Emaciated and wounded, nine pit bulls were chained to a fence in a South Side back yard, where Chicago police said they found the dogs this spring.
The pit bulls were so skinny, police said, that their ribs and backbones were visible through their skin. Open wounds reportedly spotted their heads, ears and legs.
“It was pretty vile,” said Officer Tom Barker of the Chicago Police Animal Crimes Unit. “They were really mistreated.”
Dogfighting is top of mind with the recent charges filed against Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, who is accused of participating in an interstate dogfighting ring. While Vick disputes the allegations, Chicago is battling its own “large-scale” dogfighting problem, Barker said.
Barker said this year his team has logged more than 40 arrests related to dogfighting and animal abuse, and recovered between 120 and 150 abused dogs.
Dogfighting has “been a problem for law enforcement for quite sometime,” Barker said.
Last month, a 29-year-old South Holland man was arrested and charged with felony dogfighting after investigators seized 37 adult dogs and puppies from a barn behind the man’s home in what Cook County sheriff’s office called the largest dogfighting operation in the state and fourth-largest recorded in the U.S. On Tuesday, the suspect, Kevin Taylor, is expected to appear in Markham court to determine whether he will be forced to forfeit ownership of the dogs.
Though there are varying degrees of dogfighting, the premise basically is the same: Dogs made aggressive by their owners are pitted against each other. The dogs rip each other’s flesh until one dog eventually gives up. The losing dog typically is killed by fight organizers, dogfighting experts say.
Barker said dogfighting occurs in alleys and basements across Chicago, though the team has yet to uncover a dogfight in progress because of the underground nature of the blood sport. Complaints by animal care advocates and neighbors who claim to hear the fights spark some of Barker’s dogfighting investigations.
Barker said he is unaware of a local presence of sophisticated operations like the type Vick is accused of running.
“I haven’t seen it on that scale but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t here and it isn’t happening,” Barker said.
Tio Hardiman, founder of the Chicago Coalition to Stop Dog Fighting, said when he comes across a dogfight, he often takes matters into his own hands — including persuading the people organizing the fight to release the hounds.
Hardiman said he is part of a group of 25 to 30 volunteers who walk the streets at least once a month searching for dog battles.
The pooches, typically pit bulls, are bred to fight through mistreatment, said Hardiman, a pit bull owner who said he has never fought dogs.
“They feed the dogs dead bumblebees. The stingers sting the gums. It makes the dogs mean. They put gunpowder in the food. They lock them up in the cage with no water. … The dog just goes ballistic,” Hardiman said.
Barker said dogfighters tend to use chains to develop the dog’s upper body, weights to increase back and neck strength and treadmills for endurance. The dogs often train with “bait animals,” he said. The fight dogs chase non-aggressive dogs or other animals on a contraption like a hamster’s wheel. The dogs are eventually allowed to kill their bait.
When the dog transforms into a fighting machine, the stage is set for a clash.
When asked by RedEye, some Chicagoans said dogfighting was cruel and inhumane.
Tammy Stockton, a self-described dog lover, called the practice “infuriating.” She said she became informed about dogfights when the allegations against Vick surfaced.
“It’s just inhumane,” said Stockton, 29, of North Center. “I just don’t understand why it’s done.”
Once an activity reserved for rural areas, dogfighting now is learned through videos, magazines, Internet message boards and attendance at fights, Barker said. One out of six Chicago schoolchildren admit they have attended a dogfight, according to a recent survey by the Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society. Dogfighters tend to come from all socioeconomic and criminal backgrounds, said Barker, who also linked dogfighting to gang activity.
Barker said the spotlight on Vick and the South Holland case may mean more people will be on the lookout for the signs of dogfighting, which include dead dogs in alleyways.
Jim Hoffman, 38, said he heard about dogfighting “way before” Vick was charged. Though he called dogfighting “sick” and “disturbing,” Hoffman said police should focus more on shootings and rapes than dogfights.
“You still have to protect humans more than the animals,” said Hoffman of Pecatonica, Ill.
For those who see dogfighting as a viable sport, the main draws are entertainment, gambling or machismo, dogfighting experts say.
“Guys want to be macho. They got a tough dog to make them look tough,” Hardiman said.
Hardiman’s group sends surviving dogs rescued from fights to shelters after testing their aggression. Often, dogs have to be retrained for domestication, Hardiman said.
“A pit bull can be as nice as you want it to be or it can be,” Hardiman said.
Dogs found alive by Barker’s team are sent to Animal Care and Control of Chicago for housing. The dogs are kept as evidence for trials.
In the South Holland case, police said the 37 recovered dogs were sent to various shelters.
Curtis Scott, a private and volunteer dog trainer, said he tested the aggression of 17 of the dogs allegedly used in the South Holland ring to see if they could be tamed for adoption.
Scott said that the canines looked thin and suffered from bite marks. But many of the dogs, which ranged from one to three years old, still were interested in interacting with humans, Scott said.
“They want to kiss you, and they want to sit in your lap,” said Scott, 37, of Lakeview. “With time and trusting people again, the dogs will be phenomenal.”
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3 levels of dogfighting
From street corners to puppy mills
Tio Hardiman, founder of the Chicago Coalition to Stop Dog Fighting, and Officer Tom Barker of the Chicago Police Animal Crimes Unit said there are three levels of dogfighting.
The first type is a basic fight that typically occurs on street corners. The dogfight organizers, usually between 10 and 14 years old, believe the dogs are born to fight, Hardiman said.
In the second level, dogs are fought in basements in a more organized way. Typically teenagers and early twentysomethings gamble between $500 and $5,000. Hardiman said this is the most common type of fight his group finds in the Chicago area.
The third level — the kind Michael Vick is accused of participating in — involves sophisticated dogfighting rings and puppy mills. The stakes are usually between $10,000 and $100,000, Hardiman said. Barker said these fighting rings aren’t common in Chicago, though professional fighting “is very discreet and underground.”
Vick pleaded not guilty to charges that he participated in a widespread dogfighting ring that involved the execution of eight dogs by “various methods, including hanging, drowning and/or slamming at least one dog’s body to the ground,” according to the indictment. Prosecutors allege Vick’s property was used to house and train the pit bulls used in fights.
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tswartz@tribune.com
