Police: Dogfighting arrests rare, but networks exist

Last month, police charged Silver Spring resident Maurice Tyrone Collier Jr. with animal cruelty offenses after finding six pit bulls at his residence that police allege were being trained for dogfights. Collier was originally stopped for suspicion of drunk driving and later arrested for possession of drugs and firearms.

While county residents have faced dogfighting charges in the past, police say large operations in Montgomery County are rare.

John Goodwin, a manager with the Humane Society of the United States who responds to animal fighting complaints, said dogfighting is ‘‘something that happens in the shadows.”

‘‘Because everyone knows it’s a felony and objectionable ... we have no idea how much escapes the eyes and ears of law enforcement,” he said.

In April 2006, Montgomery County police found 13 unlicensed and unvaccinated pit bulls, weapons and drugs in a Gaithersburg apartment following complaints about noise and allegations of dogfighting. Those dogs, which police said showed no evidence of injury or mistreatment, were eventually returned to the owner.

In September 2003, several men were charged with arranging dogfights after police found two dead pit bulls, another severely malnourished pit bull, and a videotape of two men forcing dogs to fight in an abandoned apartment in the Kentlands neighborhood of Gaithersburg.

Ashley Owen, a spokeswoman for the Montgomery County Humane Society in Rockville, said the low number of reported incidents was in part due to the ‘‘secretive nature of dogfighting.”

‘‘It takes an outside person to notice what’s going on,” and then people need to report it, she said.

Goodwin said Baltimore, where city officials have formed a taskforce to combat dogfighting, was the ‘‘mid-Atlantic hub” for the illegal activity. Owen said there were eight incidents of suspected dogfighting in Baltimore in 2007.

Virginia legislators are waiting for the governor to sign off on a bill that would make attending a dogfight a felony. ‘‘The dogfighters like to find places where the penalties are a little weaker,” Goodwin said.

In Maryland, being a spectator at a dogfight is a misdemeanor, and those found guilty may serve up to 90 days in jail or pay up to a $1,000 fine, Hibler said. Last week, the General Assembly passed a bill that would raise those maximums to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine. The bill must be signed by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) to become law.

In Prince George’s County, where there has been a ban on pit bulls for more than a decade, police still come across suspected cases of dogfighting, often as a result of investigating a suspect on other charges, said Ramon Korionoff, a spokesman for Glenn F. Ivey, the state’s attorney for Prince George’s County.

Korionoff said there were several ongoing investigations into the practice, which he said was led by ‘‘an underground network.”

Goodwin said the Humane Society is opposed to the bans but recognizes that pit bulls that have been trained to fight other dogs must often be euthanized.

‘‘The problem is the dogfighters breed these dogs to have a lot of aggression toward other animals. ... Shelters are reluctant to get a dog that could kill the pug next door,” Goodwin said. ‘‘The blame lies on the shoulders of the people who train these dogs to fight.”