Wairarapa dog fight ring exposed

A man who fled horrified from an organised dog fight in Masterton fears his puppy has been stolen as bait for the killer animals.
The man, who refused to be named to protect himself and his young family, told the Times-Age he had twice attended illegal dog-fighting events in the town.
He said organised dog fights were held regularly in Masterton, Carterton and Porirua.
Significant sums of money were won and lost at the fights, he said, which featured free alcohol and bookies who took odds on which fighting dog would win its death match and how long a bait animal would take to die in the ring.
The man said yesterday he feared thieves linked to dog fighting had, three weeks ago, stolen a purebred puppy he bought earlier this year for $500.
He has reported the theft to SPCA Wairarapa and Masterton District Council dog rangers. He said pups and non-fighting breeds of dog, and sometimes cats, were stolen for use as bait animals to train younger fighting dogs to be aggressive or to provoke bloodlust in a fighting animal before a match.
"Then you bet on how long it will last. It could be 10 minutes or half an hour."
The man said he had been told of the possible whereabouts of his stolen puppy but, out of fear, refused to report the matter to police or confront the suspects.
"These are dangerous people - not the sort you'd see at the RSA - and I have my family to think about. I'm gutted about my dog but worse things can happen."
He was invited to attend his first dog fight at a semi-rural Masterton shearing shed about three years ago. "I didn't know what to expect. There was at least 40 people there, the beer was free, and we had a ringside table. There was heaps of cheering.
"The male I was backing must have killed at least two dogs before they retired him for the night. He was stuffed. I won $900 in an hour off that dog.
"The dogs he killed, their bodies, were chucked into a wool fadge and a guy hosed the blood and mess out of the ring between fights," he said.
"I was told to go to Carterton for more fights and Porirua for bigger money. More circles, more fights, more frequent. It's happening all the time."
The man attended a second organised dog fight in January at a different residential address in Masterton. A room had been cleared in the house, he said.
"I went for the money. But I wasn't even there a half hour before I took off. I didn't even place a bet. It was just too much."
Wairarapa SPCA head Val Ball said she had been told of organised dog fighting in Masterton and had been supplied with an address in the town where an event had been held.
She said the fights were run at different locations, usually in semi-rural or rural areas, and dogs that were injured in a match were often treated by their owners and not taken to vets.
Charges were consequently "very difficult to prove" against the inherently underground operators and owners, she said.
Detective Sergeant Bill van Woerkom of Wairarapa CIB said police were "not aware of any recent reports" of organised dog fighting in the region.
Masterton district dog ranger Malcolm Falk and Carterton district dog ranger Karen Schischka said yesterday that no reports of dog fighting had been fielded at their offices.
The maxiumum penalties for wilful or reckless ill-treatment of an animal under the Animal Welfare Act, which expressly targets operators of organised dog fights, is up to five years in prison or up to a $100,000 fine or both.
The first successful New Zealand prosecution for running an organised dog fighting ring was brought in 2003 in Northland.
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