PNJ Headlines: Here’s what’s in the news Monday
American Magic $2 million over budget for HQ, taking the bite out of Pensacola dog fighting rings, and figuring toll for Navarre Beach Bridge
A spring pole with a piece of animal flesh hanging from a rope, a “break stick” with canine indentations, and a dog weight pull sled. A book titled, “I was tortured with knowledge: The Art of Conditioning the American Pit Bull Terrier for Combat.”
Those are just a few of the items police say they found when they searched the home of a Pensacola man arrested for dog fighting in late March.
The call that led to the discovery started out as a complaint that dogs were being illegally tethered without water at 280 Seamarge Lane in southwest Pensacola.
Authorities ended up confiscating six pit bulls from the home, some with multiple scars on their muzzles, forearms and bodies.
One had “fresh wounds on their face which appeared to be bite wounds,” according to 32-year-old Jerney Purifoy’s arrest report.
Purifoy is charged with using an animal to fight or bait another animal, and torment, deprive, mutilate, kill an animal. He is scheduled to be arraigned April 17.
Escambia County Animal Welfare Department Director John Robinson says the evidence deputies and animal control officers found at the house is a strong indication the animals were being used for dog fighting.
Usually, he said, it’s harder to prove.
“There’s probably more fighting here than we’ve caught,” Robinson said. “It’s difficult to make your cases, so you’ve got to have all the pieces fall into place. We were fortunate enough to do that with this case we had last week.”
Robinson said both dog fighting and cock fighting are relatively popular “sports” in the Southeast, and animal control is always on the lookout for signs of it.
However, those that take part in “professional” dog fighting are underground and he said they know how to hide the dog yards, pits, and places where the dogs fight, and people gamble on the outcome.
As a result, it’s harder to prove and determine exactly how widespread it is.
“Sometimes they get charged with lesser crimes because you can’t actually prove that they’re dog fighting or things like that, but you can charge them with animal cruelty,” Robinson said.
There are different types of dogs fighting, according to experts. For some it’s a sport or a hobby, and for others it’s a career.
Amateurs are those who get together with dogs and fight with no real organization or structure to the event. Those cases don’t often get reported and authorities say they’re hard to catch.
Professional dog fighters often work in rings for the money, Robinson said, but sometimes gamble vehicles, property, or the dogs themselves.
They also treat their animals like an investment and take the time to train, bandage, breed, and even “juice” their dogs with drugs that keep them amped up for fighting.
In America, Robinson said pit bull dogs are the breed most used in dog fighting.
One thing professional dog fighters don’t do as often as is commonly believed is use “bait dogs” to train animals to fight.
Robinson said while amateur fighters may occasionally use them, professional dog fighters don’t train with bait dogs because they don’t want to risk hurting or exposing their “prize fighters” to injuries or disease from a stray off the street.
Usually, he said, there are other kinds of criminal activity associated with dog fighting rings like drugs, guns, and sometimes human trafficking.
Robinson said with any dog fighting bust police investigate to see who else is involved, and while proving it can be a challenge, Robinson said tips from citizens are enormously helpful.
“It’s important for people to know that we are always looking into calls on these cruelty cases,” Robinson said. “That’s literally how we found this situation is that somebody called in a dog on a tether without water. One of the biggest dog fighting cases that I worked in Memphis was from a barking complaint, so don’t think that what you report is small and inconsequential because sometimes it turns into a bigger case.”
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