'Death matches' are a vicious -- and lucrative -- activity

Item File Photo This dog was injured in a fight in this region of the state, one of many rescued after an arrest.

By CRYSTAL OWENS
Item Staff Writer

It's a brutal blood sport that's been known to bring even the most seasoned law enforcement officers to tears.

Emaciated pit bulls tethered to trees with their flesh torn and bleeding, cowering from those who are trying to help them is a sight most cops in South Carolina are familiar with — especially those who patrol the more rural areas of the state, where they say dog fighting events usually take place.

Authorities say it's hard to gauge exactly how big a problem dog fighting is in Sumter County. There's no doubt the bloody matches take place, they say, but finding them isn't easy.

These "death matches" aren't open to just anyone. Getting a seat depends on whom you know and how much they trust you, making it tough for police to infiltrate.

"They're very difficult to find. They're mobile," said Sumter County Sheriff's Office Capt. Allen Dailey. "They can set up a fight, go to that location and before you know it, it's gone. These fights are never in the same spot, and they're usually deep within some woods."

In fact, he said, most people who attend dog matches don't even know the location until the last minute.

The fighters are typically caught only after someone tips off the cops to the exact location of a match, Sheriff's office Maj. Larry Florence said.

That's how local authorities made their last dog fighting arrests in November. An anonymous call to the Clarendon County Sheriff's Department led investigators to the Jackson Road home of Orlando Raynelle Coullette, 29, and Jennifer Elisabeth Lyles, 22, where they found eight fighting pit bulls.

Lyles was charged with dog fighting, trafficking cocaine and possession with intent to distribute marijuana and is free on a $50,000 personal recognizance bond. Authorities are still searching for Coullette.

Seven people were arrested that day, and several vehicles and three firearms were seized.

The bet was $4,000 — not even half of what authorities say can be made in one afternoon at a dog fighting ring. They say bets on just one dog can climb as high as $15,000.

"Dog fighting is big money," said Florence.

BY THE NUMBERS   Nationwide, the number of dogs seized at one time for dog fighting ranges from a dozen to 285.   An estimated 50,000 dog fighters exist nationwide.   Dog fighting is illegal in all 50 states. It's considered a felony in 48 states, including South Carolina.   Greed feeds illegal dog fighting rings. It's estimated that anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000 will be bet on one dog. Sources: The Humane Society, The Sumter County Sheriff's Office

No one has published any hard and fast facts on how profitable dog fighting is, but law enforcement and Humane Society officials have said it's believed to be about a $500 million industry among 50,000 dog fighters nationwide.

The money is made through betting, gate receipts, drug deals and dog sales.

Illegal drugs and animal fighting rings usually go hand in hand, Dailey said.

Up until about two years ago, he said, it was common for the county's drug unit to find eight to 10 abused pit bulls guarding or residing behind homes where those suspected of dealing illegal narcotics lived. But with the dog fighting society burrowing deeper and deeper underground, investigators now typically find only one or two.

Those not using the dogs to protect their trade are using them for profit and entertainment.

"These owners will spend thousands on one dog just to throw them in a ring to get bloodied and beaten up," Florence said.

When Sumter County investigators searched the Rembert home of Kevin Loney, 29, in May 2004, they discovered 46 dogs.

A Rottweiler and 45 pit bull terriers were found in the woods behind the residence. Most were tethered to trees with chains. The five or six dogs not bound were pregnant females close to giving birth.

Loney was later sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty in 2006 before a Federal Court judge.

Along with the dogs, the deputies had also found a small building containing treadmills, scales, syringes, steroids and weighted vests, which authorities said were probably used for a method of weight training.

"They'll put these dogs on a treadmill and just run them for hours," Dailey said.

Chris Moore / The Item This dog is an example of animals confiscated during a dog fight or drug raid in the Pee Dee or Midlands area. Dogs are made to fight until they give up — or die.

BLOOD SPORT HAS LONG HISTORY
Dog fighting was introduced in America in the early 1800s.

It's surrounded by secrecy today, reviled by most law-abiding citizens and fought at every turn by those passionate about animal rights, but it was once a very public sport.

The Roman Emperor Lucullus is said to have initiated the practice of pitting dogs against other animals — tossing dogs into the ring at the Colosseum, where wild elephants trampled them to death.

Dog fighting reappeared in medieval England in the form of "baiting," where dogs took on bulls and bears. That practice has resurfaced in the Southeastern region of the United States as "hog dog fighting," pitting dogs against feral pigs.

In the 18th century, growing expenses encouraged the practice of fighting dogs against each other.

Despite widespread bans in the 1860s, dog fighting thrived in the United States.

Its first declines came in the 1930s and '40s, but the brutal fights rebounded again in the 1960s and '70s, aided by publications devoted to the practice.

The blood sport was made illegal in all states by 1976, but only three states made it a felony. By 2005 it was a felony in 48 states, including South Carolina.

Get caught fighting animals against each other in South Carolina and you face a penalty of up to five years in jail or a $5,000 fine.

But advocates for harsher punishments say more could be done to deter dog fighting rings — and that it shouldn't have taken 30 years for all states to step up to the plate.

"They need to be jacked up for this horrible type of cruelty," Florence said.

South Carolina recently took the lead in prosecuting those people who force animals to fight.

In June, Gov. Mark Sanford signed a bill making it illegal to fight trained attack dogs with feral pigs, making South Carolina the fourth state to do so. The bill also provided increased fines for cockfighting.

The Humane Society describes "hog dog fighting" this way: An owner leads a trained pit bull into an enclosed pen. At the other end of the ring, the "handler" shoves a feral pig or hog through a chute into the pen. The dog then fights until it forces the hog to the ground, often after serious injury to either or both.

Even though local authorities say they've never caught anyone in the act of hog dog fighting, they're sure it's happening here.

All anyone has to do, they say, is look at the number of puppies and dogs, particularly pit bulls, that are stolen every year within the city and county limits. These animals may not all be fighting in Sumter County, but those that aren't are likely being trained to or sold to someone who will.

At least 57 pit bulls, mostly puppies, were stolen from local residents last year, according to police reports.

"… And those are just the ones that we know about," Florence said. "I'm sure many went unreported."

The idea that Fido can end up in a bloody fighting ring is heartbreaking.

"… As I read in the police blotter (about) all the dogs that have been stolen to presumably fight, it sickens me. Some of these dogs are people's back yard pets and probably will not make a fighting dog," said Wedgefield resident Jane King-Shirer, an advocate for pit bull rescue and adoption. "... Every person involved with dog fighting should go to prison. Not only does it perpetuate crime, it brings out the worst in people. How is that a sport?"

Chris Moore / The Item

OTHER ANIMALS DIE FOR THE CAUSE
Those who participate in animal fighting today baffle law enforcement with their desire to pit life against life for profit and entertainment.

"It's heartbreaking and very inhumane," Florence said. "There's some heartless people out there. You wish you could just get them to watch the Super Bowl and that would be entertainment enough."

In the dog fighting ring — which is often just a makeshift ring with plywood walls — pit bulls of similar size go at each other until one of them can no longer fight.

In one police video taken during a 2002 investigation in Sumter County, one pit bull immediately goes for the other's throat; blood begins to seep out of the dog's neck, mouth and paws as the other rips its flesh. The 10 to 15 people in attendance that day, especially the handlers, egg the dogs on.

"Come on, boy! Stay in the fight, boy!" one man screams as the other pit bull has him pinned to the ground by his throat.

Dogs used in this brutal sport usually die hours or even days after a fight, typically of blood loss, shock, dehydration, exhaustion or infections.

But they're not the only animals to die for the cause. The dogs are often trained to fight by using smaller animals such as cats, rabbits or smaller dogs stolen from someone's yard.

In many cases, pet owners who attempt to find good homes for animals fall victim to this industry without even knowing it, said Sumter resident Nicole Milligan, who helps rescue abused pit bulls and find them good homes.

"It grates my soul every day," she said. "You see ads where people are giving away puppies or kittens free to good homes and these dog fighters will take them to use as bait. And they don't look like you think they would. In some cases I've heard of people sending in their grandparents to pick up these animals."

Rescuing these abused pit bulls is not always possible — it depends on the health and temperament of the animal at the time they're found.

Many have to be euthanized.

"I am certainly not going to say that all dogs rescued from fighting rings can be rehabilitated, because they can't," Milligan said. "But with enough time and an experienced pit bull person, many of them can.

However if the rehabilitation is not going to be done correctly, it shouldn't be attempted at all. The horrors that fighting dogs suffer and the ill behaviors that they are trained to exhibit are not to be taken lightly ..."

The problem rescuers face, she said, is not keeping the pit bulls from attacking people, as many would assume, but attacking other dogs.

The dogs are trained to be fearful of people so their handlers can control them.

Still, Milligan says there's no easy answer to saving these abused dogs.

"They're bred as game dogs, so violence is in their history," she said.



Contact Staff Writer Crystal Owens at cowens@theitem.com or (803) 774-1270.