• A woman is arrested in Texas for felony cruelty to animals after three dead Pit bulls are found in her yard. Two other Pit bulls were barely alive in a storage area without food or water. One dog was so emaciated it could not walk. The surviving dogs had scars indicative of dog fighting. • A Louisiana man is arrested on animal cruelty after animal control officers found a pile of dead dogs and starving live ones chained in his yard. Seven Pit bulls were found dead, some still chained. Three chained Pit bulls were still alive. There was no food on site and all living dogs were severely malnourished. • Deputies in Hancock County, LA, received a call about dog fighting. They arrived at the residence to find 35 Pit bulls “living in poor conditions.” The owners claim they were “only” breeding the dogs. • A Pittsburgh, PA, man who mailed videotapes of fighting Pit bulls to a government investigator becomes the first person convicted at trial under a 1999 federal animal cruelty law. • Police officers find two men fighting their Pit bulls in an arranged dog fight between two public housing complexes in Annapolis, Maryland. • Five men face felony charges in a night raid that one official called the biggest dog fight event he’d ever seen in Texas. Ninety Pit bulls were removed from the grounds in eastern Bexar County. Taken to the humane society, the dogs elicit only sympathy from shelter personnel as one dog is shown walking gingerly in a cage due to his severe wounds. The Pit bull, 15 pounds underweight, is wagging his tail and welcoming the attention of reporters and TV cameras. His front paws are bent inward, as if he were bowlegged from the elbows down. This is thought to be caused by having his front legs broken and not being taken to the vet for treatment, as dog fighters naturally do not take fighting dogs in for medical attention. The dog was also covered with quarter-sized splotches of pink flesh and scabs dotted over his body. • Floyd Boudreaux and his son, Guy Boudreaux, are each arrested on 64 counts of dog fighting, 64 counts of animal cruelty and one count of possession of anabolic steroids, a schedule III narcotic. Hundreds of fighting roosters were also on the Youngsville, Louisiana, grounds. Both men were accused of fighting the dogs and breeding, training and selling the Pit bull terriers for fighting. The Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals called Floyd Boudreaux “the grandfather of dog fighting” for his work as a breeder since the 1950s. • A Mobile man is convicted of dog fighting and steroid possession. During the trial, witnesses testified that about 20 of the 23 Pit bulls found on the man’s property were disfigured with injuries. All the Pit bulls were dehydrated and emaciated to various degrees. The dogs had been kept on heavy logging chains. • Franklin County undercover detectives execute a major dog fighting arrest in Ohio, after two dog fighters were caught on tape talking about horrific methods used to kill “losing” dogs. • A Pit bull is found dead in a trash can behind a restaurant in Indiana. The dog’s mouth was bound with duct tape and the mauled condition of the Pit bull’s body convinced authorities the dog was used as a bait dog by dog fighters. • Deep in the woods of rural central Florida, officers find half a dozen Pit bulls chained to trees. There is no shelter, food, or water for these dogs bound with heavy logging chains. • A Wisconsin man is charged with fighting Pit bulls in his basement. • Six people, including a law enforcement officer, are sentenced to community service and probation for dog fighting in New Orleans. All six persons are able to expunge their records after serving their sentence (i.e., community service) and paying a $125 fine. • A suspected dog fighting ring is found in Detroit. Police found seven Pit Bulls, growth hormones used on the dogs, syringes and dog fighting training equipment. One official commented, “There was blood everywhere in the basement. I don’t think the dogs were ever let outside.” Five adults and six children were at the residence at the time of the raid. • A New York teenager is arraigned on charges of torturing animals and dog fighting after numerous Pit bulls, starving and with open wounds, are found at his home. Several Pit bulls were found in pens in the yard and nine Pit bulls were found in the basement. All the dogs were emaciated, scarred and had fresh, untreated wounds. • A Richmond man is convicted on a charge of dog fighting after twelve Pit bulls on heavy logging chains, a treadmill, illegal veterinary drugs, dog fighting videos and other paraphernalia is found in his Virginia home. • A Long Island man is arrested for training fighting dogs when police were alerted to his website. Although the website claimed to offer “gentle and effective training for puppies and dogs,” this was hardly the case. Officials found 12–15 fighting dogs in his garage in unsanitary and cruel conditions. • Two men are charged with dog fighting after deputies found them cleaning up and taking apart a portable dog fighting arena in South Carolina. Deputies seized fifteen Pit bulls from the property. An animal control officer stated, “The dogs should weigh 50 pounds or more, but most of them didn’t weigh half that.” • An 18-year-old in Tyler, Texas, is arrested for dog fighting and theft after a police investigation found him stealing dogs from backyards, taping their mouths shut and tossing the stolen pets to his nine Pit bulls. Police found the remains of six dogs on the property, believed to be stolen pets. • The son of a former Ku Klux Klan grand dragon is arrested after staging a Pit bull fight in a makeshift arena in the living room of his home. Madison County officials found two Pit bulls with fresh wounds that were bleeding and another Pit bull with old scars on its head. • In only three days more than 80 Pit bulls are seized in Anderson County, Texas. Authorities believe the dogs had been used for fighting. At least nine Pit bulls were found dead, still chained to trees. Six Pit bulls had their ears completely cut off, and the infections resulting from this required immediate medical attention. All the 132 dogs were extremely underweight, malnourished and being kept in deplorable conditions. Some of the chained dogs had no shelter and were huddled in a ball, shivering. The owners of these dogs were charged with varying crimes, including: cruelty to animals, possession of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, and assault on a public servant. • For five days, Simon the Pit bull lay in the bottom of dumpster, near death. The Pit bull was thrown in the trash bin near a Portage Little League baseball field in Indiana. The dog had a gaping wound in his head and multiple lacerations and bite marks over his entire body. Officials believe he suffered abuse for a long time. His teeth were broken off, his left eye was injured and the dog was “skin and bones.” Consider the population of Pit bulls and Pit bull-type dogs in the United States during these three months January 2005–March 2005): There were the 380+ horrifically abused Pit bulls listed above. There were thousands more fighting dogs whose owners were not apprehended by law officers and reported in the news during these 90 days. During this time there were also other Pit bulls that were subjected to horrendous injuries or unspeakable acts of depravity by humans, unrelated to dog fighting. There were also thousands more abusive owners, who may not have necessarily been fighting or inflicting depraved injuries on their dogs, but nonetheless kept them in extremely abusive environments. There were also hundreds of thousands of negligent owners, reckless owners, ignorant owners, irresponsible owners, average owners, good owners and great owners of Pit bulls. There were millions of Pit bull-type dogs experiencing every type of positive or negative emotional and physical circumstance humans are capable of imposing on dogs—and only two of these Pit bull-type dogs responded by fatally attacking a human during these 90 days. (Source: Karen Delise, National Canine Research Council, The Pit Bull Placebo) “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, because of those who look on and do nothing.” Albert Einstein