Dogs unleashed in bloody pit

By BRIDGET CARTER

On the outskirts of Whangarei is a long driveway that twists up to an ordinary looking weatherboard house.

But when the sun goes down, it becomes a secret meeting place for dog fighters throughout Northland.

Armed guards have been known to act as lookouts while dogs fight for crowds to near-death in a scratched and blood-stained clay pit in the basement.

The couple who live there this week became the first people to be convicted of holding organised dog fighting in New Zealand.

They were found guilty in the Kaikohe District Court on Thursday of running a professional dog fighting ring, breeding pitbull terriers to fight and failing to look after their dogs. They could face six months' jail.

Judge Thomas Everitt remanded the 33-year-old unemployed man and his 31-year-old partner on bail for sentencing in June and granted the couple, who were representing themselves, name suppression until they sought legal advice. He rejected their defence of customary rights under the Treaty of Waitangi.

He also rejected their claim that scars on the dogs were caused by pig-hunting, saying the evidence against the couple in the four-day hearing was overwhelming.

"All of the animals were severely underweight and one of the dogs had a life-threatening condition in the jaw."

Evidence in the case was based on a search through the couple's house and basement in September 2001 by the Bay of Islands Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Bay of Islands SPCA inspector Jim Boyd said the first evidence he had that fights were happening at the property came in February that year. An informant phoned him at night and said there was a fight under way.

He called the police in Whangarei, who were busy with a murder inquiry and instructed him not to go to the place himself. Police believed armed lookouts were patrolling the property.

Seven months later, police called Mr Boyd after searching the couple's property for cannabis and finding severely skinny dogs.

On the day of an official SPCA search at the home in September, Mr Boyd drove up the driveway with police.

Dogs were left chained inside kennels at the bottom of a hill and tethered individually. There were eight pitbull terriers and a cattle dog. Most had scars on them consistent with dog fighting and were severely skinny. One had a puncture wound on its leg.

Vets looked at the dogs. Shilo, one of the pitbull terriers, had a rotten jaw bone and was in such a bad state that she had to be put down. Fat Boy was an old dog who had had his teeth removed for the purpose of teaching younger dogs to fight.

Mr Boyd said removing the teeth of an old dog was typical of dog fighters. If younger dogs that had never fought before took on an experienced fighter with no teeth and won, it would give them confidence to fight again.

Near the dogs was a trailer, littered with faeces, stained with blood and smelling of urine. Mr Boyd believed the trailer may have been used as a dog kennel.

He went inside the house and down to the basement, where he found what he believed was a dog-fighting arena. The room was like a semi-open carport with three walls and a clay floor. He found a piece of blood-stained carpet, scratched boards covered in dog hair, and a wall spattered with blood.

The clay had turned pink in the middle of the room where blood had soaked through the carpet that was used so the dogs could grip while fighting.

Blood samples sent away for forensic testing proved that the blood was from dogs.

The first thing Mr Boyd spotted when he went upstairs was two trophies.

One said "JC Convention Best in Show" and the other said "Ladies Night Out Gamest in Show".

The JC Convention is a carefully organised top-of-the-line dog-fighting competition, said Mr Boyd. Dog fighters travel from other regions for the contest, run through evenings, days or weekends. The fights involve a large number of contestants.

Weights are agreed on, and if owners do not keep their dogs to the weight, the other contestant wins.

The "best in show" trophy is awarded to the overall winner.

"Ladies Night Out", Mr Boyd said, was a bitches-only contest where the trophy goes to the "gamest in show" or the gutsiest dog. The dog that fights in the face of utter exhaustion and death wins this prize.

Mr Boyd said he had read reports where a dog that could only crawl across the fighting arena and sink its teeth into the toes of the stronger dog that had beaten it and later collapsed was given the prize for the "gamest in show".

He found three copies of the New Zealand underground dog-fighting magazine The Square Circle in the house.

Only those on the inside of the underground movement can become subscribers to the magazine.

Inside a diary found at the house there were notes about buying a breaking stick and a treadmill.

A breaking stick is made from a piece of wood sharpened to a point. It is about 40cm long and used when fighting dogs are in combat and dogs lock jaw to jaw.

Fighting dogs are often trained on a treadmill, said Mr Boyd.

When released, the dogs fight easily, so they are often exercised on a treadmill until it is time to fight.

"If a dog gets off there's usually a panic by their owner to get it secured."

Other equipment was found upstairs, including harnesses used on the dogs for the treadmill, and for the dogs to pull weights.

There were gauze swabs and syringes that Mr Boyd thought the couple used to treat wounded dogs.

Syringes could be used to give dogs performance-enhancing drugs or to administer antibiotics, he said, as fighters rarely took their dogs to vets in case questions were asked.

And sometimes, in remote places, they did not have time to take dogs to the vets.