Written by Alisa Mullins
It was a horrifying sight. The dog's bloated body was spotted off a pier behind a Newport News, Virginia, boatyard. The young black-and-white female pit bull had apparently drowned, as indicated by her clenched teeth and protruding tongue. But most chilling was that she likely hadn't wound up in the water by accident: Tied to her red-and-black harness was an 11-pound weight that looked like the head of a sledgehammer. This dog was almost certainly thrown into the water and left to struggle for air until she could struggle no more.
Since the dog's body was found in the hometown of Michael Vick's "Bad Newz Kennels," where dogfighting and pit bull abuse are still serious problems, we can't help but fear the worst: that she was bred, trained, and/or used for fighting; either wasn't "game," lost a fight, or got sick; and was meant to "retire" at the bottom of the James River.
As we learned from the Michael Vick case, unwanted "fighting dogs" are often killed in the most horrific ways. Vick and his cohorts admitted to hanging, shooting, electrocuting, drowning, and slamming to the ground dogs who didn't "perform" well.
While we may never know if this dog was used for fighting, we do know that someone did not want her body to be found. A necropsy report indicates that she suffered a shattered rib, probably inflicted by the heavy weight when she was thrown into the water. She had recently given birth and may have experienced complications.
We are offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for this heinous crime.
What You Can Do
If you ever suspect anyone of participating in dogfighting, alert authorities immediately. Dogfighting is a felony in all 50 states and is often associated with other serious crimes, including domestic violence, gang activity, and illegal drugs, firearms, and gambling. Signs of dogfighting include the presence of multiple pit bulls chained up in a backyard and paraphernalia such as treadmills and heavy logging chains.
Written by Jeff Mackey
In February, two PETA staffers volunteering with our Community Animal Project's straw-delivery program came upon a malnourished pit bull caged in a Portsmouth, Virginia, backyard, and living in filth.
The pen in which Blackie was kept 24/7 was "wall-to-wall" trash, filth, and feces. There was no food, no drinkable water, and no adequate shelter from the elements. A bucket inside the pen contained disgusting, murky, partially frozen rainwater and algae. The only "shelter" available to Blackie on this cold and rainy day was half of a plastic doghouse turned upside-down. The man who identified himself as the person responsible for Blackie told our volunteers that he was looking to "get rid of the dog"—so we gladly obliged and whisked Blackie away. Blackie was elated to be out of his own waste and happily hopped right into our rescue van. He never looked back.
At PETA's shelter, Blackie enjoyed a heated room, a sofa to lounge on, fresh food and water (which he gobbled up!), and regular walks. He also got—no doubt for the first time ever—a bath. Our veterinarian found Blackie to be 20 percent underweight and suffering from a severe hookworm infestation. After a few days of treatment (and plenty of TLC) at PETA, Blackie—since renamed Jabber—was transferred to the Portsmouth Humane Society. He's gained 11 pounds since his rescue and now awaits adoption.
You'll be glad to know that Jabber's former owner isn't faring nearly so well: After PETA's witnesses testified in court, a judge found the man guilty of cruelty to animals, saying that he found the evidence "shocking" and that it was "no condition to keep a dog in." He was sentenced to pay a $250 fine and spend one month in jail and is also forbidden from owning "pets of any kind" for two years. If he does not maintain good behavior for two years, his sentence will increase to a $500 fine and six months in jail.
Jabber is just one of the many dogs and cats who've had rough starts in life but are now ready for adoption at shelters. If you're looking to add an animal (or two) to your family, please give them the homes they so richly deserve—never buy animals from breeders or pet shops. And if you ever see an animal in distress, please, be ready to help.
Written by PETA
In my first year working at a grossly substandard animal shelter in Maryland, I forced myself to go in early to euthanize dogs by holding them in my arms and gently helping them escape an uncaring world without trauma or pain and to spare them from being stabbed haphazardly—while they were fully conscious, terrified and aware—in the general vicinity of their hearts with needles blunt from reuse and left to thrash on the floor until they finally died by the callous people who would arrive later to do the job.
I always wonder how anyone cannot recognize that there is a world of difference between painlessly euthanizing animals out of compassion—aged, injured, sick, and dying animals whose guardians can't afford euthanasia, for instance—as PETA does, and causing them to suffer terror, pain, and a prolonged death while struggling to survive on the streets, at the hands of untrained and uncaring "technicians," or animal abusers.
It's easy to point the finger at those who are forced to do the "dirty work" caused by a throwaway society's casual acquisition and breeding of dogs and cats who end up homeless and unwanted, but at PETA, we will never turn our backs on neglected, unloved, and homeless animals—even if the best we can offer them is a painless release from a world that doesn't have enough heart or homes with room for them. It makes it easy for people to throw stones at us, but we are against all needless killing: for hamburgers, fur collars, dissection, sport hunting, the works. PETA handled far more animals than 2,069 in 2012. In fact, we took in more than 10,000 dogs and cats and work very hard to persuade people to spay and neuter their animals and to commit to a lifetime of care and respect for them. We go so far as to transport animals to and from our spay/neuter clinics, where they are spayed or neutered and given vet care, often for free! Since 2001, PETA's low- to no-cost spay-and-neuter mobile clinics, SNIP and ABC, have sterilized more than 50,000 animals, preventing hundreds of thousands of animals from being born, neglected, abandoned, abused, or euthanized when no one wanted them. And on a national level, PETA is focusing on the root of the problem through our Animal Birth Control (ABC) campaign.
If anyone has a good home, love, and respect to offer, we beg them: Go to a shelter and take one or two animals home. The problem is that few people do that, choosing instead to go to a breeder or a pet shop and not "fixing" their dogs and cats, which contributes to the high euthanasia rate that animal shelters face. Most of the animals we took in and euthanized could hardly be called "pets," as they had spent their lives chained up in the back yard, for instance. They were unsocialized, never having been inside a building of any kind or known a pat on the head. Others were indeed someone's, but they were aged, sick, injured, dying, too aggressive to place, and the like, and PETA offered them a painless release from suffering, with no charge to their owners or custodians.
Every day, PETA's fieldworkers help abused and neglected dogs—many of them pit bulls nowadays and many of them forced to live their lives on chains heavy enough to tow an 18-wheeler—by providing them with food; clean water; lightweight tie-outs; deworming medicine; flea, tick, and fly-strike prevention; free veterinary care; sturdy wooden doghouses stuffed with straw bedding; and love.
What we see is enough to make you lose faith in humanity. One pit bull we gained custody of, named Asia, looked like a skeleton covered with skin when PETA released her from the 15-pound chain she had been kept on for years. Asia suffered from three painful and deadly intestinal obstructions, which prevented her from keeping any food down. She faced an agonizing, lingering death, so our veterinarian recommended euthanasia to end her suffering. We pursued criminal charges against those responsible for her condition, leading to their conviction for cruelty to animals. That is just one of the dozens of cases we see every week.
The majority of adoptable dogs are never brought through our doors (we refer them to local adoption groups and walk-in animal shelters). Most of the animals we house, rescue, find homes for, or put out of their misery come from miserable conditions, which often lead to successful prosecution and the banning of animal abusers from ever owning or abusing animals again.
As long as animals are still purposely bred and people aren't spaying and neutering their companions, open-admission animal shelters and organizations like PETA must do society's dirty work. Euthanasia is not a solution to overpopulation but rather a tragic necessity given the present crisis. PETA is proud to be a "shelter of last resort," where animals who have no place to go or who are unwanted or suffering are welcomed with love and open arms.
Please, if you care about animals, help prevent more of them from being born only to end up chained and left to waste away in people's back yards, suffering on mean streets where people kick at them or shoo them away like garbage, tortured at the hands of animal abusers, or, alas, euthanized in animal shelters for lack of a good home. If you want to save lives, always have your animals spayed or neutered.
See more about how PETA saves animals.
Written by Ingrid E. Newkirk
If he had any shame or decency, federally convicted dog murderer Michael Vick wouldn't dream of suggesting that it is somehow "unfair" (his word) to suggest that he shouldn't have another dog. But now he's out in TV Land promoting a book and expressing his desire to give his son a dog. Perhaps he'd have a hard time explaining to his son what Daddy did with the last "pet" dogs who lived in the house: Vick threw them into the fighting pit and laughed his head off while they were torn apart.
A suspected victim of dogfighting whom PETA staffers were able to rescue with the help of local law enforcement officials.
Since PETA was instrumental in efforts to make sure that Vick's crimes were taken seriously, people naturally want to know our opinion of Vick's hopes of getting his hands on another dog. As PETA's president, Ingrid E. Newkirk, who met privately with Vick when he attended our animal empathy course following his 2007 arrest, expressed it:
PETA knows from firsthand experience that Michael Vick is a selfish man and a proven liar, probably a psychopath, who, if he had one grain of remorse, would never go near another dog as long as he lives. All things considered, it is a very small price to pay, especially compared to the suffering endured by the dogs who were abused and killed at the Bad Newz Kennels. Michael Vick lied to my face about how he loved his pet dogs and didn't see them as the same as the dogs he forced to fight to the death. That was before it was revealed that he threw those dogs into the pit—and laughed while they were torn apart. Just as convicted pedophiles aren't allowed free access to children, anyone who is responsible for hanging, electrocuting, and shooting dogs and who caused them to suffer in other unimaginable ways should never again be allowed to be within 50 feet of a dog.
PETA knows from firsthand experience that Michael Vick is a selfish man and a proven liar, probably a psychopath, who, if he had one grain of remorse, would never go near another dog as long as he lives. All things considered, it is a very small price to pay, especially compared to the suffering endured by the dogs who were abused and killed at the Bad Newz Kennels.
Michael Vick lied to my face about how he loved his pet dogs and didn't see them as the same as the dogs he forced to fight to the death. That was before it was revealed that he threw those dogs into the pit—and laughed while they were torn apart.
Just as convicted pedophiles aren't allowed free access to children, anyone who is responsible for hanging, electrocuting, and shooting dogs and who caused them to suffer in other unimaginable ways should never again be allowed to be within 50 feet of a dog.
Vick needs to teach his children that actions have consequences, that people who can't be trusted with animals shouldn't have any, and that it's important to take responsibility for our choices and to make better choices going forward—like not getting another dog. First, he'd have to learn those lessons himself.
PETA continues to make strides against the hideous cruelty of animal fighting. Learn more about dogfighting and how you can help stop this merciless blood sport.
Earlier this week, Florida resident Willie Bell turned down a plea deal of three years in prison for a felony charge of cruelty to animals. Not smart: Now Bell faces five years in prison, and if he's convicted, he deserves every second of it. According to police, Bell tied a 30-pound dumbbell around a dog's neck, placed the dog in the water 25 yards off shore, and forced him to swim for his life. Blackie, the 2-year-old pit bull mix, was rescued after a witness saw him struggling and called police.
When PETA heard about this case, we immediately contacted the local police department, since dogfighters often train dogs by forcing them to tread water. Fortunately, the investigation turned up no evidence of dogfighting, and Blackie is now back with his guardian, Bell's cousin, who was reportedly horrified to learn about Bell's alleged actions.
Pit bulls are the most abused dogs in dogdom. Because of their "macho" image, pit bulls are the breed of choice for thugs, gangs, drug dealers, and dogfighters. But we can all help stop this cycle of abuse. Speak out against negative media depictions that perpetuate the image of pit bulls as fighting machines. And please, if you see an animal in danger, contact your local police department immediately.
Written by Paula Moore
Those of you who have been following the story of Patrick—an emaciated pit bull who had been stuffed down a trash compactor at a New Jersey apartment complex—will be glad to know that police have located his owner and charged her with felony cruelty to animals. Sadly, Patrick is just one example of the horrific abuse and neglect that pit bulls are routinely subjected to.
PETA recently came to the aid of two pit bulls who had been subjected to appalling neglect. One 4-year-old dog had been chained outside for her entire life—her owner had never even bothered to give her a name. Because she had no social interaction (her owner simply threw handfuls of kibble on the ground), she was terrified of people and would cower in her ramshackle doghouse whenever anyone approached. Mercifully, her owners agreed to surrender her to PETA.
While out on one of their regular missions to deliver doghouses, food, and straw bedding to neglected dogs, PETA staffers were approached by a man who expressed concern about a neighborhood dog. The staffers discovered that a well-meaning family had recently taken in an emaciated, desperately ill pit bull, but the dog was not responding to treatment and refused to eat. Because the dog was so far gone, they agreed that the time had come to put him out of his misery.
Neglect can be just as lethal to a dog as any other form of abuse. If you suspect that a dog is being neglected, take action. You may be his or her only hope.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Last week, PETA's Community Animal Project (CAP) received a call for help from an indigent man whom we had already provided with a doghouse and spay surgery for his own dog. The man had tried, without success, to nurse back to health two sickly dogs whom he had found by the side of the road (they had likely been abandoned). A CAP fieldworker rushed out to check on the animals and found that they were horribly emaciated (with protruding hips and spines), lethargic, dehydrated, and covered with hundreds of ticks. We attempted to give both dogs a good meal, but one dog was too weak and sick to even eat so we loaded both dogs into a cool, air-conditioned vehicle and gave them a comfortable bed.
When these dogs were brought back to PETA headquarters, both were found to be severely anemic and the male could barely hold himself up without assistance. Their horrible health problems were probably the reason why they were abandoned in the first place.
PETA wouldn't have known about these dogs if the man who found them hadn't called, and local authorities might not know about animals in distress in our own neighborhoods unless we inform them. So, for the love of dogs, let's be watchdogs for animals in our community and alert police and animal control officials the minute we know or suspect that an animal is suffering.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
Dogfighters are cowardly scum. Just ask the "Scumdogs of the Universe"—better known as thrash-metal band GWAR, whose lead shrieker Oderus Urungus unleashes his wrath on dogfighting in a new peta2 video.
In the video, a chained GWAR "slave" is pitted against Guy Kozowyk of metal masters The Red Chord in a WWE-esque, no-holds-barred match. Unlike dogfights, in which dogs are forced to tear each other to shreds, no real blood is shed in this match, and the willing participants live to fight against dogfighting another day.
The Supreme Court recently struck down a law banning the distribution of videos depicting illegal conduct such as dogfighting, but that doesn't mean that you have to be an intergalactic humanoid barbarian (unless you're into that) to combat this blood sport. If you find evidence that dogfighting is taking place in your area, please contact your local humane society or police department right away. You might also want to contact neighborhood watch groups in your area to encourage them to keep an eye out for possible dogfighting rings. Whatever you do, please declare "GWAR" on dogfighting!
Written by Amy Skylark Elizabeth
To clarify PETA's position on pit bulls: We're for 'em.
By "for 'em," I mean that we are for pit bull protection, for their happiness, and for treating them like dogs instead of like cheap burglar alarms, punching bags, or gladiators in perverted death matches.
Some pit bull fanciers out there seem to think that PETA is "against" pit bulls because we don't oppose breed-specific measures to address what is obviously a breed-specific crisis. Au contraire. If someone proposed a ban on breeding Labrador retrievers or Chihuahuas or poodles (you get the picture - any dog), we'd be for those too. That's because we don't think any dogs should be brought into the world as long as millions are dying for lack of homes in animal shelters and on the streets every year.
Millions, people. Millions of dogs just like the ones you share your homes with have to be euthanized because too many people fail to spay and neuter their animals and choose to buy from breeders and pet stores instead of saving lives by adopting from animal shelters. Wouldn't we be derelict in our duty if we didn't support laws that would alleviate suffering and reduce those numbers? If those laws saved just one animal from suffering a miserable life or a painful death, wouldn't they be worth it?
Pit bulls are often singled out by legislators because they are involved in so many attacks on humans and other dogs—as well as horrific cruelty cases. Our fieldworkers know firsthand just how frequently and mercilessly pit bulls are abused. These dogs are hands-down the most common victims of heartbreaking abuse and severe neglect that our caseworkers encounter.
I'm going to warn you—the following pictures, which were taken by our caseworkers of pit bulls they have helped, are graphic and disturbing. But I hope you'll steel yourself to look at them and decide for yourself whether or not these suffering dogs would have been better off if they had never been born:
This is Rikus.
PETA fieldworkers found him cowering in his doghouse with a gaping wound on one of his legs, exposing muscle and bone. His face was swollen to the size of a melon because of infected wounds that he had suffered during a dogfight.
Music was nothing more than skin and bones when we found him, without food or water, and with nothing but a rusty pile of junk for shelter. He was shivering in freezing weather, trapped at the end of a heavy chain.
Music's ears were shredded and his body was covered with scabs and scars—an indication that he had been forced to fight with other dogs.
In December of last year, PETA staffers found Zoo—also skin and bones—chained and starving in Suffolk, Virginia.
Our vet determined that Zoo was 20 to 30 pounds underweight. Zoo tested negative for intestinal parasites—meaning that his emaciated body condition was because of starvation. He was also filthy, flea-ridden, and heartworm positive. We charged his callous owners with cruelty to animals. They pleaded not guilty in court, but the judge saw through their lies and convicted them. They were sentenced to 30 days in jail (suspended) and forced to pay fines of $250 each as well as restitution for Zoo's veterinary bill.
On New Year's Day, heartbroken PETA staffers discovered this angel, Hugo, dead inside his PETA-supplied doghouse. A necropsy report confirmed that Hugo had been starved to death—the only contents of his stomach were grass and orange peels. He had scars consistent with dogfighting and had a fractured rib that was the result of trauma. We worked with law enforcement officials to bring charges against the person who was responsible for Hugo's prolonged suffering and death. A judge sentenced the defendant to 120 days in jail and five years of probation during which time he is not allowed to inhabit a residence that has any animals in it.
Blackie was chained to an old carrier with no food or water. He was painfully thin, and his right rear leg had a compound fracture that had been left to rot for weeks.
For more information about PETA's position on pit bulls, check out our new pamphlet on the subject.
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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