I have been a Chicago Police Officer for over 13 years, most of it patrolling in high crime areas. Over the last decade, an increasing number of gang members nationwide have turned to dog fighting as a preferred form of gambling and recreational activity. Although dog fighting is a felony here in in Illinois, it is done with disturbing frequency. This practice is not only cruel to dogs, it's harmful for children. Recently, when I spoke before a group of fifth and sixth graders and asked how many children had witnessed dog fights, every hand in the room went up.

The dog fighting business is a bloody, gruesome spectacle in which one animal tears the other apart. When dogs lose fights, owners who are angry about losing money on them often throw their animals into garbage dumps or put them into vacant apartments to die slow, agonizing deaths from infection, starvation, or dehydration. I have recovered many such dogs, still alive, in varying states of mutilation.

I have seen a Rottweiler mix breed with the skin of her face torn off; a pit bull puppy whose stomach was ripped open, a shepherd mix breed whose penis was shreds. I have also seen corpses of dogs who were burned alive for losing fights.

Children see these things, too, and the danger is that they will emulate the violence around them. I have stopped children trying to make dogs fight, and I know of a group that swung a puppy around by a rope, snapping its neck. One fifth grader, describing to me in graphic detail a pit bull fight to which his uncle took him, told me that when the losing dog urinated and defecated upon itself before it died, he was the only one in the crowd who did not explode with laughter.

To grow up sane and self-respecting, children need to learn to treat other creatures — animals or human — with decency, compassion and humanity. This should be taught in school programs, but to be effective, the lessons have
to be manifest on the streets.

Because humane society investigators do not have full law enforcement powers, it is unrealistic to expect that they can stop this cruelty unaided. Joint efforts must be made with police officers specifically trained and assigned to stop animal abuse.

Some ask, with all the problems we face, what matters the fate of dogs? But to me, the question is, what kind of society do we become if our children lose their humanity?

FRANKLIN, Ind. -- A dog breeder convicted of using office scissors to cut off the ears of two pit bull puppies was sentenced to one year in jail.

In a bench trial, Johnson County Magistrate Court Judge Richard Tandy convicted Fabian Elisea on Monday of cruelty to animals and practicing veterinary medicine without a license.

Tandy then sentenced the 23-year-old Indianapolis man to the maximum term for the Class A misdemeanors, with no suspended time or probation.

"While it's on my watch, I'm not going to permit this to happen -- even if you think it's common practice within the county or within the dog-breeding and training arena," Tandy told Elisea.

Elisea testified that he crops his own dogs' ears in his pit bull breeding operation.

When William and Shawn Stratton of Franklin offered to sell him two puppies from a nine-week-old litter, Elisea offered to crop the dogs' ears.

Witnesses testified that Elisea taped the puppies' mouths shut and legs together, and cut off the ears with office scissors.

Shawn Stratton testified that her house "reeked of blood" after the procedure.

Dr. Edward O'Connor, a veterinarian who examined the puppies, testified that no sutures or glue were used to close the infected wounds. He called Elisea's ear-cropping "most inappropriate."

Animal-control officials seized both dogs and put them up for adoption.

Elisea defended ear-cropping as commonplace among pit-bull breeders. He called no witnesses to back up his claim.

"I've been doing this for about three years," he
testified. "Nobody ever said nothing but 'It was OK."'

Elisea testified he numbed the dogs' ears by using an over-the-counter antiseptic and anesthetic first-aid spray.

Drug by a vehicle

Recently there was a pit bull found down by the amphitheater, in Virginia Beach. At first glance he looked dead to the man passing by. But this dog raised it's head and wagged it's tail. This moved saved his life. Within 24hrs this dog was on all three major networks/local news and two major radio stations. All, looking for the people responsible for what happened.

Apparently, someone tied his front legs together and drug him behind a vehicle, with the intent of killing him. I've never seen a dog so tore up and still alive. He has multiple 10in lacerations and about 30% of his skin is just gone. He has his back leg in a cast and there are over 200 staples to close his wounds.

The vet staff named him Frankie - short for Frankenstein - because that is what he looks like. The vet called me to find a home for him. There is a man in our area known as the "dog whisperer." He is well known and respected by all of the rescue organizations in this area. I've known him for about a year. It was no contest, when this person called me and said he wanted Frankie. He is retired, and visits Frankie at the vet 3x a day. Everyday.

Frankie loves him. He says Frankie will never know anything else bad again.

Sherry, VA, March 2002