Post by RealPitBull on Mar 6, 2008 8:21:33 GMT -5
Day after dogfight bust, 2 dead pit bulls
BY JIM FITZGERALD
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2008/03/06/2008-03-06_day_after_dogfight_bust_2_dead_pit_bulls-2.html
Thursday, March 6th 2008, 4:00 AM
Peter Byrne (above) and Anthony Gonzalez (below) were arrested Tuesday in Yonkers on drug rap, and dogfighting evidence was found during raid.
Two dead pit bulls were found in trash bags Wednesday, just as police announced the rescue of 15 other dogs and the discovery of a dogfighting pit in a Yonkers basement.
Yonkers Police Commissioner Edward Hartnett said there was some evidence the two discoveries were connected to two other pit bulls, crippled from dogfights, found in January in a trash bin at a Yonkers gas station. One of those dogs died.
Hartnett said he was unsure whether there was an organized dogfighting network in Yonkers, but he added, "A lot of these guys do seem to know each other.
"It's something going on all over the country," he added. "There are certain people in our society who find this type of activity entertaining."
The scarred bodies of the dogs found Wednesday were in black garbage bags behind the College of Mount St. Vincent, just over the Bronx line from Yonkers.
"We just ripped open a couple of trash bags and found two pit bulls," said Ken Ross, police chief for the Westchester County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "One male, one female, decomposed."
He would not say what led him to the spot.
The discovery of the 15 pit bulls in Yonkers came during a Tuesday night raid by narcotics police, Hartnett said.
In addition tto 6 ounces of cocaine, drug packaging and nearly $16,000 cash, the police found a 3-foot-high plexiglass fighting enclosure, treadmills for dogs, weighted neck chains for training, a whip and syringes used for medicating the animals, officials said.
Officers also heard dogs in a garage, obtained a search warrant and called in the SPCA, Ross said.
He said the garage was filthy with excrement and had no food or water for the 15 caged dogs, some of which were scarred and emaciated.
During the raid, two Yonkers men were arrested on drug possession charges: Peter Byrne, 25, who lived in the house, and Anthony Gonzalez, 24.
Ross said the dogs found Tuesday would be examined by veterinarians. The SPCA was determining whether the evidence would support felony dogfighting charges or just misdemeanor cruelty charges.
The felony is punishable by up to four years in prison and the misdemeanor by up to one year.
Over the past year, several signs of dogfighting have surfaced in lower Westchester. Last summer, five Rottweilers and a pit bull were rescued in Mount Vernon, not long after an injured pit bull was found lying in its blood in the street.
Also in Mount Vernon, 63 kittens were found in boxes on the doorstep of an animal shelter, likely saved from use as dogfighting bait.
In October, six scarred dogs were found in a Yonkers garage.
BY JIM FITZGERALD
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2008/03/06/2008-03-06_day_after_dogfight_bust_2_dead_pit_bulls-2.html
Thursday, March 6th 2008, 4:00 AM
Peter Byrne (above) and Anthony Gonzalez (below) were arrested Tuesday in Yonkers on drug rap, and dogfighting evidence was found during raid.
Two dead pit bulls were found in trash bags Wednesday, just as police announced the rescue of 15 other dogs and the discovery of a dogfighting pit in a Yonkers basement.
Yonkers Police Commissioner Edward Hartnett said there was some evidence the two discoveries were connected to two other pit bulls, crippled from dogfights, found in January in a trash bin at a Yonkers gas station. One of those dogs died.
Hartnett said he was unsure whether there was an organized dogfighting network in Yonkers, but he added, "A lot of these guys do seem to know each other.
"It's something going on all over the country," he added. "There are certain people in our society who find this type of activity entertaining."
The scarred bodies of the dogs found Wednesday were in black garbage bags behind the College of Mount St. Vincent, just over the Bronx line from Yonkers.
"We just ripped open a couple of trash bags and found two pit bulls," said Ken Ross, police chief for the Westchester County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "One male, one female, decomposed."
He would not say what led him to the spot.
The discovery of the 15 pit bulls in Yonkers came during a Tuesday night raid by narcotics police, Hartnett said.
In addition tto 6 ounces of cocaine, drug packaging and nearly $16,000 cash, the police found a 3-foot-high plexiglass fighting enclosure, treadmills for dogs, weighted neck chains for training, a whip and syringes used for medicating the animals, officials said.
Officers also heard dogs in a garage, obtained a search warrant and called in the SPCA, Ross said.
He said the garage was filthy with excrement and had no food or water for the 15 caged dogs, some of which were scarred and emaciated.
During the raid, two Yonkers men were arrested on drug possession charges: Peter Byrne, 25, who lived in the house, and Anthony Gonzalez, 24.
Ross said the dogs found Tuesday would be examined by veterinarians. The SPCA was determining whether the evidence would support felony dogfighting charges or just misdemeanor cruelty charges.
The felony is punishable by up to four years in prison and the misdemeanor by up to one year.
Over the past year, several signs of dogfighting have surfaced in lower Westchester. Last summer, five Rottweilers and a pit bull were rescued in Mount Vernon, not long after an injured pit bull was found lying in its blood in the street.
Also in Mount Vernon, 63 kittens were found in boxes on the doorstep of an animal shelter, likely saved from use as dogfighting bait.
In October, six scarred dogs were found in a Yonkers garage.