Law-enforcement officials turn to The HSU

Lockwood, Randall, Ph.D.

English

WBI Studies Repository (WellBeing International)

By Randall Lockwood, Ph.D. hose of us who work for the protection of animals have long realized that people who are cruel and abusive toward animals are often entangled in other illegal, often violent, activities against people and society (see the Sum-mer 1986 HSUS News). Although it has often been difficult for animal-protection groups to get police and other law-en-forcement authorities to respond to con-cerns about animal cruelty, a growing number of such agencies see the investiga-tion and prosecution of animal abusers as an appropriate use of limited crime-fight-ing resources. Although The HSUS has as-sisted law-enforcement agencies periodi-cally throughout its history, such coopera-tion has become increasingly regular. • On February 6, 1993, HSUS Mid-At-lantic Regional Investigator Bob Reder as-sisted New York State Police in raiding three locations believed to be involved in the breeding of dogs for dogfighting. Twenty pit bulls were seized, along with steroids and dogfighting paraphernalia. At one location several dogs, including a litter of puppies, were found without food or water, shivering in subzero temperatures. This raid followed several months of con-sultation between New York State Police and The HSUS, which helped draft the necessary search warrants. • On January 30, 1993, HSUS West Coast Regional Investigator Eric Sakach joined a team of law-enforcement officers in dog-fight raids on four Colorado locations. The raids were the culmination of nearly a year of collaboration with the Colorado state at-torney general's office, the Colorado state veterinarian, the Colorado bureau of inves-tigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the sheriff's offices of the communities involved. This action re-sulted in 22 arrests for felony animal fighting and conspiracy. Additional arrests related to marijuana cultivation. • On January 17, 1993, HSUS Southeast Regional Investigator Ken Jolmson joined forty-five deputies in a raid on a dogfight 32 NV-ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS TURN TOTHEHSUS in the Tampa, Florida, area. That action was the result of four months of planning by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Of-fice and The HSUS. Sixty-four people were arrested, seven of them for felonies, including cruelty to animals and carrying a concealed firearm. (A conviction on felony animal-cmelty charges in Florida can result in up to five years in jail.) Guns, cocaine, and marijuana were found at the scene, dropped by participants and specta-tors who had attempted to flee. • On November 7, 1992, HSUS Senior In-vestigator Bob Baker, Great Lakes Re-gional Program Coordinator Robin Weir-auch, and Great Lakes Administrative As-sistant Barbara Matthews participated in the nation's largest-ever dogfight raid, as officers from several municipalities in and around Saginaw, Michigan, including the HSUS NEWS • Spring 1993 Bay Area Narcotics Enforcement Team, raided the "Roadblock Invitational Cham-pion Showdown." This raid resulted in 126 arrests, the seizure of 21 fighting dogs, and the confiscation of money, drugs, and weapons. The Saginaw raid was the direct result of two years of HSUS efforts in tracking dogfighting activity in Michigan. In meet-ings with HSUS staff, federal and state HSUS NEWS • Spring 1993 drug authorities were impressed to discov-er that The HSUS 's tracking of known and suspected dogfighters generated addresses and aliases of individuals under investiga-tion for trading in illegal dmgs. • In November 1990 Mr. Sakach partici-pated in a raid on a remote area of north-ern California after a narcotics investiga-tion turned up evidence of a large-scale dogfighting operation. Investigators found Ken Johnson (in HSUS cap) and Hills-borough County Sheriff Cal Henderson restrain a fighting dog during a raid being videotaped by a local television crew. 3 7 pit bulls, a bloodstained dogfighting pit, and a large assortment of dogfighting publications. The principal suspect in that investigation pleaded guilty to felony dog-fighting and narcotics charges. County of-ficials had become aware of HSUS exper-tise in investigating dogfighting as a result of workshops we had conducted at a com-munity college in the area. • On June 16, 1988, HSUS staff worked with officers from the sheriff's depart-ments of two counties, as well as the FBI, to raid two Ohio locations involved in breeding dogs for fighting. In addition to four felony dogfighting arrests, the raid yielded 143 confiscated dogs. Felony drug and weapons charges were also brought. This represented the first time that the FBI was involved in the investigation and pros-ecution of animal fighting. The HSUS had been asked by state and federal officials to help identify and document dogfighting suspects in the region and to brief the par-ticipating agencies on the collection of dogfighting evidence and the handling of fighting dogs. The HSUS has no police powers or au-thority, but years of efforts to end animal cruelty, including the especially violent blood sports dogfighting and cockfighting, have produced a special level of expertise and professional credibility that frequently leads law-enforcement agencies to seek our assistance. Why has this relationship grown so strong in the last several years? Law-en-forcement agencies are discovering first-hand that the people involved in violent crimes against animals are often involved in many other violent activities. Says Mr. Sakach, "The police are learning that your local dogfight or cockfight is a likely place to meet up with lots of people with warrants outstanding for their arrest, as well as a likely site for drug dealing, gam-bling, illegal weapons, and other crimes." This point is frequently underscored 33 by the histories of dogfighters and cock-fighters. • In 1992 a young District of Columbia man known to The HSUS and Washington Humane Society cruelty investigators for his frequent involvement in animal cruelty and dogfighting was killed in what police considered to be a drug-related murder. • In July 1991 Tony Davis, well known to The HSUS and in dogfighting circles as "Snakeman," was sentenced to thirty years in prison for soliciting a North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation undercover agent to kill an eighteen-year-old woman who had accused him of rape. • In November 1991, following coverage on television's "America's Most Wanted," Dennis Gene Reese, identified as "an avid cockfighting fan," was tracked to Ten-nessee. He had escaped from a Kentucky jail where he had been imprisoned on charges of raping and bludgeoning a woman, and strangling her to death. He was recaptured in January 1992. What kinds of HSUS efforts have helped build the relationship between The HSUS and law enforcement? Research and Intelligence. We have accu-mulated enormous amounts of background information on the numerous ways in 34 Top: Armed FBI and other law-enforcement officers watch intently as animal-control officers seize a pit bull during a dogfight raid in Ohio in 1988. Above: an impressive cache of arms taken during the same raid illustrates one reason for federal officials' interest in animal-fighting activities. This raid was the first ever to involve the FBI in the investigation and prosecution of dogfighting. which people abuse, neglect, and exploit animals, as well as ways to combat such actions. In recent years we have attempted to assemble this infonnation in systematic ways to assist appropriate law-enforcement authorities in identifying leads about illegal activities in their region. Because so many violent abusers of animals have long histo-ries of crimes against people, law-enforce-ment officials are finding that cooperative efforts with animal-protection groups, es-pecially The HSUS, can help locate or identify suspects in other crimes. The HSUS offers rewards for informa-tion leading to the arrest and conviction of those who would abuse animals (see side-bar). Training. We are increasingly reaching out to local law-enforcement authorities through our workshops on cruelty investi-gation, in regional conferences, and through participation in training programs conducted by law-enforcement agencies. HSUS staff members have written articles for Police magazine and other law-en-forcement publications. The HSUS has al-HSUS NEWS • Spring 1993 so prepared professional training materials on animal cruelty for the International As-sociation of Chiefs of Police. Such efforts are paying off: agencies once inclined to consider any animal-cruelty case as minor are now more willing to provide the neces-sary resources to investigate and prosecute such crimes. Preparation. The dramatic raids that highlight some of our cooperative efforts sometimes continuing a year or more after the actual event. Often our staff must spend hours sifting through evidence to help local prosecutors build the strongest possible case. How useful and effective has our assis-tance been? Rob Andrews, assistant prose-cutor in the Ohio dogfight cases, notes, "With the help of The Humane Society of the United States, we were able to take this During a raid in Colorado, Eric Sakach points out bloodstains splattered on the ply-wood walls of a dogfighting pit. The raid was the culmination of nearly a year of HSUS collaboration with state and federal law-enforcement officials. "The police are learning that your local dogfight or cockfight is a likely place to meet up with people with war-rants outstanding for their arrest," says Mr. Sakach. with police and other agencies are only the most visible part of a long, detailed process. The HSUS may be called upon to help decide what will be searched for and how it will be handled. Often HSUS testi-mony is presented to give weight to evi-dence submitted by local authorities as justification for a search warrant. Such "evidence" is often live animals who must be appropriately handled and cared for. Whenever possible, advanced preparations must be made for the safe and secure housing of any animals involved, including those who are sick or injured. Through our contacts with local humane groups and animal shelters, we are often able to make such arrangements before the actual event. Follow-up. Perhaps the most important part of any action against animal cruelty is the follow-up. Often the role of The HSUS has been to explain and clarify for a judge or jury the nature of the evidence collected and to document the cruelties inflicted. This process can be very time-consuming, HSUS NEWS • Spring 1993 case seriously. You gave us the back-ground information to understand what it would take to prove the crime. You ex-plained the use of the criminal tools. We saw there was a tangled web surrounding this crime." Detective Mark Lively of the Saginaw Police Department reports, "The informa-tion you gave us showed the magnih1de of the activity that was taking place here. The information you provided was used for the warrant. You were able to provide expert witness testimony in court detailing the training techniques, the equipment, and the fight." HSUS assistance to law-enforcement agencies is not limited to high-profile cas-es of animal fighting, although these are the actions that are most likely to result in numerous arrests and convictions on a va-riety of serious charges. We frequently provide similar expertise on investigations of puppy mills, animal collectors, fatal at-tacks on humans by animals, and isolated cases of animal abuse and neglect. One person uniquely qualified to pro-vide a view of animal-protectionist/police collaboration is Sue McDonough, presi-dent of the New York State Humane Asso-ciation and an investigator for the New York State Police. She has been assisted by HSUS staff on a variety of animal-cruelty investigations. She says, "The people who are abusing animals are hurting wives and children, dealing drugs, holding illegal weapons, and committing all mmmer of other crimes. But the police often don't know what to look for in dealing with ani-mal cruelty .... They need the help of hu-mane groups, and we welcome your help." The continuing cooperation between an-imal-protection groups and law-enforce-ment agencies is paying off. Mr. Sakach notes, "I'm delighted that we are seeing a succession of people heavily involved in violence against animals starting to take the fall they should have taken years ago." This is a promising sign that our society views violence against animals as a serious issue that deserves our full attention. • Randall Lockwood, Ph.D., is HSUS vice president, Field Services. HSUS REWARDS The HSUS offers the following re-wards: • up to $2,500 for infonnation leading to the arrest and conviction of any wholesale dealer in dogs and cats who lmowingly buys or otherwise procures m1y stolen animal; • up to $2,500 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any per-son who organizes dogfights, fights dogs, promotes dogfighting, or offici-ates at dogfights; • up to $2,500 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any per-son who illegally organizes cockfights, fights cocks, promotes cockfighting, or officiates at cockfights; • up to $2,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any per-son who willfully poisons, mutilates, or torhu·es, or attempts to poison, muti-late, or torhJre, any dog or cat; • up to $2,500 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any per-son who uses any live animal as a "lure" in the training and racing of greyhounds; • up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone who cruelly treats any animal who par-ticipates in a pulling contest. • 35 

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Untangling the Web

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