Sunday, March 15, 2009

Update on Georgia Dogfighting Case

July 2008
Georgia:
The Appalachian Circuit District Attorney's office raided Mountain Swamp Kennels in Blue Ridge on Thursday morning, finding 22 pit bulls along with three dogfighting pits and "suspected dogfighting paraphernalia."
[...]
Information regarding White's kennels was initially provided to the Humane Society through its tip line, established by Norred & Associates in the wake of the Michael Vick dogfighting case. The tipster will receive $5,000 if White is convicted.

March 2009:
Epworth resident Glen Albert White will serve 10 years in prison followed by another 10 years on probation after entering a negotiated guilty plea to a number of charges including dogfighting, animal cruelty and sexual offenses.
[...]
The charges to which White pleaded guilty were 25 counts of dogfighting, 21 counts of cruelty to animals and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon contained within the first indictment; three counts of child molestation contained within the second indictment; and three counts of child molestation contained within the third indictment.

I'm assuming, although I don't know for certain, that with the guilty plea, the dogs are now owned by the authorities, if they weren't already. Since the guilty plea was entered on March 5, which was after the HSUS (sort of) announced its "interim" policy recommending individual evaluations for seized dogs in fight cases, I'm hoping the HSUS has been working with authorities to get these 22 dogs individually evaluated by someone experienced in rehoming bust dogs. I haven't found any information on the seized dogs nor any updates on the case on the HSUS website. If anyone knows what happened to these 22 dogs, please share whatever info you have.

It's great to put dogfighters behind bars (and in this case, a freakin' child molester to boot) but I still want to know what is happening to the dogs seized in these cases. Whether the defendant turns out guilty or innocent, the dogs should not be killed simply because of the crimes of which the owner is accused. Every dog deserves a fair evaluation.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

The dogs all went to different shelters with WARL taking a whole bunch and the Richmond SPCA taking some.

WARL took a whole bunch of the North Carolina dogs - they were all small breed and, OF COURSE, were given a 2nd chance. Not that they shouldn't, of course, but it certainly wouldn't have been the same outcome had the dogs been pit bulls or, say, big, black dogs.

http://www.warl.org/index.php - if you go to "animals" --> "animal search" --> "all dogs" for animal type --> Go and go to the last few pages and you'll see some of the dogs.

YesBiscuit! said...

Rinalia - you are talking about the NC puppy mill dogs, right? Not the 22 seized Pitbulls in GA?

Unknown said...

Whoops! You are so right, sorry about that. I don't know how I got the two posts mixed up in my head, but I did. Probably too much coffee this morning!

YesBiscuit! said...

I starting scrolling through all the Chihuahhuas at the link you posted and I was like hmmmm...
; )