Post by RealPitBull on Feb 28, 2008 16:05:43 GMT -5
www.explorernews.com/article/show/21521
Bloodsport bust
Investigators continue to build case against accused ring of fight dog breeders
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Patrick McNamara
February 27, 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Late last week, Pima County Animal Care officials were busy removing animals from a Picture Rocks property, the scene of what law enforcement authorities believe to be the epicenter of an extensive fight-dog breeding operation.
Pima County Sheriff’s deputies raided the property, and three others, last Tuesday. The busts netted a man whom authorities say was one of the most renowned breeders of fighting dogs in the country.
Mahlon Patrick, 63, who lives at the property in the 12000 block of West Orange Grove Road, was arrested on suspicion of cruelty to animals and dog fighting.
Police found 115 dogs in kennels at the property, including three litters of puppies.
“We have reason to believe that we have 30 to 40 generations of fighting dogs here,” said Sgt. Terry Parish with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. Parish, who heads the department’s community problems unit, is also an Oro Valley Town Council member.
The scene at Patrick’s compound the day after the raid remained grim, as investigators catalogued scores of caged animals. Many of the dogs showed the signs of fighting, according to investigators.
Some dogs taken off the property also displayed angular limb deformation in their front legs, the result of generations of inbreeding, said Karter Neal, a Humane Society of Southern Arizona veterinarian aiding with the rescue effort.
Before the dogs were removed, county and Humane Society staff performed physical examinations as trucks lined up to take the animals to undisclosed Pima County Animal Care facilities.
The pit bulls, with reputations for fearlessness and ferocity, appeared hapless and terrified as animal care officials coaxed them from kennels laden with urine and feces.
“They seemed very starved for attention,” said Marsh Meyers, director of community outreach for the Humane Society. “They’re not being socialized like normal companion dogs.”
Investigators also unearthed at least three separate animal gravesites on the four-acre property.
The corpses of six dogs, most of them young, were found buried on Patrick’s compound, Parish said.
The presence of gravesites at the operation didn’t surprise Meyers, who said many in the dog fighting community live by the code “breed the best, bury the rest.”
Other animals were also recovered from the scene, including 30 chickens, two geese, 55 koi fish and two goats.
Patrick and Emily Dennis, who lived on the property, agreed to let the Humane Society take custody of the animals, said Amy Eades, the group’s president.
The pair, released without bond, showed up at the property last Wednesday afternoon to pick up an automobile and clothing. Police barred Patrick from entering the compound, but Dennis was escorted to her trailer by a sheriff’s deputy.
Calls to Patrick at a number found on his Web site, www.bolio.net, went unanswered.
Scores of investigators spent much of last Wednesday, a day after the raid, sifting through mounds of evidence scattered across the property, a maze of dog kennels, dilapidated trailers and sheds.
Corrugated steel separated dog cages in five locations.
Police also found in barn a large freezer filled with bags of frozen milk. Parish thinks the bags contained dog’s milk stockpiled to feed puppies produced at the kennel.
Because of the aggressive nature of the dogs, the result of selective breeding aimed at producing fight-worthy animals, it might have been necessary to hand-feed the puppies as a way to protect them from their mothers, Parish suggested.
Law enforcement and Humane Society investigators believe Patrick has bred and cultivated at least two highly sought bloodlines of fighting dogs called Bolio and Tombstone.
“Some of the dogs from these lines were showing up in Latin America and Europe,” Meyers said.
Reviews of pit bull-related Web sites and discussion boards indicated that Patrick, known as “Pat” Patrick in pit bull breeding circles, is a near celebrity of the subculture.
In 2001, Patrick received a lifetime award for breeding achievement from the American Dog Breeders Association, a group that produces publications and a Web site devoted to pit bulls.
Dozens of postings from one online forum called game-dog.com praised Patrick’s dogs.
“Pat Patrick is the man who dedicated his life to breeding dogs … off Indian Bolio and thus creating this magnificent strain,” boasted one poster.
On Patrick’s Web site, a message board boasts of dogs’ bloodlines and advertises puppies available for sale.
Bloodlines dominate the conversations on such forums. Several Web sites and periodicals dedicated to pit bulls also show fixations with bloodlines.
The raid at Patrick’s property was part of a larger law enforcement action that included two separate breeding operations. Police arrested six people in all whom they believe to have connections with dog breeding and fighting.
Juan and Zenaida Verdin, a married couple and associates of Patrick, are suspected of running the fight-training portion of the enterprise, Parish said. The two were also released without bond.
Also arrested were Robert C. Smith and Terry Williams. Police suspect the two of managing a similar fight-dog breeding trade — with a twist.
The pair also runs a Web site called All American Dog Registry, a space dedicated to pit bulls. The site registers pit bulls and sanctions sporting events, such as weight pulls, for the breed. Critics of the site say it’s merely a networking place for the dog fighting subculture.
“All American Dog Registry is a registry created by dog fighters for dog fighters,” Meyers said.
Williams declined comment on his arrest when contacted last week by The Explorer, instead referring all questions to his lawyer, Roberta Jensen.
“I’m outraged that the press has been crucifying these people,” Jensen said. “My clients are innocent until proven guilty.”
The attorney also represents Robert Smith. Both men were released without bond.
Jensen said Smith is a known throughout the world as a dog show judge and expert on American Staffordshire terriers.
Jensen also expressed concerns about the Humane Society’s involvement with the investigation.
“I’m concerned about who Mr. (John) Goodwin is,” Jensen said.
Goodwin, an animal cruelty expert with the Humane Society, has been extensively quoted in relation to this and other suspected dog fighting cases. On many pit-bull centric Web sites and message boards, Goodwin is the focus of scorn. Postings on some sites accuse him of being an animal rights extremist.
According to the Human Society’s Meyers, Pima County is home to some of the biggest players in the world of fighting dogs.
“We do know that southern Arizona has been a hotbed of breeding,” Meyers said.
In fact, according to local Humane Society spokeswoman Jenny Rose, authorities here considered Pima County the country’s No. 1 exporter of fighting dogs.
Pit bull breeding can be a lucrative trade. Meyers estimates that Patrick and other breeders can sell fighting dogs for as much as $10,000 each.
Authorities said Patrick has been in the breeding business since at least the late-1960s.
Last week’s raids netted 150 dogs. Pima County Animal Care Center will house 56 of the dogs, the others will be held with co-operating outside agencies, said Vicki Duraine with Pima County Animal Care.
At least 28 dogs were given over to the Humane Society, which will hold the animals pending the outcome of the investigation.
The challenge facing Pima County Animal Care isn’t in keeping such a large number of dogs, but the fact that the animals will have to be held in segregation for extended periods.
“Some of the dogs are completely isolated,” Duraine said.
Because authorities believe the dogs have been bred and raised solely for fighting, kennels normally intended for multiple animals will hold just one dog, Duraine said.
The dogs are currently considered evidence in a criminal prosecution, which means the county and other agencies will keep the animals until the case reaches final resolution.
“That’s the sad nature of these kinds of crimes,” Eades said. “Normally, you can take the victims and lavish them with better treatment.”
But the dogs will have access to medical care and facilities far more sanitary than the ones they were taken from, Eades said.
The air around Patrick’s compound was heavy last week with the stench of animal waste. Investigators had to cover the ground between two rows of kennels with scrap metal and wood because a stream of raw sewage had filled the passageway.
In addition to the dogs taken from Patrick’s property, Parish said steroids and a cache of weapons were found.
Parish said the sheriff’s department suspects Patrick might have also been trading dogs for guns.
“Often we see people involved in dog fighting rings are involved in other criminal activities,” Meyers said.
With a bust as large as the one last week, however, authorities think the disruption will ripple through the dog-fighting arena.
The case has also attracted the attention of law enforcement authorities from outside agencies, Parish said.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department has been in contact with U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, and the FBI.
“I don’t think we will end (dog fighting),” Meyers said, “but we put a big dent in it.”
Ty Bowers contributed to this report.
Pima County at center of dog fighting trade, police say
It’s difficult to track just how many people are involved in dog fighting, investigators say.
Most put the number of people involved in the “upper echelons” of the bloodsport at 40,000 nationwide, according to Jenny Rose, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of Southern Arizona.
Until recently, Pima County was considered the “No. 1 exporter of fighting dogs in the country,” Rose added.
Last Tuesday’s raid at Mahlon Patrick’s kennels in Picture Rocks, during which police seized 115 pit bulls, should put a dent in the local fighting dog trade, investigators and humane society officials said.
The penalties in Arizona are stiff for those who fight and breed fighting dogs. In fact, the state’s penalties for those crimes rank among the toughest in the nation, according to the Human Society of the United States.
In Arizona, dog fighting is a felony, the punishment for which is nine months to two years in prison and up to a $150,000 fine. Spectators at dog fights can receive similar punishment.
When fighting dogs are transported across state lines, federal penalties can result in up to three years behind bars and a $250,000 fine per offense.
Still, dog fighting remains big business, with the dogs but victims of the bloodlust, according to animal advocates.
An estimated 35 percent of the nation’s animal shelters take in at least one pit bull per day, according to a 2000 study by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. That study also found that pit bulls make up 20 percent of the population in one out of four animal shelters nationwide.
-Ty Bowers
For centuries, dogs bred to fight
Old photographs found on scores of Web sites depict people posing with their pit bulls, as if the dogs were mere family pets.
In the 1930s and 1940s, the American pit bull terrier and the American Staffordshire terrier — generically referred to as “pit bulls” — were the “Labrador retrievers of America,” according to Jenny Rose, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of Southern Arizona.
The animals’ broad, muscular shoulders and wide jowls, however, reveal centuries of breeding for a singular purpose — to fight.
For centuries, fighting dogs counted as sport, dating back to the days of Pax Romana, when the Romans bred dogs to fight other animals in the Colosseum, according to historical records. In medieval England, the practice of baiting — fighting dogs against chained bears or bulls — drew huge audiences.
By the 19th century, however, the British grew concerned about the sport’s seeming cruelty to bears and bulls. Instead, people turned their attention to dog-on-dog fighting, and a modern-day bloodsport was born.
By 1835, British Parliament had outlawed dog fighting, though it continued in various clandestine circles.
In America, organized dog fighting predates the Civil War.
The American pit bull terrier and the American Staffordshire terrier over the last century have developed reputations for ferocity, a willingness to brawl to the death against another dog.
Everything about the breeds, of which only the Staffordshire is recognized by the American Kennel Club, seems built for fighting — taut skin, squatty, wide builds, expansive chests and short muzzles.
“In the same way that Labradors were bred to retrieve birds, (American pit bull terriers) were bred to face other dogs in mortal combat,” according to Pit Bull Rescue Central’s notes on the breed. “This is the ‘sad’ work these dogs were created for.”
Yet, while the so-called “pit” breeds seem to have been bred with an innate aggressiveness toward other dogs, the animals should not display the same ire toward humans, according to Pit Bull Rescue.
In fact, when their temperaments are compared to those of other dogs, pit bulls fare better than even the golden retriever, according to the American Temperament Test Society, which measures dog behavior.
Nonetheless, the powerful pit bull, with decades and sometimes centuries of breeding, holds fast to its reputation as a fearsome fighter.
“It is not the hate of other dogs that causes pit bulls to fight, but rather the ‘urge’ to do so that has been bred into the dogs for many generations,” according to Pit Bull Rescue.
— Ty Bowers
Bloodsport bust
Investigators continue to build case against accused ring of fight dog breeders
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Patrick McNamara
February 27, 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Late last week, Pima County Animal Care officials were busy removing animals from a Picture Rocks property, the scene of what law enforcement authorities believe to be the epicenter of an extensive fight-dog breeding operation.
Pima County Sheriff’s deputies raided the property, and three others, last Tuesday. The busts netted a man whom authorities say was one of the most renowned breeders of fighting dogs in the country.
Mahlon Patrick, 63, who lives at the property in the 12000 block of West Orange Grove Road, was arrested on suspicion of cruelty to animals and dog fighting.
Police found 115 dogs in kennels at the property, including three litters of puppies.
“We have reason to believe that we have 30 to 40 generations of fighting dogs here,” said Sgt. Terry Parish with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. Parish, who heads the department’s community problems unit, is also an Oro Valley Town Council member.
The scene at Patrick’s compound the day after the raid remained grim, as investigators catalogued scores of caged animals. Many of the dogs showed the signs of fighting, according to investigators.
Some dogs taken off the property also displayed angular limb deformation in their front legs, the result of generations of inbreeding, said Karter Neal, a Humane Society of Southern Arizona veterinarian aiding with the rescue effort.
Before the dogs were removed, county and Humane Society staff performed physical examinations as trucks lined up to take the animals to undisclosed Pima County Animal Care facilities.
The pit bulls, with reputations for fearlessness and ferocity, appeared hapless and terrified as animal care officials coaxed them from kennels laden with urine and feces.
“They seemed very starved for attention,” said Marsh Meyers, director of community outreach for the Humane Society. “They’re not being socialized like normal companion dogs.”
Investigators also unearthed at least three separate animal gravesites on the four-acre property.
The corpses of six dogs, most of them young, were found buried on Patrick’s compound, Parish said.
The presence of gravesites at the operation didn’t surprise Meyers, who said many in the dog fighting community live by the code “breed the best, bury the rest.”
Other animals were also recovered from the scene, including 30 chickens, two geese, 55 koi fish and two goats.
Patrick and Emily Dennis, who lived on the property, agreed to let the Humane Society take custody of the animals, said Amy Eades, the group’s president.
The pair, released without bond, showed up at the property last Wednesday afternoon to pick up an automobile and clothing. Police barred Patrick from entering the compound, but Dennis was escorted to her trailer by a sheriff’s deputy.
Calls to Patrick at a number found on his Web site, www.bolio.net, went unanswered.
Scores of investigators spent much of last Wednesday, a day after the raid, sifting through mounds of evidence scattered across the property, a maze of dog kennels, dilapidated trailers and sheds.
Corrugated steel separated dog cages in five locations.
Police also found in barn a large freezer filled with bags of frozen milk. Parish thinks the bags contained dog’s milk stockpiled to feed puppies produced at the kennel.
Because of the aggressive nature of the dogs, the result of selective breeding aimed at producing fight-worthy animals, it might have been necessary to hand-feed the puppies as a way to protect them from their mothers, Parish suggested.
Law enforcement and Humane Society investigators believe Patrick has bred and cultivated at least two highly sought bloodlines of fighting dogs called Bolio and Tombstone.
“Some of the dogs from these lines were showing up in Latin America and Europe,” Meyers said.
Reviews of pit bull-related Web sites and discussion boards indicated that Patrick, known as “Pat” Patrick in pit bull breeding circles, is a near celebrity of the subculture.
In 2001, Patrick received a lifetime award for breeding achievement from the American Dog Breeders Association, a group that produces publications and a Web site devoted to pit bulls.
Dozens of postings from one online forum called game-dog.com praised Patrick’s dogs.
“Pat Patrick is the man who dedicated his life to breeding dogs … off Indian Bolio and thus creating this magnificent strain,” boasted one poster.
On Patrick’s Web site, a message board boasts of dogs’ bloodlines and advertises puppies available for sale.
Bloodlines dominate the conversations on such forums. Several Web sites and periodicals dedicated to pit bulls also show fixations with bloodlines.
The raid at Patrick’s property was part of a larger law enforcement action that included two separate breeding operations. Police arrested six people in all whom they believe to have connections with dog breeding and fighting.
Juan and Zenaida Verdin, a married couple and associates of Patrick, are suspected of running the fight-training portion of the enterprise, Parish said. The two were also released without bond.
Also arrested were Robert C. Smith and Terry Williams. Police suspect the two of managing a similar fight-dog breeding trade — with a twist.
The pair also runs a Web site called All American Dog Registry, a space dedicated to pit bulls. The site registers pit bulls and sanctions sporting events, such as weight pulls, for the breed. Critics of the site say it’s merely a networking place for the dog fighting subculture.
“All American Dog Registry is a registry created by dog fighters for dog fighters,” Meyers said.
Williams declined comment on his arrest when contacted last week by The Explorer, instead referring all questions to his lawyer, Roberta Jensen.
“I’m outraged that the press has been crucifying these people,” Jensen said. “My clients are innocent until proven guilty.”
The attorney also represents Robert Smith. Both men were released without bond.
Jensen said Smith is a known throughout the world as a dog show judge and expert on American Staffordshire terriers.
Jensen also expressed concerns about the Humane Society’s involvement with the investigation.
“I’m concerned about who Mr. (John) Goodwin is,” Jensen said.
Goodwin, an animal cruelty expert with the Humane Society, has been extensively quoted in relation to this and other suspected dog fighting cases. On many pit-bull centric Web sites and message boards, Goodwin is the focus of scorn. Postings on some sites accuse him of being an animal rights extremist.
According to the Human Society’s Meyers, Pima County is home to some of the biggest players in the world of fighting dogs.
“We do know that southern Arizona has been a hotbed of breeding,” Meyers said.
In fact, according to local Humane Society spokeswoman Jenny Rose, authorities here considered Pima County the country’s No. 1 exporter of fighting dogs.
Pit bull breeding can be a lucrative trade. Meyers estimates that Patrick and other breeders can sell fighting dogs for as much as $10,000 each.
Authorities said Patrick has been in the breeding business since at least the late-1960s.
Last week’s raids netted 150 dogs. Pima County Animal Care Center will house 56 of the dogs, the others will be held with co-operating outside agencies, said Vicki Duraine with Pima County Animal Care.
At least 28 dogs were given over to the Humane Society, which will hold the animals pending the outcome of the investigation.
The challenge facing Pima County Animal Care isn’t in keeping such a large number of dogs, but the fact that the animals will have to be held in segregation for extended periods.
“Some of the dogs are completely isolated,” Duraine said.
Because authorities believe the dogs have been bred and raised solely for fighting, kennels normally intended for multiple animals will hold just one dog, Duraine said.
The dogs are currently considered evidence in a criminal prosecution, which means the county and other agencies will keep the animals until the case reaches final resolution.
“That’s the sad nature of these kinds of crimes,” Eades said. “Normally, you can take the victims and lavish them with better treatment.”
But the dogs will have access to medical care and facilities far more sanitary than the ones they were taken from, Eades said.
The air around Patrick’s compound was heavy last week with the stench of animal waste. Investigators had to cover the ground between two rows of kennels with scrap metal and wood because a stream of raw sewage had filled the passageway.
In addition to the dogs taken from Patrick’s property, Parish said steroids and a cache of weapons were found.
Parish said the sheriff’s department suspects Patrick might have also been trading dogs for guns.
“Often we see people involved in dog fighting rings are involved in other criminal activities,” Meyers said.
With a bust as large as the one last week, however, authorities think the disruption will ripple through the dog-fighting arena.
The case has also attracted the attention of law enforcement authorities from outside agencies, Parish said.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department has been in contact with U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, and the FBI.
“I don’t think we will end (dog fighting),” Meyers said, “but we put a big dent in it.”
Ty Bowers contributed to this report.
Pima County at center of dog fighting trade, police say
It’s difficult to track just how many people are involved in dog fighting, investigators say.
Most put the number of people involved in the “upper echelons” of the bloodsport at 40,000 nationwide, according to Jenny Rose, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of Southern Arizona.
Until recently, Pima County was considered the “No. 1 exporter of fighting dogs in the country,” Rose added.
Last Tuesday’s raid at Mahlon Patrick’s kennels in Picture Rocks, during which police seized 115 pit bulls, should put a dent in the local fighting dog trade, investigators and humane society officials said.
The penalties in Arizona are stiff for those who fight and breed fighting dogs. In fact, the state’s penalties for those crimes rank among the toughest in the nation, according to the Human Society of the United States.
In Arizona, dog fighting is a felony, the punishment for which is nine months to two years in prison and up to a $150,000 fine. Spectators at dog fights can receive similar punishment.
When fighting dogs are transported across state lines, federal penalties can result in up to three years behind bars and a $250,000 fine per offense.
Still, dog fighting remains big business, with the dogs but victims of the bloodlust, according to animal advocates.
An estimated 35 percent of the nation’s animal shelters take in at least one pit bull per day, according to a 2000 study by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. That study also found that pit bulls make up 20 percent of the population in one out of four animal shelters nationwide.
-Ty Bowers
For centuries, dogs bred to fight
Old photographs found on scores of Web sites depict people posing with their pit bulls, as if the dogs were mere family pets.
In the 1930s and 1940s, the American pit bull terrier and the American Staffordshire terrier — generically referred to as “pit bulls” — were the “Labrador retrievers of America,” according to Jenny Rose, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of Southern Arizona.
The animals’ broad, muscular shoulders and wide jowls, however, reveal centuries of breeding for a singular purpose — to fight.
For centuries, fighting dogs counted as sport, dating back to the days of Pax Romana, when the Romans bred dogs to fight other animals in the Colosseum, according to historical records. In medieval England, the practice of baiting — fighting dogs against chained bears or bulls — drew huge audiences.
By the 19th century, however, the British grew concerned about the sport’s seeming cruelty to bears and bulls. Instead, people turned their attention to dog-on-dog fighting, and a modern-day bloodsport was born.
By 1835, British Parliament had outlawed dog fighting, though it continued in various clandestine circles.
In America, organized dog fighting predates the Civil War.
The American pit bull terrier and the American Staffordshire terrier over the last century have developed reputations for ferocity, a willingness to brawl to the death against another dog.
Everything about the breeds, of which only the Staffordshire is recognized by the American Kennel Club, seems built for fighting — taut skin, squatty, wide builds, expansive chests and short muzzles.
“In the same way that Labradors were bred to retrieve birds, (American pit bull terriers) were bred to face other dogs in mortal combat,” according to Pit Bull Rescue Central’s notes on the breed. “This is the ‘sad’ work these dogs were created for.”
Yet, while the so-called “pit” breeds seem to have been bred with an innate aggressiveness toward other dogs, the animals should not display the same ire toward humans, according to Pit Bull Rescue.
In fact, when their temperaments are compared to those of other dogs, pit bulls fare better than even the golden retriever, according to the American Temperament Test Society, which measures dog behavior.
Nonetheless, the powerful pit bull, with decades and sometimes centuries of breeding, holds fast to its reputation as a fearsome fighter.
“It is not the hate of other dogs that causes pit bulls to fight, but rather the ‘urge’ to do so that has been bred into the dogs for many generations,” according to Pit Bull Rescue.
— Ty Bowers