Seven years after Michael Vick pled guilty to dogfighting the barbaric bloodsport still thrives in big money underground matches
NFL star Vick pleaded guilty in 2007 to bankrolling a dogfighting ring and other charges, eventually serving 18 months in prison
The three largest dogfighting busts in U.S. history have occurred since 2009
Though banned in every state, laws still require no minimum mandatory jail time
By ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 18:01, 22 November 2014 | UPDATED: 18:05, 22 November 2014

In the squalid Jacksonville dogfighting kennel, a champion named Bulletproof Sam sat in a makeshift wooden cage, his teeth exposed from a missing snout.
Nearby, an undercover agent with the sheriff's office met with Sam's breeder, a big-timer in the underground world of dogfighting named Willie Coleman, and made a deal that was caught on a hidden video camera.
Coleman - whose puppies other breeders nationwide sought for their prized bloodlines - was charged with 17 felony counts associated with dogfighting after that 2012 sting, and faced possible prison time.
A dog seized during the second-largest dog fighting bust in U.S. history sits in a pen at a kennel in Jacksonville, Fla.
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A dog seized during the second-largest dog fighting bust in U.S. history sits in a pen at a kennel in Jacksonville, Fla.
It seemed like a sure win for investigators, who have gone after dogfighting with greater interest ever since NFL star Michael Vick pleaded guilty in 2007 to bankrolling a dogfighting ring and other charges, eventually serving 18 months in prison.
The three largest dogfighting busts in U.S. history have occurred since 2009.
But despite being banned in all 50 states and the momentum generated by the Vick case, the ancient blood sport is thriving in the underground, with hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake on big matches, police detectives and prosecutors said.

State laws still require no minimum mandatory jail time, so while arrests and convictions can be disruptive to dogfighting rings for a short while, the practice continues to flourish.
"Unfortunately, in our courts today, animal welfare is not given the attention and seriousness that it deserves," said Cyrus Zomorodian, the Jacksonville-based animal cruelty prosecutor who tried Coleman's case. "We constantly fight for more court time, resources and attention."
In 2013, after a three-year investigation that included local police and the FBI, more than 15 people were arrested, 367 dogs seized, $500,000 in cash, firearms and drugs were seized in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Texas.
It was the second-largest dogfighting bust U.S. history, known as the '367 case.'
A few big federal busts like the 367 case that have occurred since Vick are rooting out some large fighting groups, the more investigators look for organized, professional level dogfighting, the more they're finding.

'This is a much bigger problem than people realize. Law enforcement is learning that there's an absurd amount of money involved,' said Officer Ivan Wick, a dogfighting investigator with the Milwaukee Police Department.
Wick, who worked with the FBI in April on a dogfighting bust that netted 12 suspects in Milwaukee, said investigations focused on a criminal group's dogfighting business can be more useful to detectives than following drug money.
'The criminal organization (in Milwaukee) was making more money from the dogfighting part of gang activities than from the drug trafficking part,' Wick said.
Authorities say dogfighting isn't a regional phenomenon: arrest data collected by The Humane Society of the U.S. since 2011 show hundreds of busts ranging from San Francisco to New York City, and in nearly every state.
"People believe it's happening in someone else's community," said Tim Rickey, of the ASPCA, who worked with law enforcement on the 367 bust. "There's not one kind of neighborhood or type of individual ... we've seen judges, a doctor, lawyers, nurses and firefighters all being involved in this."
Still, when there are arrests, prosecutors are often hamstrung by outdated laws once a case gets to the courts.
In Florida, where dogfighting arrests are routine, there is no minimum mandatory sentence for conviction.
The state's animal welfare law was written to protect livestock, so prison time is mandatory for the felony abuse of a horse or a cow, but not a dog.
Animal cruelty legal experts say the same is true in states throughout the nation, but note that there is progress in toughening laws.
In Florida, where dogfighting arrests are routine, there is no minimum mandatory sentence for conviction

In Florida, where dogfighting arrests are routine, there is no minimum mandatory sentence for conviction
For example, New York's animal protection laws are more than a century old, and also focus on the treatment of livestock, said Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice.
Rice, who heads the state's district attorneys association, is advocating for a new law in Albany that would bring cruelty laws up to date and strengthen penalties.
'Prosecutors and the courts are hamstrung by laws that aren't just out of date but that don't treat crimes against animals like the serious crimes that they are. Not only does animal crime law in New York have little to no sentencing requirements, but it doesn't even allow the courts to count prior convictions in sentencing, essentially giving a free pass to repeat offenders,' Rice said.
Laws are slowly changing in other states to make prosecuting these cases easier, said Lora Dunn, a staff attorney at the Animal Legal Defense Fund in Portland, Oregon.
Seven states have added dogfighting to racketeering laws since Michael Vick's case in 2007, and in 2013 the federal government added a law to the Farm Bill that made attending a dogfight illegal.
Florida prosecutor Zomorodian wants increased penalties for animal fighting to help bring more successful cases, but says either way, the cases will always be difficult.
Even though Coleman, the dog breeder who faced 17 counts, and was well-known by advocates and dogfighters alike, he received no time behind bars.
His case was delayed for two years until August, when a judge taking into account Coleman's advanced age - he's now in his 70s - and lack of a significant prior record sentenced him to probation and set him free.
'Our victims don't have a voice and cannot testify as to what happened,' Zomorodian said.


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Dog fighting is a terrible activity! Those that get arrested for it should have they're balls cut off.

The fuck is wrong with people?

I love it when they try to defend it as a Black cultural thing from the South. That's like saying that the Mafia is an Italian cultural thing from the Northeast .

Theres a lot of money involved. Heres a story i posted up recently. A number of these street gangs are doing it along side their drug dealing.

FBI busts dogfighting ring with Columbia Blood gang ties
BY JOHN MONK
jmonk@thestate.comOctober 24, 2014 Updated 15 hours ago
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GASTON, SC — Secret court-approved wiretaps on alleged Columbia cocaine dealers’ cellphones prompted FBI agents to bust a large Lexington County facility used for training pit bulls to fight, authorities said Friday.

Some 48 pit bulls, many emaciated, have been seized by the FBI and a national response team from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, according to those involved and documents in the case.

The animals, who lived outside tied to chains, were in a wooded area outside Gaston in rural Lexington County, according to officials.

On Friday afternoon, a 12-person national emergency animal response team directed by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was on the scene, assisting the FBI with the final stages of taking about a dozen remaining animals into custody, an ASPCA official said.

Agents and local law enforcement executed another warrant at the Gaston address earlier this month. On Oct. 1, agents seized 35 dogs, along with drugs, guns, and cash, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Columbia.

The site is occupied by a man identified in an FBI affidavit by agent Brian Jones as Eric Dean “Big E” Smith, 41, of Gaston, who was indicted Friday for cocaine trafficking. Smith’s lawyer, Debbie Barbier of Columbia, declined comment late Friday.

Smith was “heavily involved in breeding dogs for the purpose of dogfighting,” according to an FBI criminal complaint in the case. “Intercepts and physical surveillance have revealed that Smith stores cocaine and over 30 dogs at (his) residence.”

According to excerpts of FBI wiretaps made public Friday, Smith had as many as 35 dogs at the site on Sept. 16, when he took them to a veterinarian’s office in West Columbia to get rabies shots. Smith is heard complaining that the Lexington County Animal Control office cited him for not giving his animals rabies shots.

On another call, Smith tells an unidentified man that fighting dogs in South Carolina aren’t as good in organized dogfights as dogs bred in other states. In the same call, Smith says he will sell one of his dogs for $2,000.

The Gaston dogfight operation was discovered during an ongoing FBI, state and local investigation into a Columbia area gang cocaine operation tied to the Bloods street gang, according to federal court records and sources familiar with the investigation.

Besides Smith, others indicted as a result of the wiretaps are: Gerald Montez “Bird” Burris, 46; Amos “Famous Amos” Donnell Jones, 34; Stephoni “Steezy” Vernard Sumter, 28; Tony L. Gunter, 36; Travis “Hip” Santale Sulton, 31; Dion W. Jones, 31; and Travis Leon “Jit” Gilbert; 27. The dogfighting investigation continues, authorities said.

“We are on the scene at the request of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI to assist with the dog-fighting investigation,” Tim Rickey, vice president of the ASPCA’s field investigations office in New York City, said Friday in a telephone interview.

“Our team was here to assist with collecting animal dogfighting evidence, to help process the crime scene, and the collection and removal of the animals,” Rickey said. The dogs will be taken to shelters at an undisclosed location and evaluated by some 30 other people, he said.

Rickey said dogs at the site, about one-half mile off Meadowfield Road, had scars and injuries associated with dogfighting. The dogs were found chained and anchored to car axles, with trash barrels being used as makeshift shelters, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Adult dogs and puppies were found severely emaciated and dehydrated, and the remains of deceased dogs were also discovered on the premises, along with dogfighting paraphernalia.

Dogfighting, a multi-million dollar, blood-sport business, is illegal under federal and state law.

On Friday, 24 defendants made initial appearances in federal court in Columbia to face charges of conspiracy to traffic cocaine and crack cocaine and supply the illegal drugs to street gangs, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office.

The defendants were arrested over the past two days by a federal, state and local authorities, including the Columbia Violent Gangs Task Force.

“It should come as no surprise that gangs, drug dealing, and violence often go hand in hand,” Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook in a news release. “However, gangs are often involved in other organized criminal activity. In this case, that criminal activity is dogfighting.”

The FBI, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, SLED and the Columbia Police Department participated.

In recent years, the FBI and the task force have made numerous high profile round-ups of Columbia cocaine dealers. But cocaine dealers continue to flourish in the area.

According to one wiretap made public Friday, Smith told an unidentified caller that he was selling three to four kilograms of cocaine every week. Smith said he paid $42,000 per kilogram, and was able to sell the cocaine for $1,300 an ounce.

There are 35.2 ounces in every kilogram, so Smith could sell a kilo for about $45,760 – making a profit of some $3,700 per kilo.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/10/24/3766239/fbi-busts-pit-bull-fighting-operation.html#storylink=cpy

These are the winners, the losers are in the ground




ANYONE WHO THINKS THIS IS COOL SHOULD BE KILLED!

I honestly believe people who engage in dog fighting should be executed. I'd have no moral problems with that whatsoever.

The current penalties are nowhere near severe enough. That scumbag Vick should still be in prison and should have never been allowed to play in the NFL ever again.

I'm shocked, Ivy. Shocked .

Not that I disagree, though .

This societal problem goes beyond dog fighting. It's also seen in case after case where repeat felony offenders, rapists, and even murderers get out of prison without really serving a just prison sentence. It only serves to not truly punish the guilty and foster additional crime. And it's all supported by liberal politics, as well as slimy defense lawyers and corrupt judges and parole boards.

Ive found two recent cases in NY.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-...ticle-1.1889347

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/broo...ticle-1.1375731

It seems to me though that the much larger operations take place in more rural parts. Im guessing you can breed and train the dogs anywhere really and then sell them to people in other parts.

heres a recent bust in ohio where they were wagering $50- 60 000 on a fight.

4 Warren men busted in Akron dog fighting sting

AKRON, Ohio (WKBN) – One of the largest dog fighting operations in northeast Ohio history led to the arrest of 47 people in Akron over the weekend following a sting that broke up an active dog fight.

Akron police said a blood stained ring where dogs would fight to the death was built into the garage of a home on Cordova Avenue. In the ring were two blood-stained knives.

“What they do is they will stab the dog to make it angry to begin the fight,” Akron Police Chief James Nice said.

Just as the fight began Saturday night, police barged in.

“This was actually a well-orchestrated fight,” Nice said.

It was so well orchestrated there was a pile of chains to hold the dogs, a shower to wash the blood off, a treadmill to keep them in shape, a pen area and a concession stand set up with food. Police arrested the suspected ringleader, Alvin Banks, but people from as far away as California were there when they busted up the operation, including Warren residents Christopher Bufford, Royce Green, Mahr Hameed and Darren Williams. Green had just been released from the Trumbull County Jail last week on drug charges.

Humane officers with the Trumbull County Animal Welfare League said they recently rescued three dogs from a home in Warren where dogs were allegedly being trained to fight.

“It is here. People are doing it. A lot of people do it in areas you don’t really think they are going to do it. They will transport animals out of state to partake in the fight,” humane officer Robin Stowe said.

Participants in the weekend dog fight also came from California, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois and Indiana. The 47 people arrested were charged with felony dog fighting, and many had outstanding warrants for other charges.

“The bigger the fight, the more money these people make. It is thousands of dollars, $50,000 to $60,000 a fight. So a lot of people come in from a lot of states to watch these dogs do this, which is disturbing,” Nice said.

The Humane Society of Greater Akron will house the pit bulls while criminal proceedings take place.