8 abused dogs found abandoned, fighting suspected Noblesville, IN (US) Incident Date: Friday, Dec 15, 2006 County: Hamilton Local Map: available Disposition: Open Suspect(s) Unknown - We need your help!

Case ID: 10478 Classification: Fighting, Neglect / Abandonment Animal: dog (pit-bull) View more cases in IN (US) Login to Watch this Case

Hamilton County officials believe eight badly abused dogs taken to the humane society may have been forced to participate in a dog-fighting ring in another county.

The dogs were found during the weekend of Dec. 15 running loose near 225th Street and U.S. 31 near the crossroads of Boxley, said Sheriff's Maj. Mark Bowen. Tom Rogers, an animal control officer for the Sheriff's Department, took the dogs to the Humane Society for Hamilton County at 1721 Pleasant St. He took them two at a time as they were discovered, all within about a mile of one another.

Rebecca Stevens, the humane society's executive director, said all eight pit bulls were malnourished and scarred from fighting, and several had pieces of their ears missing. Dogs are often starved to make them more aggressive, she explained.

Although these dogs haven't shown signs of aggression, Stevens believes they were probably used as "bait" dogs to train the more-aggressive dogs to fight. She suspects these dogs' gentle dispositions may have led to their abandonment.

"My guess is they served no purpose to them (the dogfighting-ring operators), so they just dropped them off," she said.

All of the dogs were wearing the same type of heavy canvas collar, similar to collars that police found on 20 pit bulls during a drug raid in Muncie, Ind., on Dec. 20, said Sheriff's Maj. Mark Bowen. Rogers and other sheriff's deputies are continuing to follow leads to determine where the dogs came from.

Bowen stressed that police had no evidence that dogfights were occurring in Noblesville or Hamilton County. The major believes the dogs were dumped here to get them far enough away that Muncie authorities wouldn't stumble across them and any other illegal activity.

The humane society is providing temporary shelter for the dogs until foster homes can be found or families adopt them, Stevens said. Contrary to popular belief, she said, pit bulls are not inherently aggressive and she hopes local families will give them a chance.

"Even after the amount of cruelty they went through, these dogs aren't mean," she said. "It's not in their nature. Animals like this aren't naturally bad. It's humans that turn them into something they're not meant to be."

To help find homes for the animals, Stevens enlisted a local pit-bull rescue group as well as Indiana Proactive Animal Welfare (Indiana-PAW), a group started by former humane society public relations and community outreach coordinator Amy Van Ostrand.

After being laid off from the humane society in November 2003, Van Ostrand wrote a letter listing problems she saw with the organization. She leveled serious charges of mismanagement at the shelter that led to the departures of two directors and several changes at the shelter.

Stevens said she's worked with Van Ostrand and Indiana-PAW since she became executive director in May 2005.

"There's no reason for any problems," Stevens said. "That's old history and things folks have said happened. But for me, I'm all about new beginnings. This is a new shelter, a new board, a new director . . . we're in a new building . . . it's time to start anew and focus on our work here, what our mission is, which is what's best for the animals."

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References

	Indystar - Jan 5, 2007
	Noblesville Ledger -  Jan 10, 2007

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