40,000 people are involved in the blood sport and 250,000 pit bulls are used.

The Internet has helped fuel dog fighting by making it easier for criminals to communicate, says Wagner of the Humane Society. At last count there were about 500 message boards and chat rooms devoted to dog fighting, and the number keeps growing, Wagner said.

As dog fighting proliferates, the number of stolen pets has also grown. Whether the two are directly linked is unclear.

Sandy Christiansen, a program coordinator for the Tallahassee, Florida-based Humane Society of the United States, says his office receive reports almost daily from animal shelters around the country about neighborhood pets being nabbed.

But Christiansen, a former animal control investigator in Rochester, New York, says teenagers, not professional dog fighters, may be to blame.

"My experience mostly has been in an urban environment where the dogs that are being stolen are often used by less sophisticated people who are looking for the thrill of watching their dog beat up another dog," Christiansen says.

A Humane Alternative

Concerned by the increasing number of youths involved in dog fighting, former animal control officer Sue Sternberg decide to do something about it.

In 2002, Sternberg started Lug-Nuts, a program that encourages inner-city teens to enter their dogs in weight-pulling contests instead of fights.

"Weight pulling is a very macho sport, and it's incredibly humane," said Sternberg, who now runs a boarding, training, and adoption kennel called Rondout Valley Animals for Adoption in northern New York State.

Owners encourage their pets—harnessed to plastic sleds filled with dog-food bags—to move forward with words of encouragement and tasty treats.

Monthly contests are held in Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park, drawing about 15 entries and a large crowd of onlookers, Sternberg said. Winners receive cash prizes and pet supplies.

Sternberg said the program also encourages owners to neuter and spay their animals and offers to pay for the surgical procedure.

Shelters in the Northeastern U.S. are filled with dangerous dogs, Sternberg said, because teenagers involved in dog fighting are breeding their animals every six months for profit. Some teens are making between U.S. $1,500 and $2,000 each year selling puppies.

Consequently, shelters are filling with pit bulls and pit bull mixes that are not adoptable, because they've been trained to be aggressive toward other animals and sometimes humans.

Sternberg is currently working on a Lug-Nuts training manual and video for animal-care professionals interested in starting the program in their areas.

[LibWhacker]

Scum. The Framers had it wrong. Cruel and unusual punishment should only be forbidden in crimes against the state.

[Swede Girl]

Adorable dog. It is so hard to imagine the cruelty and lack of compassion or conscience that some people have. I blame the upbringing of these monsters. It almost always points to the parenting...or lack of.

[grellis]

Some of my neighbors, owners of two pit bulls they've been training to fight, offerred local kids bounties forcaptured animals. One kid tried to snatch my neighbor's peke-a-poo. I caught him in the act and he told me that the dog was worth ten bucks to him. We no longer have any stray cats in our neighborhood. Last summer another neighbor had her six pet rabbits stolen from their cages right off her front porch. There are missing pet signs all over the place.

Local police, humane society, and our county animal control refuse to get involved. Since the pits aren't being treated inhumanely officials don't see that there's any problem to solve.

[Twinkie]

DON'T ADVERTISE YOUR FREE PUPPIES IN THE NEWSPAPERS!
Take them to a good animal shelter in your area where
they have adoption programs which check out and also
require something of the adopters. Be sure to keep tabs
on the animals so you'll know what becomes of them. If
you find a lost animal, be very careful to validate anyone
answering any ad you might place in a newspaper. Don't let
them just claim the dog without describing it fully in
every detail. Don't put a lot of information in the ad if
you do choose this method. - - These rings of dog thieves
are not only stealing dogs, they are answering ads &
using the little dogs to bait at dog fights, or to sell to
labs, etc.

[freedom44]

I think we should tie up the people that do this, watch them beat eachother and then have the dogs they forced to fight (if still alive) maul them to death.

[ought-six]

"People who do this should be crucified - upside down."

Yup. This is a huge problem in Chicago. Various gangs participate in this sickness as a matter of routine "entertainment." Kids as young as nine and ten have been known to watch this sh!t. These thugs do indeed steal pets. There was an elderly woman who had a pit bull mix as a pet, having had it since it was a small pup. It was a pet. Some gangbangers stole the thing and tried to get it to fight. Witnesses said it just sat there and wagged its tail, lolled its tongue, and just acted like a regular pet. Well, these bastards didn't like that, so they set the poor thing on fire.

[ought-six]

"I love my dogs - a lot. They are my babies. If someone did something like this to my babies, and I got hold of them, they'd think the dog got off easy."

Yup. The perps would never see the sun rise on a new day.

[ought-six]

"This is a big sport with illegal aliens from Mexico. Of course these are the same folks that think bull fighting is some kind of fun sport."

That is one of the reasons why the problem of dog fighting is so rampant in Chicago; the hordes of illegals and gangbangers from Mexico thrive on this sort of sickness. I have never seen a culture that is as inherently depraved as those folks.

[jim macomber]

"Concerned by the increasing number of youths involved in dog fighting, former animal control officer Sue Sternberg decide to do something about it.
In 2002, Sternberg started Lug-Nuts, a program that encourages inner-city teens to enter their dogs in weight-pulling contests instead of fights."

For crying out loud, can't they just allow them to be pets?
Is this where we are now? We actually expend energy and resources trying to sweet talk these cretins into alternatives? We as a society are required to find a way for them to fill this vacuum in their otherwise empty lives?

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[ZULU]

They should use the RICO statute against these scum - they must be tied to organized criminal elements. Since its a fair assumption these gangs operate across federal lines, the Feds should get involved.

[paul51]

Local police, humane society, and our county animal control refuse to get involved

I'd say it's time for the people in the neighborhood to clean up the place. What concerns me a little is what you said about the kids in the area working for the scum bags. What's up with that? Do their parents know/care?

[ZULU]

Its hard to deny that criminal elements are NOT involved in stealing dogs, using aggresive animals like Pit Bulls to protect their stash and operations.

This has all been documented in other sources - the open window you are seeking.

PETA and the Humane Society are not the same as the A.S.P.C.A. or the local groups. You are right on that point.

But in my state I have spoken to my vet and was told that most of the dogs they receive lately as abandoned are abused pit bulls - bred, raised, trained and mistreated by subhumans with the I.Q.s of rodents.

The woman who was killed some time ago in California by a Cano Brasiliero was the victim of a pair of low lives who bred and trained fighting dogs.

These people are as much a menace to the human public as to the animals they abuse.

[Flyer]

The Humane Society of the United States is . . . a radical animal rights group.

You got that right. A good friend of mine left our local SPCA and went to the Dark Side.

In the Houston area there are 3 - 4 big dog fighting bust a year. I don't know how accurate the numbers are, but if you include spectators/gamblers, it could be that high.

[Joe Hadenuf]

That is one of the reasons why the problem of dog fighting is so rampant in Chicago; the hordes of illegals and gangbangers from Mexico thrive on this sort of sickness. I have never seen a culture that is as inherently depraved as those folks.

Yeah, a cultural that likes watching birds, (cock fighting), bull fighting, and dogs ripping each others throats out, is a culture I don't want around me.

The Vietnamese enjoy this kind of sport too. American's that partake in these types of sport are generally border line psychos and wackjobs.

[ZULU]

Our inner cities are a mess. A total disgrace. The end result of YEARS of failed liberal policies, of encourging reproduction out of marriage, of absentee parents, of children raising children, of a society which has become increasingly Godless and irresponsible.

Maybe the solution is to start some kind of National Public Works Program for trouble-making inner-city youths. Put them in military style barracks, teach them self-discipline and respect for authority and put them to work on constructive public projects - sort of like (GASP - God forgive me!!) FDR did back in the 1930s, but run better.

We also MUST STOP the atheization of America, the war on God, the Ten Commandments, prayer, and the fundamental basic Judaeo-Christian principles upon which this nation was founded and so long grew and prospered.

[freeeee]

We also MUST STOP the atheization of America

Read the thread. Illegal Mexicans are largely responsible for dog fighting in many areas.

And they're almost all Catholic.

So much for your theory.

[grellis]

My concerned neighbors and I did our best last summer and fall to let everyone else know what was going on, including addressing the issue in our monthly newsletters. Part of the problem is that many of the dwellings in our neighborhood are duplex rentals with a high turnover of neighbors. Keeping neighbors informed is a full-time job. I tried to follow the kid I caught home after he refused my offer to help him explain the situation to the police but he booked and I lost him. I let a lot of parents know at a few of the bus stops and was met with almost complete indifference. One woman actually said "Sounds like an afternoon job to me." Some people are just sick in the head, period. With spring just around the corner (LOL-this is Michigan, who am I kidding?) I have the feeling that a lot more pets are going to start disappearing.

[soozla]

Here's my pound puppies - brother & sister!!!!

[ZULU]

"Illegal Mexicans are largely responsible for dog fighting in many areas. "

Read my response. I was referring to problems inm our major inner cities. Mexicans may be the problem in the Southwest, but in other areas. Also, I wouldn't tar all Mexicans or any other ethnic group with this brush. It crosses ethnic lines.

Lowlives and creeps are found in every race, and none of them has a monopoly on stupidity or cruelty. Pick up any history book.

And I defy you to prove that there is NOT a direct connection between the secularization and atheization of our society and MOSt of our social problems.

I KNOW. I grew up in a society where it was O.K. to pray in public school, where bible reading and saluting the flag began the day. We didn't have problems with kids bringing guns to school, except maybe on opening day of deer season - to shoot deer. We could keep our doors unlocked and churches could stay open all night.

There is a direct connection between the evils we are seeing around us every day and the deliberate attempt by the liberals of the Democratic left to remove God, religion, and self-respect from public life.