Teens Face Felony Dog Fighting Charges

Teens Face Felony Dog Fighting Charges (Added: February 03, 2009)

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Nine On Your Side's Parul Joshi explains the investigations.

By Parul Joshi
Published: February 03, 2009

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Tonight, three teenagers face felony dog fighting charges. Wayne County Animal Control Officers say they found ten pit bull dogs used for fighting. Investigators say they found horrifying evidence at the scenes of the crimes.

Animal Control Director Justin Scally says, “This is another dog, you can see ears are cut, wounds on the head, old scarring; to be honest with you it appeared the dogs were tearing each other apart, it was very bloody."

Scally says it was a gruesome sight. He says he found it at a home on Will Anderson Road in Dudley. A tip led investigators to the area back in July.

They wouldn't tell us exactly where the dog fighting was taking place, but last week, they arrested a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old boy for the crime.

Scally says, "It'd be great if we lived in a society where it didn’t happen at all, but unfortunately we live in a society where it happens everyday."

Two months later, investigators discovered another case of dog fighting going on in the same town. This one they say was on Stanley Chapel Church Road.

Scally says, "We had found animals with injuries consistent with dog fighting and we found other things such as needles being used to self-medicate the animals, old surgical gloves, basic wound care things."

Investigators charged another 16-year-old boy in that case. Animal control took ten pit bulls in all from both homes. Three from Will Anderson Road and the rest from Stanley Chapel Church Road.

Scally says, "Unfortunately they have been since euthanized, we had them at our facility, several of them were infected with late stage heart worm."

Scally says it's disturbing to see teenagers this young already involved in dog fighting. Both investigations started last summer. Scally says it takes a while to build these cases and make arrests.