Dog-fighting - Syracuse, NY

Monday, Oct 31, 2005

County: Onondaga

Disposition: Alleged

Alleged: Omari Anderson

A tape seized in November from the home of a Syracuse man accused of keeping fighting dogs shows the man apparently exhorting pit bull dogs to fight.

Omari Anderson, 28, of 641 Salisbury Park Drive, had two charges of keeping dangerous dogs dropped in City Traffic Court.

Anderson is still facing several counts, including reckless endangerment, following an attack by three dogs on Robert Walts, who was pushing his daughter in a stroller Aug. 14 on Salisbury Park Drive. Officers shot four dogs and seized the two that were the topic of Thursday's court hearing.

Anderson has maintained he is a dog breeder who loves his animals. After court Thursday, Anderson said the tape police seized shows a family picnic.

Police Chief Gary Miguel made the tape available to The Post-Standard on Friday.

"This is no family picnic," Miguel said as the tape began to roll Friday.

"The video shows dog fighting, dogs being encouraged to fight, dogs being coached to fight," Miguel said.

On the video, two dogs are being held by the collar as someone off-screen counts "One, two, three - go." The dogs are released and immediately jump at each other, teeth bared.

"Work, work, work," a voice urges.

Anderson also can be seen on the tape taking one dog and throwing it toward another.

"Now she's working," Anderson is heard saying. "Now she's showing us something."

"Don't stop, don't stop. You're stopping, that's your problem," another voice says.

As the dogs finish scrapping, the voice says "Good girl. And this is your first time, too."

After a brief break, the two dogs go viciously at each other again, with encouragement from people in the room.

Between segments showing dogs, the tape shows Anderson dancing with a toddler and of the toddler cooing to the camera. The tape begins with a pit bull giving birth to several puppies as Anderson's girlfriend Tiffany Ellison assists the dog.

Thursday, Ellison was determined to be the licensed owner of the two dogs seized by the police Aug. 14.

Anderson said Friday that the tape shows dogs playing and his talking to the dog is just how he would talk to a child.

"I'm saying 'get the leg.' It's not like I'm saying 'take the leg off,' " Anderson said.

"It might have looked aggressive to you, but it's not what it appears," Anderson said.

Two dogs were being introduced to each other to see how they would react, Anderson said.

Miguel disagreed.

"He's making these dogs fight," Miguel said.

Anderson said he and his girlfriend are "working, middle-class citizens" and he has grown tired of the attention brought to him.

In the end, he said, his dogs were shot and killed.

"I'm devastated," he said.

The tape was seized after a search warrant was executed in November on Anderson's home. Anderson faced two drug felonies, but pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge, according to the Onondaga County District Attorney's Office.

The dogs were not seized at the time because a fight would have to be witnessed or interrupted for dogs to be considered fighting dogs, Sgt. Tom Connellan, police spokesman, said.

References

• The Post-Standard - Sept 2, 2006

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