Features
Blood Money: Detroit Dog Fights
By Travis R. Wright | photo by travis r. wright
Oct 4, 2006, 23:40

In the darkest and perhaps bloodiest corners of the Detroit gambling world, death and dollars trade hands like cards on the poker table — but this is no card game. The only chips at play in this gamble are those taken out of flesh and when the stakes get raised it is often a matter of life and death. This is the disturbing, cruel, insane world of dog-fighting. This underground racket exists around the world in places so foreign and exotic that it seems somewhat detached from your immediate reality but these horrific events are also taking place in your backyard, your neighbor’s basement and at the end of your grandma’s street, every single day.

Detroit isn’t the only city that has a problem with dog-fighting, the reality is this heinous crime is occurring all over the state but there is a significantly serious problem in our city and it’s often a spontaneous and secretive crime making it hard for Detroit Police and the Michigan Humane Society’s animal cruelty investigation team to put a stop to it. I spent an afternoon driving around the East side of Detroit with Animal Cruelty Investigators Debby McDonald and Dave McLeod as they attended to the cases of the day to get a better idea of the issues they are facing in their war against the inhumane treatment of animals and the issues that Detroit faces — or chooses not to — when it comes to subject of pit bulls tearing at each other’s flesh for the entertainment and profit of men.

“Detroit has a consistent problem with dog-fighting,” Debby McDonald, head of the Animal Cruelty Investigation branch of the Michigan Humane Society, said. “Dog-fighting has become much more organized and has gone underground; the community is publishing their own underground newspapers and such. Street fighting has become much more popular and those fights tend to be more spontaneous, thus harder to stop and make arrests.

As the popularity of owning a pit bull has risen immensely in the city of Detroit, so has the popularity of the street fights.” The investigators at the MHS, who are often featured on Animal Planet’s Animal Cops show, see the worst of the worst on a daily basis yet remain dedicated to the work they do no matter how gruesome it gets — which I promise you is more than you could possibly imagine because as McDonald put it, “We try to focus on all the good we do for these animals at the end of the day. If you think about the cruelty, which is very very real, then, well, you could easily drive yourself crazy but that’s not to say it gets easier.”

Because the street fights occur so quickly and the basement fights have moved so far underground, very rarely do the “animal cops” get calls for dogfights in progress. This is one of the biggest frustrations that they face on a daily basis. “Sometimes it’s just the luck of the draw,” MHS field agent Dave McLeod said. “Sometimes we get called for a separate issue, then happen upon a dogfight or Detroit Police get called to investigate a separate crime, then they call us.”

The people who involve themselves in the dog-fighting scene are the worst of the worst, often involving themselves in other equally heinous crimes. “Drug dealing and guns are around in almost every bust, that’s nothing new,” McLeod said. “We also see drug manufacturing, prostitution and even murder for hire.”

Unlike prostitution, drug manufacturing and murder for hire, where the evidence of the crime isn’t always as obvious as the authorities would like it to be, dog-fighting's marks are incredibly visible. First, if you are able recognize a pit bull then you’re already half way there. “We used to see a mix of dogs used for these fights: German Shepards, Dobermans, Rottweilers and of course, pit bulls ... now its 99 percent pit bull, the unofficial dog of Detroit,” McLeod said. “What a lot of people out there don’t realize is that for over 100 years pit bulls have been bred to be 'dog unfriendly,' they are naturally violent towards other animals … it’s in their system.” Second, take a closer look at the pit bull and ask yourself: Does it look underweight and can you see any marks that indicate violence?

Watching out for these indicators shouldn’t be hard to do, but the reports aren’t pouring in like they could be. Why? Fear may be a reason but there is always the good old anonymous tip. Another reason may be the fact that this has become somewhat of a fad, in a sick way seen as something cool, a game of “who has the baddest dog on the block,” as agent McLeod put it. Or perhaps it’s the money to be made. “Street fights can generally produce pots of a couple hundred dollars, or perhaps just bragging rights while the organized fights see purses ranging from $10,000-$250,000,” McDonald said.
 
In the summertime, dogs die from heat and lack of food and water; the winter is just as harsh with stray dogs freezing to death on a nightly basis, unfortunately this will be a tragedy that will remain true year in and year out. However, dogs killing each other, ripping at each other’s necks for the entertainment and profit of man has no bearing on what time of year or even day it is. Death is always a factor. But in the world of Detroit dog-fighting it’s not just dogs killing other dogs.

“Most of the time they (the dog owners, trainers and referees … yes, it is that organized) do not let the dogs fight to the death, however it does happen frequently and sometimes purposefully. More horrific is that many of the deaths are a result of the dog’s owner or trainer slaughtering their pit-bull because they lost or refused to fight.” McDonald said.

“We’ve seen dogs shot with shotguns … we’ve seen dogs hung from the ceilings above blood soaked carpets.“  | RDW

For info on reporting and preventing animal cruelty, please go to: www.michiganhumane.org, call 313.872.3401 or contact your local animal control/police department.

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