Blood Sports ? Training Officers to Stop Animal Fighting

Warning: some people might find this video disturbing.

GRANDVIEW, Mo. ? Animal fighting is a secretive, underground world making it difficult to locate and stop the criminals involved. But Thursday, the ASPCA brought in dog and cock fighting experts to offer intensive training for local animal control officers.

The city of Grandview organized the training session and 16 different agencies came from all over the metro, from as far away as St Joseph. The hope is that when they finish the training, they?re better prepared to identify and stop dog and cock fighting operations.

Terry Mills is the Blood Sports expert with ASPCA. He showed people in the training session what the tools of the dog fighting trade look like.

?They?ll always have scales around to weigh the dogs prior to a dog fight,? he said. Then he held up a white arrowhead shaped stick. ?These are break sticks or bite sticks, they are inserted between the teeth to pry the dogs off the other dog they?re biting.?

He also held up an electrical cord used to kill losing dogs after a fight, which he says he?s witnessed while doing undercover investigations. Mills says dog and cock fighting is going on more than people think, and it?s everywhere.

?They go on in garages, I?ve been involved in fights that happen in suburbia, to basements in the city, to barns in the country, open air fights in the country,? Mills said.

Shawna Walker with Grandview Neighborhood Services organized this training session hoping that it will help officers stop blood sports.

?What to look for when going into a house, the paraphernalia in the house that we typically we would step over and think nothing about,? she said.

But because of the secretive nature of the fighting, she wants the public to know that officers need your help,

?We don?t know unless we get reports,? she says.

Mills says people should look for dogs with scars and wounds, and lots of people coming and going. He says it?s the people actually making all the noise in a dog fight.

?The dogs make very little noise because their mouths are full of each other,? he said. ?The noise comes from the spectators, the betters, the people at ringside or pitside, they holler out bets across the pit.?

You might be surprised to hear that Mills actually tips his hat to the infamous Michael Vick, saying the football star?s arrest helped bring dog fighting up from the underground.

?Dog fighting investigations have increased dramatically since the Michael Vick case,? he said. ?That?s what brought it all to the forefront. We probably wouldn?t be standing here if it wasn?t for that. Part of this presentation, I tell them when I put his picture up: love him or hate him, he?s brought most of this to the forefront.?

Source: http://grandview.fox4kc.com/news/news/109812-blood-sports-training-officers-stop-animal-fighting

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