A man was sentenced to 475 years for dogfighting. The sport is surprisingly prevalent

A Georgia man was sentenced to 475 years in prison for facilitating dogfights, an eye-popping punishment that prosecutors hope will draw attention to a practice they say is still widespread.

A jury found Vincent Lemark Burrell, 57, guilty of 93 counts of dogfighting and 10 counts of cruelty to animals after a four-day trial last week, the Paulding District Attorney’s Office said in a release.

The judge sentenced him to the maximum on each of those 103 counts, to be served consecutively, said Jessica Rock, the state animal crimes resource prosecutor with the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council.

“I’m pretty plugged in with the people that handle these cases both nationally and internationally,” she told NPR. “And we do believe that this is the highest and longest sentence in a dogfighting case in the world.”

NPR has reached out to the law firm representing Burrell, who was booked into custody on Thursday, according to county records.

Dogfighting involves breeding, conditioning and training dogs to fight for spectator entertainment and profit, according to the Humane Society of the U.S. Fights typically happen in a pit and average one to two hours, “ending when one of the dogs cannot continue.”

It is a felony offense under federal law and a crime in all 50 states. It must be investigated and prosecuted as such, Chief Marshal Trevor Hess said after Burrell’s sentencing last week.

“The average person doesn’t realize how prevalent dogfighting still is,” he said. “But the more we talk about this issue and educate the public, the more people will understand that dogs aren’t ‘just’ property, and you cannot treat them in this way.”

What authorities found 

The case dates back to November 2022, when law enforcement responded to a complaint from an Amazon driver who was concerned about the welfare of multiple dogs he saw chained to fence posts in Burrell’s yard.

Officers arrived at Burrell’s property in Dallas, Ga., — some 30 miles west of Atlanta — to find 107 dogs, mostly pit bulls, in what the sheriff’s office called “various degrees of existence.”

“Some of the dogs were emaciated, while others were strong and extremely aggressive toward other dogs,” it said at the time. “The sad part is that the vast majority of these animals just craved the love and attention of the Deputies and Detectives that were on the scene.”

The dogs were tied up near each other but out of reach — a tactic used to build aggression — and did not have access to food, water or veterinary care. Some were housed in the basement of the home, where the sheriff’s office said the odor of urine and feces was so strong that authorities had to wear protective gear just to be able to safely enter.

“Conditions where dogs were being housed, both inside and on the exterior of this property, were not fit for humans, much less dogs,” it said.

Authorities also found a variety of items associated with dogfighting on the property, the DA’s office said, including a chicken that was used to “entice” the dogs, a treadmill designed for dogs, a breeding stand, a break stick (for prying dogs’ jaws open during fights) and a kit commonly used to treat dogs after fights.

They also found documents linking Burrell’s dogs to other known dogfighters and contracts for the sale of specific dogs. Rock said law enforcement collected even more evidence through drone flyovers and authorized searches of Burrell’s phone and social media posts.

Burrell was arrested at his home for his role in what authorities called a “massive dogfighting operation.”

He took the stand during his trial and denied being involved in dogfighting, Rock said.

What happened to the dogs 

A veterinarian who examined the dogs that November day found that some had rashes around their necks from their collars, scarring patterns consistent with dogfighting and teeth that had been forcibly removed from their mouths.

Federal authorities obtained a warrant to take custody of the dogs, who were eventually placed with several rescue facilities to begin rehabilitation.

Dogfighting dogs must undergo significant temperament testing and training, explains Rock, the state and federal animal crimes prosecutor. She said they are typically aggressive towards other dogs but very friendly towards humans.

“Believe it or not, a lot of them — the majority of them — end up becoming adoptable,” she added. “So we have a pretty high adoption rate in these types of cases after the fact.”

One particular dog has stolen the hearts of many involved in the case: a puppy who was on the property as authorities executed their search warrant who has since been named Baby Shark.

“She kind of became our emotional support dog on scene, because we were obviously seeing a lot of things that the average person doesn’t have to see,” Rock said. “Everybody just fell in love with her. It took us three or four days … to get all of these dogs processed off the scene … she even slept in the car, I think, with some of the law enforcement who manned the crime scene.”

Baby Shark went to a local pitbull rescue where she worked through behavioral issues and underwent treatment for rickets, a bone disease caused by malnutrition. She is now available for adoption. And she was in the courtroom for the sentencing, wearing a big grin.

“People always ask me, ‘How do you do this? You’re such an animal lover, how do you function without going insane?’ ” Rock said. “And honestly, it’s stories like this … where I get to see the good side of humanity and I get to see the people who help these dogs after they have endured some type of trauma or lived some horrible life. And so I hold on to those good stories, and Baby Shark is one of them.”

What can be done about dogfighting

While dogfighting and related arrests don’t often make headlines, Rock says they are quite common.

Last February, the U.S. Justice Department charged 14 men from Georgia, Florida and Alabama for participating in a 2022 dogfight. In 2024, men in Maryland and Massachusetts were among those who pleaded guilty to federal dogfighting charges, and a former top Department of Defense official was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for his involvement in a “multi-state dogfighting conspiracy.”

Dogfighting can happen anywhere, but is especially prevalent in the rural South because of the space and weather conditions needed to house dogs outside all the time, Rock explained.

“It’s hard for me to really put a number on this,” she adds. “All I can tell you is that there’s only so many of us in this country that do this work full time, and we cannot keep up.”

She says people can help in their own communities by paying attention, like the Amazon driver did in this case.

The Humane Society of the U.S. encourages people to report anything suspicious, like multiple pit bulls chained up near each other, dogs with scars on their faces, dogfighting equipment (like treadmills and break sticks) or unusual foot traffic at odd hours. It also urges people who live in states where being a spectator at a dogfight is still a misdemeanor to lobby their legislators to make it a felony.

Rock says there’s much more dogfighting awareness among state and national law enforcement now than when she started doing this work two decades ago, but more needs to be done to educate the public.

“I think the more we talk about it, the more we bring awareness to it, the more we’ll be able to ultimately, hopefully get people to understand that in 2025, we’re just not going to tolerate this,” she said. “You don’t treat animals this way. You just don’t.”

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