HORRIBLE! DOGFIGHTS PLEASE READ AND WRITE TO CONVICT THE FIGHT ORGANISERS

[Guest guest]

Rita Fazio

[r.e.fazio]

Sunday, October 10, 2004

9:32 PM

KodiakStar2002

Subject:

[stopNightmareDogIndustries] Fw: HORRIBLE! DOGFIGHTS PLEASE READ AND WRITE TO

CONVICT THE FIGHT ORGANISERS

 

 

 

 

 

-

 

Linda Furness

 

 

meriem

 

 

 

 

Sunday, October 10, 2004 10:10 AM

 

 

HORRIBLE! DOGFIGHTS PLEASE READ AND WRITE TO CONVICT THE

FIGHT ORGANISERS

 

 

 

 

 

ADELA NY SENT THE FOLLOWING

MESSAGE

 

Oh my Friends, see the

details of these dog trainers' attitudes and their deceipt to

authorities, for dog fighting which I hadn't heard about before!!!!

Just too painful for words!!! Below is the explanation, the

list of emails to write to the authorities and a great short sample letter

(please DO NOT copy the letter, change it around or write your own 2

lines). Also there are 4 phone numbers for which the KentuckyFund (aol.com) couldn't find the emails. Thanks so much

for doing this as for sure they'll be convicted with several felony

charges! Adela

 

P.S. I found the article

to which you can go directly:

 

Sept. 25: http://www.starbeacon.com/index.asp?MC=NEWS & NID=1 & AID=6265

 

-

Julia

Sharp

Saturday, October 09, 2004 4:26 PM

Fwd:

[KYAnimalRescueAlliance] Fwd: (no subject) pit bull fighting

 

KentuckyFund wrote:

 

On September 25, 2004,

Ashtabula Ohio's

Star Beacon ran a story about the Ashtabula County Humane Society officers who

tried to halt the abuse (deprivation of food and water) of 50-75 pit bull dogs tied

to trees in a woods behind a man's property in Orwell Township.

If you did not see the article you can view it at the Star-beacon's website:

link to

 

http://www.starbeacon.com/index.asp?MC=NEWS

 

Once

there, you can use their " archive selecter " to locate the article for

the date Setember 25. (There is also a follow-up article on September 28).

 

The HS officers tried to rescue the dogs, but they were moved over the weekend,

before oofficers could get a warrant. But they will turn up again....

These dogs are, in all likelihood, being used for dog

fights. ! ; Dog fight rings are rampant in Ohio. Holmes County

is another area particularly plagued.

Our public officials don't care so why should you care? Let's set aside the unpopular notion of compassion and kindness for a

minute: To own a trained-to-kill fight dog is a felony in Ohio. To arrange a

dog fight is a felony. To be a spectator at a dog fight is a

felony. Hey, that's three felonies!

Punishable by up to five years in prison. Now throw in all those studies

indicating that people who are violent towards animals often have no qualms

about committing acts of violence toward people. Hmmmm, maybe that could affect you. Or your family.

Your community. But wait! There's more!

Why were there so many dogs and why were they

underfed? The weaker dogs! are used as " bait " or practice

fighters, to exercise the champion fight dog's jaw muscles and to maintain his

bloodlust. If they are hungry, the weaker ones will at least put up a

good fight, trying to eat the other dog upon being released. While

training fighter pit bulls, owners feed them gun powder, amphetamines or other

(illegal) chemicals to make them " crazy " or blindly vicious.

Nice guys, huh? Could be your neighbs.

In addition to their enjoyment of blood sport, fight

dog breeders and spectators wage bets, the winners stand to make more money

than you'd guess: $25,000-50,000 is a small pot at these " games. " Illegal gambling is a felony, as is receiving undeclared income. Competing top dog owners drive up

from many other states to make that kind of dough. That's criminal acts

crossing state lines, more felonies.

They can now contact each other easily via the internet! . Hundreds of

them have web sites to sell puppies bred from their champion fight dogs, offer

How-to videos for training fight dogs, boast about their champion fight dogs,

challenge other fight dogs to a match and set dates for fights, and some even

show film footage of dog fights.

All of those activities on the internet are illegal, some are felonies.

Very often when these " underground " fights are busted, the players

are drinking a lot of beer--hey, it's a party!--and many weapons and illegal chemicals

and drugs are found too. So let's see...we have the three felonies I first mentioned regarding

fight dogs, racketeering

(repeatedly organizing illegal acts - felony!),

gambling, drugs, weapons--Felony!

Felony! Felony! Whew! I lost count!! Even if

some of the charges are reduced to misdemeanors, wow, that's still a whole lotta' crime!

There's still

another angle. The only people who actively pursue such

criminals in Ashtabula

County, for example, are

Humane Society Officers, unpaid volunteers (mostly women) who have day

jobs. They do it out of compassion. One sheriff's deputy went along

with two volunteers in the above mentioned case. Although they weren't

busting a fight-in-progress, often they get very little support from the sheriff,

even when they're investigating active dog fights. Wouldn't it seem wise

for the sheriff to send more deputies along when they go to check out a tip on

a fight?

Imagine a couple of unarmed volunteers and a deputy, going down into a dark basement (that's where they often

hold their " games " ) where one or

two dozen drunk (or high), armed killer-dog owners and bettors

are yelling at ravenous, bloodthirsty pit

bulls to attack during a fight. These guys are crazy AND they

stand to do prison time AND lose their prized dogs AND lose the thousands of

dollars in the betting kitty AND maybe lose their homes, cars and other toys

purchased with illegally-gained money (under the R.I.C.O. Act, a Federal Law).

It affects urban and

rural people, like you: 50-75 dogs are difficult to hide in

urban areas, so owners either live in the country with their dogs or keep them

with a friend who lives there. Sometimes the fights take place

there. Sometimes they take place in a city--basements muffle all the

cheering, growling and death howls. Fights used to happen in Cleveland's

pre-gentrified Tremont in the '80s.

I hope I've made my points clear: The idea is to stop

this racketeering.

These thugs are committing multiple

felonies. They are dangerous and violent. The only way

to get local officials to act is to tell them to. The only way to get

State Officials to investigate is to tell local officials to do their jobs AND

recommend to the State that it gets involved. The State and Federal

officers can tap phones, get phone number printouts, track web sites and

emails, confiscate computers and they have th! e manpower to bust these

multi-layered rackets.

Below are some email addresses to cut & paste, as

well as a short letter. Please forward to friends too. I could not

find some email addresses for people directly involved with the above story,

but if you got a dime, their phone numbers are:

 

Sheriff William " Billy " Johnson- 440-576-9046

Ashtabula County Prosecutor's Office- 440-576-3662

Judge

Richard Stevens- 440-466-1184

Organized

Crime Investigations Committee- 1-800-589-6622

Email

to:

accvb,visitor,

commissioners,general,webmaster, ohhp,danewcomb,jamoroski,

lccomm,guide,

Strangest,

mayor,bernadette,skalman, cindy,hcc,hcso,rjboggs,

treasurer,sobrien,mkindle,

pryce.oh15,sherrod,john.boehner

senator_dewine,Portmail,bobney,

REP.KAPTUR,stephanie.tubbs-jones

 

Sample letter:

 

Re: Pit Bull Dog Fights in Ashtabula and Holms Counties

 

http://www.starbeacon.com/index.asp?MC=NEWS

 

… I urge the County Sheriff

to issue warrants with expedience.

… I urge the sheriff to

provide more support and deputies for Humane Society investigations of dog fights.

… I want these activities

actively investigated.

… I urge the County

Prosecutors to request that State Officials investigate dog fight racketeering.

… I urge all judges to

give maximum sentences to these criminals and, under the R.I.C.O., take away

their dogs, their homes, their cars and any other toys purchased with their

illegally-gained hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

Signed,