Pit bulls struggle to trust after horrific abuse May 15, 2009

Source: BostonHerald.com, May 11, 2009

One month after officials rescued two badly mauled pit bulls from a Dorchester dog-fighting dungeon, the Animal Rescue League of Boston is struggling to rehabilitate one of the traumatized canines, an anxiety-stricken puppy named Raven.

“He doesn’t know how to sit or how to play – he doesn’t know how to be a dog,” said veterinarian and licensed dog trainer Amy Marder, Director of the Center for Shelter Dogs at the rescue league. “He’s pretty damaged.”

Estimated to be eight months old, Raven’s handsome gray coat is ravaged by bite marks. He suffers from a jaw injury and a heart murmur – but those were the least of his problems when authorities removed him from what they described as a “filthy, blood- and urine-soaked” cage in a pitch-black basement on April 11.

“He had very severe infections which brought him close to death,” Marder said of Raven.

The other surviving pitbull, Sidney, is recovering at a dog sanctuary outside Boston. While Sidney is expected to make a full mental recovery, Raven is highly anxious and undergoing the equivalent of pooch psychotherapy. The first step, Marder said, is basic behavior training.

“We have to start slowly,” she said, “because if he doesn’t understand what you’re trying to say, it could actually make things worse.”

Authorities expect to charge a 36-year-old suspect, whose apartment was host to the torture chamber where cops found a 10-by-20-foot dog-fighting ring made of blood-spattered plywood, a blood-soaked, sharpened probing stick and the remains of a dead dog, police said.

On Thursday, Raven bolted into a room at the animal rescue league, his tail lowered with anxiety as he zipped aimlessly from one corner of the room to another. He barely acknowledged the presence of three women. But when a man entered the room he looked up, signaling that his captor was probably male, Marder said.

“He doesn’t have the ability to form normal relationships with humans,” she said.

Marder threw a stuffed animal and Raven didn’t react. A child-sized doll was so scary that even the lure of food wouldn’t bring him closer.

“He probably has never seen children in his life,” Marder said. “His life was bowls of food and fighting. What a life.”

There was, however, some progress: after strategically dangling Raven’s favorite dog treat before him, he finally sat on command.

“What a good boy,” Marder said.

Mean dogs stand guard at Idaho prison March 25, 2009

Source: Associated Press, March 25, 2009

Nobody has broken out of the Idaho State Correctional Institution in more than 20 years. Prison officials like to think a hard-bitten corps of sentries with names like Cookie, Bongo and Chi Chi has had something to do with that.

The institution is the only state prison in the U.S. to use snarling, snapping sentry dogs to patrol its perimeter.

In a program begun in 1986, 24 mean dogs – mostly German shepherds, rottweilers and Belgian malinois, with a few boxers and pit bulls – roam the space between the inner and outer chain-link fences 24 hours a day, ferociously defending their territory.

Get too close to the fence and they will bare their teeth, bark and lunge. Set foot in their space and they will attack.

The animals themselves are former death row inmates – dogs that were deemed too dangerous to be pets and would have been destroyed at the local pound if they had not been given a reprieve and assigned to prison duty.

“We’re basically giving them a second chance at a good, healthy life,” said Corrections Officer Michael Amos, who heads the sentry dog program. “Those same instincts that make them a bad pet make them good sentries.”

Prison officials say the canines save on manpower and are more reliable during power outages than electrical security systems and more effective in the fog and the dark than the humans posted in the lookout towers. They also seem to have a powerful deterrent effect.

No one has escaped from the 1,500-inmate medium-security prison since the dogs were brought in. No one has even tried to get past the fences since the early 1990s.

“The average offender has no problem engaging in a fight with a correctional officer – they’re used to fighting with humans. But they don’t want to mess with a 100-pound rottweiler who has an attitude and who wants to bite the snot out of them for climbing that fence,” said James Closson, a dog trainer in Boise who arranged the donation of some overaggressive dogs to the prison when the sentry program was new.

Over the years, the dogs have bitten handlers, badly mauling a staff member who in the late 1990s entered the kennel without first making sure all the animals were caged. But no inmates locked up at the prison have been bitten, authorities said.

Dogs were once widely used as sentries in the U.S., particularly after World War II, when canines that had been trained by the military were pressed into civilian service. The practice fell out of favor during the civil rights era as police dogs became associated with racist and repressive law enforcement, said Chris Byrne, owner of Stonehill Kennel and Unlimited Dogs, which provides police dogs to the New York Police Department.

Many prisons continue to use dogs for tracking escaped inmates or sniffing out drugs or other contraband, but not as sentries.

“Most facilities have gone to electronic motion detectors or electrical fencing,” said Jay Christensen, deputy warden of security at the Idaho prison. “But technology can be circumvented. We had a guy at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution get through a motion detector system a few years back” by moving so slowly that the sensors didn’t pick him up.

“The dogs are much more dependable and the cost is really low,” he said.

In the early 1990s, three inmates at ISCI tried to escape through the one portion of the fence that wasn’t guarded by dogs at the time, Christensen said. The guards in the towers could not see them in the dark, but a dog along a nearby section of the fence sounded the alarm by barking.

The ruckus alerted the nearest tower guard, who fired a shot, hitting one of the convicts, Christensen said. The two others were so frightened by the shot that they gave up, and all three were recaptured, he said.

Officials promptly reconfigured the fence so that there were no sections without dogs, he said.

Angus Love, executive director of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, an inmate advocacy group, said he knows of no complaints about the use of prison sentry dogs.

The dogs work two days on and one day off. On their days off, they are returned to their kennel, where their handlers groom them, play ball and tug-of-war with them, or, in the summer, let them splash in a plastic kiddie pool. The handlers have to be alert at all times because of the danger of getting bitten.

Adam Goldfarb, a spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States, said that the Idaho prison appeared to be handling the dogs well, but that he had mixed feelings about the program.

“We love the thoughts behind it, of taking dogs who would otherwise be euthanized and finding a way to work with them and give them a kind of purpose to their life,” Goldfarb said. “But we’d have concerns of the dogs being harmed in some way, if an inmate could throw or poke something through the fence that could harm the dogs. And I’m not sure what kind of life that is for a dog. When people have dogs in their home, we would certainly discourage them from leaving the dog on a chain or in a pen for most of their life.”

The program, with 36 dogs in all, costs less than $100,000 a year, including food and veterinary care, Christensen said. He worries that one day, officials will come up with the $300,000 or more he estimated it would cost to replace the animals with electric fences or motion detectors.

“Is this K-9 program going to survive for ever and ever? Probably not,” he said. “But I tell you, I do not want to be the deputy warden of security who takes these dogs off the perimeter. I consider that a risk to the public.”

150 Pit Bulls Euthanized, New Policy Follows, NY March 3, 2009

Source: Zootoo.com, Feb 28, 2009

150 Pit Bulls euthanized, new policy follows: Seized from a fighting ring in December, the dogs were recently put down, resulting in a firestorm of debates. Now the HSUS proposes such dogs to be evaluated individually — a standard that other welfare groups have long lobbied.

NEW YORK — After supporting a court decision to euthanize nearly 150 Pit Bulls involved in a fighting ring, the Humane Society of the United States has issued a new policy, calling for all seized fighting dogs to be examined as individuals, and not as a collective lot.

Wilkes County Animal Control, in Wilkesboro, N.C., destroyed 146 Pit Bulls, including 19 puppies, on Tuesday, Feb. 16, at the order of Superior Court Judge Ed Wilson Jr., who ruled the day before that the dogs should be killed.

The dogs were seized from a puppy mill operation run by Ed Faron, 61, owner of Wildside Kennels, on Dec. 10, 2008; the HSUS collaborated with local authorities on the three year investigation leading up to the case.

Faron has since pleaded guilty to 14 felony counts of dogfighting, and was sentenced to eight- to 10-months in prison last week.

Cutting against the recommendations of other animal welfare organizations and Pit Bull rescue groups, the HSUS publicly endorsed the court’s decision to euthanize the dogs, citing the canines’ breeding history and irrevocable nature.

In a press release issued last week, the HSUS said it offered to pay for “an additional professional evaluator to assess the dogs,” but that the county did not “take us up on that offer.”

“Without an affirmative professional evaluation to indicate that the dogs could be safely placed in a new setting, we could not recommend the adoption of these dogs who had been bred for some generations for their instinct to kill,” the release continues.

Other players in the animal welfare community, however, saw the HSUS’ move as disservice to the dogs, which they say should have been evaluated on an individual basis.

“We offered to spay and neuter any of the animals that would have been eligible for adoption and to network the animals through our constituency of animal welfare organizations,” said Francis Battista, a founder of Best Friends Animal Society, the nation’s largest animal sanctuary.

“Had the Humane Society been a strong advocate for individual analysis, rather than a categorical dismissal, there might have been a different outcome to this case.”

According to The Winston Salem Journal, the judge ruled based off North Carolina’s classification of all dogs involved in dog-fighting operations as dangerous; a county ordinance requires all “dangerous” dogs to be destroyed.

Even the puppies born following the ring bust exhibited signs of aggression, according to Wilkes Animal Control Director Junior Simmons.

“They’re not just fighting,” Simmons reportedly said of the puppies. “They’re starting to draw blood.”

Yet Best Friends, as well as other welfare and rescue organizations, say this case has similarities to that of Michael Vick, whose dog fighting ring was busted in 2006. Then, the HSUS recommended all of the Atlanta Falcons’ 48 Pit Bulls be put down for similar reasons.

In the end, a federal court carried out an evaluation of Vick’s dogs; only one deemed extremely aggressive was euthanized, in the end.

“A number of aggressive dogs” were admitted to various sanctuaries, including Best Friends, in Kanab, Utah, says Pamela Reid, vice president of the ASPCA’s Animal Behavior Department.

There, Battista says, the troubled dogs continue to recover and establish themselves as household pets, not bait.

How to Right a Wrong

Reid, a veterinarian, helped conduct evaluations of the Vick dogs two years ago; the animals’ conduct varied, she says, noting the only consistency was their uniform disinterest in playing tug-of-war.

Some appeared fearful of humans, others aggressive toward other dogs; the evaluation process was “complicated,” she says, and remains ongoing.

“It’s a monitoring situation,” Reid said. “We don’t know how they are going to respond to rehabilitative efforts until we try.”

While the ASPCA supports the notion that all fighting dogs should be evaluated individually, Reid says that the initial clearance will not automatically grant the rescued dogs a new shot at life.

“What we want to do and what is actually viable are two different things,” Reid said. “People want these dogs to be saved, but they have to realize that shelters need money to do that, to bring in the professional staff, and you need a place for the dogs to go. Not every facility is set up to provide that kind of service.”

When former fighting dogs find access to such facilities, however, they are sometimes able to thrive, says Marthina McClay, organizer of Our Pack, a Pit Bull rescue, education and training organization in Los Gatos, Calif.

Our Pack is home to several of Vick’s canines, including Leo, who now performs services as a therapy dog.

The organization believes Leo’s success is not an anomaly.

“The Vick case is not a fluke,” McClay said. “Gosh, our ‘bust dogs’ are the best dogs we have had. There is temperament and there is training. When they come to us, we are setting up an environment so that temperament can flourish.

“I understand that some dogs can be damaged from abuse cases, there is no question about that. We are asking that we just look first. Just look and evaluate the dogs as individuals.”

Failing to do so, Battista says, only perpetuates false impressions and stereotypes of the breed.

“While everybody else is out here trying to restore the breed … change the way that they are related to in a lot of communities, we feel the position by the Humane Society, the alleged largest animal welfare organization in the country, tars the whole breed and doesn’t help or support the work that is being done,” Battista said.

Despite repeated attempts, an HSUS representative was not available for comment as of press time.

Yet the organization defended its commitment to eradicating dogfighting in its release, saying, “We’ve probably invested more in combating dogfighting than all other humane groups combined, and to great effect.”

It also echoed Reid’s point that there are “very few good options” for game-bred dogs.

“There are no sanctuaries that exist for the thousands of game-bred dogs confiscated each year, and as a nation, there are hundreds of thousands of Pit Bulls awaiting adoptions in shelters every year,” the release says.

The HSUS expressed hope that the crux of this event — the breakup of Faron’s fighting ring and his subsequent arrest — not be muddled in welfare organizations’ disagreements.

“We understand your concern about the judge’s order to euthanize the dogs, and it is always a tragic outcome when healthy animals meet such a fate,” the release says. “But the blame lies with Mr. Faron, and not with The Humane Society of the United States … Had it not been for our investigation, most of his dogs would have suffered immensely in a fighting pit in the weeks and months ahead.”

Looking Forward

The HSUS and the Best Friends’ coalition may soon again meet on common ground, given the HSUS’ recently announced interim policy, which will call for all fighting dogs to be evaluated on a one-by-one basis.

Wayne Pacelle, CEO and president of HSUS, has called for a meeting of “major stakeholders” in April to discuss the aftermath of dogfighting busts. The meeting — and interim policy — were reportedly both in the works prior to the 147 dogs’ destruction.

“We expect government, corporations, and individuals to constantly re-evaluate how they deal with animal issues. Likewise, we regularly review our own policies and procedures here at HSUS, and we think it is important to talk with professional colleagues in the movement to examine issues related to the disposition of fighting dogs,” Pacelle said in another HSUS release, announced on Feb. 23.

“I am pleased to discuss these issues with personnel from Best Friends and other organizations interested in the welfare of Pit Bulls.”

The altered policy is long overdue, but a welcomed change nonetheless, Battista says.

“This case was a categorizing event,” he said. “It was a loss to everybody that these animals weren’t given the chance to be evaluated, but in the larger picture, it has started a lot of discussion and concern about the policy the Humane Society had in place.”

McClay says she, too, is now looking toward the future, and not on the rift this case has caused between the HSUS and other organizations.

“This is a step in the right direction,” she said. “I see that this is going to change, I am hopeful it will actually change, and I am happy to be a part of helping with this.”

No additional details on the April meeting have been released, but the HSUS did say the event will take place in Las Vegas.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Vick Dog Success Ignored – Adoptable Dogs in Danger Again February 19, 2009

Coalition of animal welfare groups applauds North Carolina’s aggressive prosecution of dog fighting; But protests planned mass euthanasia of canines seized, including 60 puppies.

(Vocus/PRWEB ) February 17, 2009 — A coalition of animal welfare groups has formed to protest the court-order to kill all the 127 American Pit Bull Terriers—60 of them puppies—seized from the Wildside Kennels in Wilkesboro, N.C.

Led by Best Friends Animals Society, the coalition includes BAD RAP (Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pit Bulls), Animal Farm Foundation, Villa Lobos Rescue Center, and Downtown Dog Rescue.

Monday’s Wilkesboro Superior Court order announced by Judge Ed Wilson would put all of the dogs down after their owner, Ed Faron had been sentenced to jail for 8-10 months. The dogs were seized Dec. 10, 2008 during a raid on Faron’s Wildside Kennels.

Ledy VanKavage, an attorney for Best Friends Animal Society said, “With Faron’s conviction North Carolina’s law enforcement and judicial system sent a strong message that dog fighting will not be condoned in their state. We applaud their courage. Now, we ask them to show the same courage when it comes to innocent victims of dog fighting, the dogs themselves. We have ample evidence that the dogs from these situations should not be stereotyped and deserve an opportunity to be evaluated for potential adoptability.”

The coalition is urging North Carolina, and other states, to let go of old, discredited policies that assume all such dogs are inherently damaged or dangerous. The most publicized example are the rousing successes of the dogs seized from Michael Vick’s dog fighting operation: many of those dogs are now honored members of family, therapy dogs or making great strides with their rescue groups.

Best Friends is urging citizens to contact their state legislators to change North Carolina law and delete the clause in the law that makes it possible for dogs harbored for fighting to automatically be deemed “dangerous” dogs.

“Dogs should be judged as individuals,” VanKavage said. “Their adoptability should be judged on their behavior and not their breed.”

“Our experience has shown that every custody case reveals highly adoptable individuals that do not reflect the tragic circumstances into which they were born. Without evaluations, these dogs are lost,” said Donna Reynolds Executive Director BAD RAP.

“Some of these dogs are mere puppies and there is absolutely no reason to destroy them,” said VanKavage. “Why should an innocent puppy, born into this type of situation, face automatic death because of its breed?”

The groups point out that dogs raised for fighting shouldn’t be summarily doomed. For example, 22 of the Michael Vick dogs at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary , BADRAP, and other organizations have made great progress with dogs from the Vick fighting bust. Some of these dogs were condemned by other national humane organizations to be the most violent dogs in America. Now many have their Canine Good Citizenship and some are therapy dogs.

Rebecca Huss, the court-appointed Special Master in the Michael Vick dog fighting case involving Bad Newz Kennels said some of the dogs have undergone transformation and are serving others, some are in foster homes, and a few have been adopted.

“It is consistent with public safety concerns to evaluate each dog as an individual to determine whether they can be placed in the community,” Huss said. “It is my opinion that every dog should be evaluated on an individual basis. The Bad Newz Kennels case shows there is no reason for euthanizing dogs merely by their breed or location where it was seized.”

For more information contact:

Best Friends Animal Society http://www.bestfriends.org
Barbara Williamson (435) 689-0200 (cell) (or) barbara(at)bestfriends.org
John Polis (435) 644-2001, ext. 4858 or johnp(at)bestfriends.org

Animal Farm Foundation http://www.animalfarmfoundation.org
Stacey Coleman (845) 868-7559 (or) scoleman(at)animalfarmfoundation.org

BAD RAP http://www.badrap.org
Donna Reynolds (510) 441-6461 (or) donna(at)badrap.org

Downtown Dog Rescue http://www.downtowndogrescue.org
Lori Weise (213) 448-9961 (or) lori(at)modernica.net

Villa Lobos Rescue Center http://www.vrcpitbull.com/home.htm
Tia Maria Torres (661) 268-0555 (or) tiamaria(at)vrcpitbull.com

About Best Friends Animal Society:
Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2009, Best Friends Animal Society advances nationwide animal welfare initiatives by working with shelter and rescue groups around the country. Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in southwestern Utah is the nation’s largest facility for abused, abandoned and special needs companion animals. On any given day the sanctuary is home to approximately 2,000 dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, birds, and other animals. The society publishes Best Friends magazine, the nation’s largest general interest, pet-related magazine with approximately 300,000 subscribers. For more information on Best Friends Animal Society, visit: http://www.bestfriends.org/.

Dogs, equipment seized in NC dogfighting investigation February 19, 2009

Source: WVCE.com, Feb 18, 2009

GATES COUNTY, NC  – Gates County authorities say they’ve shut down a dogfighting operation they’ve heard about for years.

Sheriff’s deputies say they rescued more than a dozen injured dogs and found the remains of others, some that had been burned, at a home outside Sunbury, NC.

“Actually, it made me very sick to my stomach to have to deal with what we saw,” said Sheriff Edward Webb. “We actually found some dogs that had been, appeared to have been, burned. We found, actually, an old barn with blood on the walls and so forth.  We found down, had carpet in it with blood stains where they had been fighting ‘em in almost like a pit.”

Webb also says they seized equipment from the Kellogg Fork Road home that was used to train dogs for fighting. Among the items were a treadmill, bite sticks and drugs used to get dogs ready to fight.

Sheriff Webb says recent complaints and information came together to give his office the grounds it needed to search the property.

ITEMS SEIZED

Treadmill
20 chains of different sizes used to restrain the animals
3 burned canine carcasses
2 carpets ripped from the wall of a barn used as a pit
Blood-stained carpets
Drugs

Webb says Jackie Robinson Parker is facing 17 charges including animal cruelty and dog fighting.

Sheriff Webb says called him Wednesday evening to say he’ll turn himself in on Thursday morning.

Most aggressive dog breed….? January 27, 2009

Source: NBC News

They may not look as threatening as some of the larger canine, but research revealed that the dachshund is the most aggressive breed of dog.

Citing a study published by Applied Animal Behavior Science, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported that one in five dachshunds has bitten or tried to bite strangers, and one in 12 has shown aggression toward its owners.

The study involved researchers from the University of Pennsylvania. About 6,000 dog owners were questioned about their dogs’ behavior. Thirty-three breeds were ranked on their aggression.

Ranking below the dachshund was an even smaller dog, the Chihuahua. According to the newspaper, research found that the tiny breed often snaps at most beings it encounters — including its owners, strangers and other dogs.

The Jack Russell terrier was third, followed by the Akita and the Australian cattle dog. The pit bull was sixth, followed by the beagle, the English springer spaniel, the border collie and the German shepherd.

The Telegraph reported that researchers said previous studies on canine aggression could have been misleading as most bites from smaller dogs were not reported. According to the researchers, bites from larger dogs were more likely to require medical attention than those from smaller dogs.

According to the Telegraph, the Rottweiler, which is widely believed to be an aggressive dog, scored average to below average ratings for its hostility toward strangers.

The newspaper reported that some of the lowest scoring breeds for aggression included the Basset hound, golden retriever, Labradors, Siberian huskies and greyhounds.

Dog Freezes to Death, Dumped in A.C. Bay, NJ January 22, 2009

Source: NBCPhiladelphia.com, By Ted Greenberg, Jan 21, 2009

An Atlantic City man was charged Monday with animal cruelty after he dumped the body of a dog in the bay, police said.

A police officer from neighboring Absecon, N.J. found the pit bull wrapped in a trash bag after spotting a gold car leaving the scene just off the White Horse Pike in Atlantic City, authorities said.

Investigators said they believe the dog froze to death before being tossed into the bay.

“It’s awful that they should have to live like this. It’s bad to enough to be hungry, but then to be cold too. It’s not very nice,” said Nancy Beall, the head of the Atlantic County SPCA.

Police said they tracked the gold car to a house in the 400 block of N Maryland Ave. Only NBC 10 cameras were there when officers arrested 25-year-old Tyrell Newmons.

Newmons’ fiancee, Shauna Henry, sobbed as an animal control officer confiscated three pit bull puppies and an adult pit bull from the house.

“It’s not fair,” Henry said. “My dogs never did anything to nobody.”

Henry admitted to NBC 10 News that the deceased dog had been left outside in the yard behind her home.

“He must have died [Sunday] night because he bit my daughter and I put him outside three days ago,” she said. When asked if she wanted the pit bull to die, Henry said, “No, I didn’t. I love animals.”

Investigators said they had doubts about whether the dog had actually attacked anyone.

“Police, health department, no one was ever called on that. I [find that] very hard to believe,” Atlantic City Police Officer Cindy Rongione said.

The seized dogs were taken to the Atlantic County Animal Shelter in Pleasantville, N.J. Officials said they are aggressive and likely will have to be euthanized.

The grim discovery is similar to an unrelated incident three weeks ago in Millville, Cumberland County. There, the bodies of three young pit bulls were also found in garbage bags.

“It’s just getting crazy. Every day now you’re finding dogs in bags — mostly the pit bulls,” Rongione said. “They’re abused the most. They’re misunderstood dogs.”

Police Bust Alleged Dogfighting Ring In Strawberry Mansion, PA January 22, 2009

Source: MyFoxPhiladelphia, Jan 21, 2009

PHILADELPHIA  –  Eight dogs are now evidence in a criminal investigation. Police say they were bred to fight.

Slideshow: Graphic Images From Scene | Video: Police Bust Alleged Dogfight In Progress

SWAT and SPCA officers arrived to the 2500 block of North Dover Street in the Strawberry Mansion section of the city after a neighbor called police Wednesday afternoon.

Police said an officer saw a dogfight in progress when he looked through the window of the row home.

“The officers came. One officer actually went up the alley here and looked through the back window and that’s where he saw and heard the dogfighting going on,” said Lt. Michael-Jerry Lee of Philadelphia Police.

Six adult dogs and two puppies were recovered from the scene that police described as a “bloody mess.” Five were found chained in the basement.

“A few of them were limping and you saw blood on a few of the dogs,” said Lt. Lee.

Four men inside the home were taken into custody. They face dogfighting charges.

SPCA officers said the dogs’ injuries are relatively significant.

“The basement seems to be set-up for keeping dogs separated. Appears to be, they have a kennel-type set-up. All the dogs are chained in separate corners. Living room-area appears to be where they were fighting the dogs,” said Derrick Schlitter of Pennsylvania SPCA.

Investigators said the four arrested could have broad connections so there may be more arrests to come.

“It’s very rare that you get an actual fight in progress. So the neighbor did a good thing by calling. It’s good that we got out here in time,” said Schlitter.

Possible dogfighting ring discovered, VA January 15, 2009

Source: WWLP.com,  Jan 14, 2009, by Mary Kay Mallonee

HAMPTON, Va. – There are signs of a possible dogfighting operation in Hampton.

Police say necropsies of two female pitbulls found in a dumpster last week, clearly show they were used for dogfighting.

The dogs had severe animal bites all over their bodies, deep puncture wounds on their legs, shoulders, necks and faces. The dogs had also been shot in the head.

“It makes you angry. It really does, ” said Dale Blankenship. He found the dogs, wrapped in bload-soaked carpets, in the dumpster behind the Maaco’s auto body shop on Pembroke Avenue where he works.

“Yeah, they were in bad shape. Bunch of scratches, bunch of gouges, puncture wounds, looked to be malnourished. You could see rib cages and they were basically just covered in blood for the most part,” said Blankenship.

All indications are that someone tossed the dogs in the dumpster very shortly after they were forced to fight and then shot in the head.

“There was probably a good half inch of blood in the bottom of the dumpster. It was just saturated. You’ve got to believe you are not going to ride around to far with a couple of dead dogs in the back of your car that are bleeding all over,” said Blankenship.

Now police are trying to track down the owner of the two pitbulls.

Cpl. Allison Good of the Hampton Police Department told WAVY.com, “They obviously couldn’t take them to the vet, because they’d be exposed for what they’re doing. So they took it upon themselves to shoot these dogs and end their lives and it’s very disturbing.”

Police are also worried that whoever forced the two unfortunate pitbulls to fight, is right now forcing other dogs into bloody matches.

Finding the owner of the two pitbulls will be difficult though, the dogs obviously didn’t have tags, or collars or microchips.

So police are really hoping that anyone who knows something about this case will make an anonymous call to the Crimeline at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.

Crime Line callers remain anonymous and never appear in court. If a Crime Line call results in an arrest, the caller is eligible for a reward up to $1,000.00.

Dead pit bulls dumped in N.J. woods January 4, 2009

Source: United Press International, Jan 2, 2009

MILLVILLE, N.J., Jan. 2 (UPI) –

Investigators say that three pit bulls found dead in trash bags in a wooded area in southern New Jersey may have been used for fighting.

The carcasses were discovered late Thursday afternoon by a man walking his dog near Union Lake in Millville. Anthony Cills, a Millville animal control officer, said that whoever dumped them double- and triple-bagged the dogs to conceal the smell.

Bev Greco, head of the Cumberland County SPCA, told WCAU in Philadelphia that the three dogs all appeared to be young, from six months to a year old.

They were all three in a very emaciated state, she said. They had bruising. They had fighting wounds. They had scars as well as fresh wounds.

That area of Millville is known for dog fighting, Greco said, and dead dogs have been dumped in the past. She asked anyone who knows who disposed of the dogs to come forward.

It’s cruel and inhumane, Cills said. It’s a cruelty case that’s going to be investigated.