dog fighting Ring found when home raided

Police Raid Home, Find Dog Fighting Ring

Reporting from cbs2 chicago.com
Pamela Jones

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Disgusting and disturbing – that's how the Cook County Sheriff describes a dog fighting ring in Chicago.

Three men now face charges. As CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports, officers actually busted in, right in the middle of the fight.

Police say a dog they found was close to death, curled up in a corner barely moving when they entered the building. It was wounded in a fight with another dog – a dog that had to be held back from lunging again.

"One was half dead, the other covered in blood," said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. "We had a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old child in there, we had a pregnant woman in there. Guns, syringes, you name it…we had it in there."

Police say dozens of people paid a $5 cover to pack into the basement and bet on which dog would be strong enough and vicious enough to survive.

The other could barely stand when carried out on a stretcher.

"It was bad. I mean it was so covered in blood that it was hard to tell where all the wounds were at," Dart said.

Investigators found a fighting ring, 3mm handguns, and a rule book, too.

"These people are so sick and twisted, that they had, I found a tackle box and in it were syringes with amphetamines in it. They also had like a staple gun to staple the dog back together if it was cut open too bad. They even had an IV as well if they wanted to pump the dog up with any type of drug,' Dart said.

Now three men face felony dog fighting charges in the case.

Police say 38-year-old Donaver Jones, of Riverdale, owned the more aggressive animal.

Melvin Trent, 37, and Timothy Norris, 35, of Joliet, tell police they owned the dog mauled in the event.

A man who lives in the home says he didn't think anything illegal was taking place in the home.

"I don't know what they're talking about," he said.

He said he wasn't at the house when the raid took place.

Some 50 people who were there, though now face misdemeanor charges.

This is the first time the Sheriff's Department has broken up a dog fight as it was happening.

Workers at the city animal shelter had to euthanize the dog that was so badly injured.

Police tell the man who owned the survivng dog was also arrested two years ago in a dig fighting bust in Livingston County.