Dog-fighting - 3 dogs seized Dade City, FL (US) Incident Date: Saturday, Mar 25, 2006 County: Pasco Local Map: available Disposition: Alleged Charges: Felony CTA Alleged: » Rodolfo Cabrera - Not Charged » Benjamin Brown

Case ID: 8501 Classification: Fighting Animal: dog (non pit-bull), dog (pit-bull) View more cases in FL (US) Login to Watch this Case

The two men charged in connection with an alleged dog fighting ring broken up by the Pasco Sheriff's Office on the night of May 25 each could face up to five years in prison. For the dogs, however, it is a death sentence.

The three pit bull terriers authorities seized from the blood-stained arena deputies say they found at 37525 Atwater Road will most likely be killed, a Pasco County Animal Services official said.

Trained in bloody combat, each bearing the scars of past battles, the animals are too dangerous to let live. "They would have to be euthanized," said Animal Services Director Denise Hilton. "They would not be safe to put out in the community, to re-home in any capacity. "You're left with virtually no options."

Benjamin Brown, a 41-year-old Dade City man who lives at the Atwater Road address, and Rodolfo Cabrera, 25, of Hialeah each were charged with fighting or baiting animals, a third-degree felony that can carry up to $10,000 in fines. Brown is accused of accepting $500 to let the fight take place on his property. Cabrera is accused of owning one of the pit bullterriers that was to fight the other two. Both posted $10,000 bail and were released from the county jail Sunday. Deputies seized two vehicles and found guns, marijuana and more than $20,000 cash.

Two anonymous tips about a scheduled dog fight led deputies to the Atwater Road location, a sheriff's report said. When deputies arrived at 8:30 p.m., the report said, about 20 men scattered and fled the area. On the northeast corner of the property, inside a shed, deputies said they found a dogfighting arena and outside it a cockfighting arena. Dried blood covered both.

At first, Brown agreed to let deputies search the property but said he didn't know if any animal fighting was taking place. "When asked about where all the blood and feathers came from," a deputy wrote in the report, "he stated one of his pit bulls got loose from its cage and attacked one of his chickens." Then Brown called his lawyer, who told him to stop cooperating and end the deputies' search of the property. Brown was then arrested. Deputies said he later told them this story: he accepted $500 from Cabrera and another man the report only identifies as "Big Boy" to use Brown's fighting arena because of his wife's medical expenses. Cabrera said he was there only to sell his pit bullterrier for $800 to a man whose identity he did not know.

On the property, deputies said they found all the accoutrements of an animal fighting ring: a roll of red admission tickets, a refrigerator stocked with animal medical supplies, and two treadmills with leashes attached to keep the dogs running continuously. "I know the homeowner said someone just asked him to use the location," sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said. "But from the description of the deputies, apparently there was a set-up for that purpose. Now how many fights were conducted there, I'm not sure we have the answer yet."

The investigation is ongoing, Doll said, and he could not say if more arrests are imminent. "It looks like the Sheriff's Office got there before any fights took place," Hilton said. "I'm not seeing any open wounds (on the dogs), so it's a good thing their timing was excellent."

But the animals do bear scars of past fights, she said. A woman called Animal Services on Monday trying to get two of the dogs back but was refused, Hilton said. An indefinite hold has been placed on them, and Animal Services will ask a county judge to grant the agency legal ownership. Once that happens, then the dogs will be put to death. But their lives ended long before, Hilton said.

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References

St Petersburg Times - March 28, 2006

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