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Tuesday, December 12, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 7
Illegal dog fights invade Lawrence streets
Continued from page 1A
Midge Grinstead, executive director of the Lawrence Humane Society, plays with one of the luckier Lawrence pit bulls. Grinstead said that nearly 50 pit bulls that are injured during fights arrive at the society yearly. Photo by Jamie Roper/KANSAN
The battle wounds from this dog's fights are examined at the Lawrence Humane Society. Photo courtesy of the Lawrence Humane Society
"They had part of their paws missing, ears, part of their cheeks — and they were still going."
The fights
in town, school grounds after hours are a common fight location, as are hospital parking lots, dark alleys and conversion vans. Outside Lawrence, a barn near Lone Star Lake has a pit dug out of its floor for fighting, Grinstead said. Twelve logging chains attached to the barn walls are used to hold back the dogs. To identify fight locations, Grinstead said she watched for lookouts straddling their bikes on street corners or mailboxes left hanging open both signs that say "the fight is here."
Garcia has been to fight in living rooms. Other times, chain-link fences or a circle of hay bales serve as the pit. Even an abandoned swimming pool will work, he said.
There's a fight every day in Lawrence, he said. Some are planned days in advance, but others are more impromptu.
a fight will begin.
The pit bulls are trained to fight and to kill, and putting two dogs in a ring together is all the encouragement they need.
"they throw two dogs in there," Sam said. "Then you let them go. Boom — you let them fight. That's the one you want — the one that grabmes him by the throat."
Sam stood in the middle of his living room, waving his arms and jabbing his finger toward an imaginary dog, yelling "Kill, kill, kill" to demonstrate the common reactions of fight-watchers.
non reactions of agitation. Garcia said a dog 'knows to go exactly for the throat or take its legs out or bite it where it can't see." he said.
The dogs make yelping noises, Dan said,
but the yelping is not a sign of weakness.
"they are all pain, he said. The yelp out of anger."
"I said, pit, bulls can extreep 2,600
said. "They yelp out of anger. García
García, a Mexican exert 2,600
miles of pressure with their jaws.
"When they bite, you hear 'crunch,'" he said.
said.
Most fights last only a few seconds, he said, but he once saw two dogs fight for nearly half an hour.
At the end, a "break stick" is stuck into the dogs' mouths to pry them apart.
"They're just like alligators," Garcia said. "Once they're on you, they ain't letting go."
The training
Pit bulls are known for their loyalty and initially were bred as hunters to bring down deer, Grinstead said. Their jaw
strength is greater than that of any other dog, but their killer instinct really isn't an instinct at all — it's a result of intense training.
Pit bull owners such as Garcia emphasize that the dogs are good-natured and are trained to be aggressive.
"First, you gotta train them to be mean," Sam said. "That's the difference between the bitty-bitty pit bull and the other pit bull."
Pit bulls undergo intensive training in preparation for fights. Photo courtesy of the Humane Society of the United States
Train the dog to be vicious at a young age, he said. Then don't feed it for a couple of days and put it in the ring with the other dog.
Garcia, who likes tough-looking dogs, said he once trained his pit bull by running it on a treadmill. He said other owners have their dogs drag logging chains around the house, carry weights in their mouths or even pull a car down the street. He described how trainers employ what's called a spring pole — a spring attached to a rope and hung from a tree or ceiling. The dog jumps up, grabs a piece of hide and then swings in the air by its jaws.
Garcia said a friend of his once trained a pit bull to fight by having it jump high into the air to latch onto a car tire suspended from a rope. The dog was strong enough that Garcia — at more than 200 pounds — then could hang on to its collar and swing along with it.
- Grinstead, of the Humane Society, said
  the training regimen was brutal.
*The dogs' ears are cut off with razor*
*blades or scissors, she said, so they can't be*
*used as "handles" to latch onto in a fight.*
Grinstead said kittens and puppies were used as bait and rewards during training. Before a fight starts, dogs are "bled," or excited, by killing the small animals, she said.
Sometimes, an overanxious pit bull doesn't need the excuse of a fight to kill. Margaret Sloan, Lawrence resident, called the police after her kitten was killed by a stray pit bull as it ran down the street, dragging the kitten in its mouth.
Garcia said other owners gave their dogs steroids or fed them raw meat mixed with gun powder.
"The one that's eating the gun powder or receiving the drug shots is going to be crazier," he said.
The law and Lawrence
In Kansas, fighting dogs is the least severe felony, said Jerry Little, Douglas County assistant district attorney, and carries a maximum sentence of 13 months in prison.
The minimum sentence, Little said, is five months in prison, but the judge's decision would depend on the accused's criminal history. He said an offender with no prior convictions would receive a suspended sentence and immediate probation.
Pat Wagner, program specialist with the Illegal Animal Fighting Task Force of the Humane Society of the United States, said Kansas dog-fighting laws were similar to those across the country, and dog fighting was a felony in all but five states.
was a victory in her fight. Wagner said she once began a study of how many counties in each state had suspected or known dog fighting.
"The answer is every county in every state" she said.
It's a nationwide problem that happens in both rural and urban settings, she said.
"The gangs and the young kids are the easiest to see doing it." Wagner said about dog fighting's new culture. "The professionals are so clandestine."
Catching dog fighters is almost impossible, Bell said. By the time the police receive a call and respond, street fights are finished. The only evidence is two beat-up dogs, and both owners will say they were walking their dogs when a fight spontaneously broke out.
it's hard to catch pit bull fighters, agree Sergeant Doug Bell, supervisor of the Lawrence Police Department's animal control division. In fact, he said, he didn't know of any Lawrence arrests for dog fighting.
"It's not illegal for people to stand on corners with dogs." he said.
Bell said that dog fighting was not a major concern in Lawrence and that he would probably charge violators with cruelty to animals, a misdemeanor under city law. Only if it were a ring of dog fighters
Two pit bulls fight through blood and pain to please their owners. Pit bulls' jaws lock on their victims and can exert up to 2,600 pounds of pressure. Photo courtesy of the Humane Society of the United States.
Lieutenant Kathy Tate said the same for the county. She said there had been reports of pit bull puppies being stolen, but in 14 years at the Douglas County Sheriff's Office she had never become aware of a dog-fight arrest.
would he file it with the county as a felony,
he said.
Bell said he didn't think dog fights were as much a problem here as Grinstead did
"She has her opinions, and I guess I have mine," Bell said, adding that the Humane Society could be privacy to more information than the police department.
Grinstead said she was frustrated by the attitude of police toward dog fighting.
"I think we're a big joke to them, and it's depressing," she said.
The past and current status
Paul Miller, a former national investigator with the Humane Society of the United States, said those who fought dogs often were involved in other illegal activities, and law enforcement should take notice.
Miller worked undercover, raiding dog fights in
California for 12 years. Now, as director of animal services with the Chattanooga, Tenn., Police Department, he said in a telephone interview dog fighters often were guilty of more crimes than cruelty to animals.
He said almost all dog fighters also gambled illegally, and many had ties to illegal drugs.
drugs. Miller said law enforcement officials often thought dog fighting was limited to large, organized activities. But street fights are a felony and need to be addressed, he said.
"Oh well, it's just kids," Miller said, describing the mentality of police officers who witness street fights. "They don't realize they're leading to bigger things," the worst of which could be violence against humans, he said.
More information For a humane society video about animal fighting, a copy of the Kansas statute banning animal fighting and links to related materials. See www.kansan.com
Miller said dog fighting always had occurred, but the profile of those participating was changing. He said police thought mostly about the older generation who participated in organized fights for money and ignored the other culture of young males who fought dogs to demonstrate power.
Miller said the "old timers" kept accurate records, cross bred their dogs and followed up on each dog's performance.
More information
up on each dog. Each puppy would sell for up to $1,000 and participate, as adults, in several fights, which would last up to two hours.
Such old timers were "pro" dog fighters, Miller said, and included doctors, lawyers
and women. Each fight would see up to $25,000 in bets change hands, and dog-fighting rings of that culture were as efficient as those of drug traffickers.
But recently, Miller said, dog fighting has entered the world of young males. They own dogs that aren't properly conditioned, and they fight them in unorganized fights, he said.
Today's younger fighters do not maintain their dogs' bloodlines, he said. Fights are shorter and end with the last aggressive dog winning.
For most dog owners, pit bull fighting boosts the owner's ego, and in the world of fighting dogs, the owner's status must remain impeccable. Miller said this often meant owners completely dissociated themselves from a losing dog.
"If they have a dog that's credible, it's a 'we'-type situation." Miller said. "We won' or 'he lost'"
"They say they are bonded with them," he said. "I think there are some that think they are. In their own mind, they're bonded."
Miller said some dog fighters did care for their dogs and were sorry to see them lose or die.
The end
When a dog loses — or worse, refuses to fight — the common view is that it doesn't deserve to live. Garcia said.
But for the loyal pit bull, refusing to fight is rare.
is earl. Gecia said he'd heard of pit bulls fighting even after their legs were broken. They want to fight, he said, and they have the stamina to do so.
stamina to do so.
"The fights I've been to, the dogs would still be biting each other lying on the floor." Garcia said.
but still locked on one another. In violent efforts, the losers
The dogs refuse to give in, he said. They will be whining, exhausted, unable to move but still locked on one another
Despite their vallent efforts, the losers — at least the bodies of the dead ones — are simply dumped into the trash. Garcia said he never found out what happened to the Doberman that lost but still was alive and missing a leg.
Grinstead said some dog fighters rid themselves of losing animals as they would "a disposable lighter." She will never forget the dog she was called to pick up along a Douglas County road — the chewed-up loser of a fight. She said the dog had been discarded like a piece of garbage — flung from its owner's moving vehicle. By the time she got to it, it had been hit by another car.
— Designed by Kyle Ramsey
Edited by Sara Nutt
"I had to use the shovel to get the dog up, and it was still alive," she recalled. "It makes me sick."
Stolen pets help train pit bulls
By Jana Smoot Special to the Kansan
The shadowy world of dog and cat napping means that lost Lawrence pets may not simply have wandered away.
Animal lovers say people who fight pit bulls also steal other pets to train their animals.
Dogs and cats of any size have a place in the training of pit bulls.
Midge Grinstead, executive director of the Lawrence Humane Society, said dog fighting seemed to be the No. 1 reason local animals were stolen.
"We have gang bangers who are not professional dog fighters, but they will steal your animal." Grinstead said.
"Just like you would give your dog a bone, they will give it a cat," she said.
Pit bulls kill puppies and small dogs before a fight as part of a "blooding" ritual.
"They will use your pet as a money maker to fight other pit bulls, or they will find some other way to use it," Grinstead said.
"it gets their adrenaline going," Grinstead said. "It gets their blood pumping, and it gets them ready to fight."
Dog tighters use small pets, such as cats and puppies, to bait their fight dogs. Grinstead said kittens and cats were used as treats for the dogs after they had completed a training regimen.
"You'll see as a trainer where you need to go from there to condition your dog," Grinstead said.
Trainers use larger dogs, like Labrador retrievers and rottweilers, in mock fights with the pit bulls in order to test the ability of their dog.
"You're pretty much limited to witnesses," said Cottengil. He added that no witnesses meant no case.
Local police can do little about stolen pets. The Lawrence Police Department classifies animal abduction as property theft. Officer Charles Cottengim said that a pet owner could file a complaint concerning a stolen animal, but police need solid proof for prosecution.
A microchip containing an identification code is inserted with a needle just under the animal's skin between the shoulder blades. A hand-held scan-
Because it's hard to prove pet theft, Grinstead stresses prevention to pet owners. A new, hightech way to guard pets from theft is to "microchip" an animal.
chip, which lasts the life of the pet. The 10-digit number can then be traced through a computer system to identify the owner. S t a c y Hoobler of the
To see video footage from the interview with Midge Grinstead See kansan.com
Humane Society said that although a chip would not prevent a dog from being stolen, it could help get the animal back.
"It is a permanent identification and proves your ownership of that animal." Hoobler said.
The Lawrence Humane Society offers this service to pet owners for $20 and inserts chips in all of the animals that are adopted from the shelter.
Lawrence-area veterinarians offer this service at varying costs. Lawrence Veterinary Hospital will insert a chip from the Humane Society at no cost to the owner, Clinton Parkway Animal Hospital insert chips in animals for $39.95 and also offers a discount if the pet is being spayed or neutered.
There are less-permanent ways for pet owners to deter thieves. Grinstead said that fences protected pets while they were in a yard but that a fence should be at least six feet tall and also have locks on any gates.
One of the best ways to prevent theft is never to allow a pet outside alone.
"The best thing is to keep your dog or cat inside." Grinstead said. "When they go outside is when you go outside."
Grinstead said that once pit bull fighters took animals, it was very likely they would end up dead.
"You aren't going to get your pet back from these people, so you need to make sure to protect your animal," she said.
Edited by Sara Nutt