Hog-dog fight Ring Busted Coffeeville, AL (US) Incident Date: Monday, Aug 9, 2004 County: Clarke Local Map: available Disposition: Convicted Charges: Misdemeanor Abuser/Suspect: Johnnie Hayes Case Updates: 1 update(s) available

Case ID: 2805 Classification: Fighting Animal: dog (non pit-bull), dog (pit-bull) View more cases in AL (US) Login to Watch this Case

A Clarke County man who entertained paying crowds by turning pit bulls loose on hogs in pens was found guilty of animal cruelty�in Clarke County District Court.

Johnnie Hayes and his attorney, Wylynn Gilmore-Phillippi, promised to appeal and requested a jury trial. He faces 30 days in jail.

Hayes has never denied holding heavily attended dog-against-hog events, called catches. During catches, which are held throughout Alabama and in other states, a wild hog is released into a ring during a timed event. The pit bull catches the squealing hog and bites down on an ear, jaw, leg, tail or snout until its handlers break the hold with a stick. During a February match, holding times ranged from between just under six seconds to half a minute.

Hunters say the matches, called hog dog trials, are family fun and defend them as necessary to train their animals to help them hunt boars in the wild. The boars aren't killed, they said, and receive veterinary treatment if needed. Opponents have decried the matches as bloody and cruel pastimes that teach children to accept violence.

"Justice was well served today," said Elizabeth Flott, an animal rescue worker for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Mobile County. She and another worker attended the trial. "We've been fighting this for four years," she said.

But Hayes said the ruling was a blow to a legitimate sport -- hunting wild hogs.

Wild hogs "aren't Disney animated characters," he added. "They're pests. They're dangerous."

Alabama does not specifically ban hog dog matches as it does cockfighting. However it does ban animal cruelty, and Hayes had been charged with a misdemeanor.

Hayes said he has hunted wild hogs for about 15 years. The matches began when he and buddies started getting together and to train their dogs, he said. Eventually he set up bleachers, charged admission and entry fees and awarded prizes. The Clarke County Sheriff's Department knew about the events and in fact some off-duty deputies worked security at them, he testified.

The sheriff also testified that he had known about the events, but did not offer an explanation about why he hadn't charged Hayes earlier with a crime.

Last winter, an undercover camera crew from Mobile filmed a match. When it aired, a furor resulted. Sheriff Jack Day said he has gotten messages from around the country from people urging him to intervene.

In February, Day, prosecutor Stephen Winters and other law enforcement officers showed up at a match in a ravine on Hayes' land on the outskirts of Coffeeville. Hayes was expecting them. He conducted an abbreviated match to let the officers see what it was all about. Afterward, they led him off in handcuffs.

On Wednesday, Day and Chief Deputy Donny Arnold testified they felt the match constituted cruelty because they saw blood and hair in one of the dog's mouths when it was released from the hog and because the hogs had no way to escape, though they were obviously trying to.

One hog, Arnold testified, was "screaming viciously."

Hayes said pit bulls are easier on the hogs because their jaws are designed merely to hold. Unlike other dogs, they don't slash, he said. The blood, he testified, was probably from the dog biting its tongue.

Arnold had a different take.

"Those dogs were biting and they were slinging," he testified.

The officers testified that they did not examine the hogs after the match and did not know whether any had visible injuries.

Hayes said the hog dog trials weren't nearly as cruel as coon hunts, where dogs tree a coon and the hunter wounds it so it falls from the tree and is torn apart by the dogs.

Day said he planned to avoid that issue, and Winters said he has no plans to take on hunting.

Before ruling on the case, Judge William Kimbrough said he does not believe hunting is cruel. The hog dog matches bother him, he said, because unlike in the wild, the hogs have no chance to get away and because the admission and prizes lent an air of entertainment, not sport.

He compared the matches to a spear fisherman improving his skill by aiming at catfish in a barrel.

Meanwhile, the matches continue throughout the state. Winters said it might be an issue the Legislature should address.

Earlier this year, Louisiana banned matches that involved combat between the hogs and dogs and where animals seemed likely to be "injured, maimed, mutilated, or killed."

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