The Bobster
Senior News Editor since 2004
http://cbs3.com/topstories/dog.fighting.ring.2.1203201.html
Dog Fighting Ring Busted At Day Care In Ill.
1 Dog Had Eye Ripped Out, Another Had Leg Twisted Backward
MAYWOOD, Ill. (CBS) ― Nine mangled and mutilated dogs have been rescued from a dog fighting ring that ran from a home day care center in west suburban Maywood, Cook County Sheriff's police said.
A news release called the scene at the three Maywood homes "the most gruesome officers had ever uncovered." One dog had its eye ripped out, another had a leg twisted backward, and a third had its lower extremities almost severed from its body.
A licensed day care operation operated from one house, and one of the three ringleaders arrested in the case is related to the day care operator, the sheriff's office said.
"Kids were playing on a swing set just 10 feet away fr
om a vicious fighting dog and blood-stained floors," Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said in a news release. "The very equipment used to train these dogs to kill was being kept in the garage right behind the house. To be engaged in this sort of activity is disturbing enough, but to take a chance with anybody's children is reprehensible."
When police got to the day care facility, children were being watched at the house. In a garage behind the house was a dangerous pit bull, according to the sheriff's release.
There was also blood on the floor and along the sides of a car in the garage, and there were syringes, medication, bite sticks, and dog fighting harnesses, police said. The highly aggressive pit bull found in the garage had a shredded chest from recent fights, and his penis was almost completely bitten off, the release said.
The day care operator said she wasn't involved in dog fighting, and the children weren't allowed near the dogs or dog fighting materials.
There were
seven children being watched at the home day care; up to eight are permitted.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services had two complaints of dogs at the home in 2006 and 2007, and sent an inspector, but found no evidence of fighting or neglect, officials said. The last DCFS inspection was in December 2008, officials said.
The dogs were apparently locked in the basement during one inspection, officials said.
Investigators were led to a house a few blocks away where an ex-convict was housing the dogs for $60 a month.
The man, Martez Anderson, 38, was ticketed Tuesday for being a felon in possession of an unneutered or unspayed dog, the sheriff's office said. He was released from prison in 2006 on a drug conviction.
In Anderson's garage, there was an 18-month-old pit bull with three 4-week-old puppies, languishing away in a wire cage soiled with feces and urine, with no food or water, police said. Police believe the puppies were being used in fights
already as "bait dogs," as one had its left eye ripped out and several facial puncture wounds.
In a shed behind the garage, a 1-year-old pit bull had its leg found completely backward, and in a crate behind the shed, another put bull could barely stand.
A large fence separated Anderson's yard from his next door' neighbor's. In neighbor's yard, there was a severely injured pit bull tied to a logging chain, with fresh fighting wounds that might have stemmed from a fight this week, sheriff's police said.
The owner of the house consented to a search, and police found a treadmill that had been altered to train dogs to fight, and yet another malnourished puppy in the garage.
"What was done to these dogs is inexcusable," Dart said in the release. "This was done in the name of gambling and greed and no area seems to be immune from its influence - we see it in rural farm areas and inner cities. Unfortunately, we're also seeing more and more kids exposed to this kind of lifestyle.
"
The dogs were taken to the Animal Welfare League in Chicago Ridge.
Dog Fighting Ring Busted At Day Care In Ill.
1 Dog Had Eye Ripped Out, Another Had Leg Twisted Backward
MAYWOOD, Ill. (CBS) ― Nine mangled and mutilated dogs have been rescued from a dog fighting ring that ran from a home day care center in west suburban Maywood, Cook County Sheriff's police said.
A news release called the scene at the three Maywood homes "the most gruesome officers had ever uncovered." One dog had its eye ripped out, another had a leg twisted backward, and a third had its lower extremities almost severed from its body.
A licensed day care operation operated from one house, and one of the three ringleaders arrested in the case is related to the day care operator, the sheriff's office said.
"Kids were playing on a swing set just 10 feet away fr
om a vicious fighting dog and blood-stained floors," Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said in a news release. "The very equipment used to train these dogs to kill was being kept in the garage right behind the house. To be engaged in this sort of activity is disturbing enough, but to take a chance with anybody's children is reprehensible."
When police got to the day care facility, children were being watched at the house. In a garage behind the house was a dangerous pit bull, according to the sheriff's release.
There was also blood on the floor and along the sides of a car in the garage, and there were syringes, medication, bite sticks, and dog fighting harnesses, police said. The highly aggressive pit bull found in the garage had a shredded chest from recent fights, and his penis was almost completely bitten off, the release said.
The day care operator said she wasn't involved in dog fighting, and the children weren't allowed near the dogs or dog fighting materials.
There were
seven children being watched at the home day care; up to eight are permitted.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services had two complaints of dogs at the home in 2006 and 2007, and sent an inspector, but found no evidence of fighting or neglect, officials said. The last DCFS inspection was in December 2008, officials said.
The dogs were apparently locked in the basement during one inspection, officials said.
Investigators were led to a house a few blocks away where an ex-convict was housing the dogs for $60 a month.
The man, Martez Anderson, 38, was ticketed Tuesday for being a felon in possession of an unneutered or unspayed dog, the sheriff's office said. He was released from prison in 2006 on a drug conviction.
In Anderson's garage, there was an 18-month-old pit bull with three 4-week-old puppies, languishing away in a wire cage soiled with feces and urine, with no food or water, police said. Police believe the puppies were being used in fights
already as "bait dogs," as one had its left eye ripped out and several facial puncture wounds.
In a shed behind the garage, a 1-year-old pit bull had its leg found completely backward, and in a crate behind the shed, another put bull could barely stand.
A large fence separated Anderson's yard from his next door' neighbor's. In neighbor's yard, there was a severely injured pit bull tied to a logging chain, with fresh fighting wounds that might have stemmed from a fight this week, sheriff's police said.
The owner of the house consented to a search, and police found a treadmill that had been altered to train dogs to fight, and yet another malnourished puppy in the garage.
"What was done to these dogs is inexcusable," Dart said in the release. "This was done in the name of gambling and greed and no area seems to be immune from its influence - we see it in rural farm areas and inner cities. Unfortunately, we're also seeing more and more kids exposed to this kind of lifestyle.
"
The dogs were taken to the Animal Welfare League in Chicago Ridge.
