Fifty-eight dogs were pulled from four properties in the Longs area of Horry County, South Carolina, after police say four people ran a dogfighting operation for months. The animals were found chained in yards where temperatures reached 92 degrees, starving, with ribs and hip bones visible through their skin. Some carried scarring consistent with fighting.

Byron Chestnut, the fourth suspect, was arrested in September and charged with 25 counts of ill treatment and torture of animals. Jachym Evans, Themontres Livingston, and Jemar Chestnut were arrested months earlier on similar counts plus criminal conspiracy. Investigators say the case began with a single tip from someone in the community who noticed something was wrong, and that more charges could still be coming.

The dogs have been moved to a rescue organization in North Carolina, but their future, and the case against the people accused of hurting them, is still being decided. Local prosecutors need to know the public is watching: these charges deserve the maximum penalties the law allows, and the rescued dogs deserve a real path to recovery and adoption, not a quiet return to danger.

Animal cruelty on this scale does not happen without people looking away. This community did not look away, and the Horry County solicitor's office should not either. A strong prosecution and a guaranteed rehabilitation plan for these dogs will send a clear message that dogfighting has no place in South Carolina.

Sign the petition to demand full prosecution of the Horry County dogfighting suspects and a guaranteed rescue path for the dogs they hurt.