Dog-fighting - 37 dogs seized
South Holland, IL (US)

Incident Date: Friday, Jul 13, 2007
County: Cook

Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Convicted

Defendant/Suspect: Kevin Taylor

Case Updates: 12 update(s) available

Dozens of fighting dogs -- many of them scarred, starved and scared -- were removed from a barn in South Holland on Friday in what officials described as a major bust of a high-end breeding and training operation.

"Today we made the largest seizure of dogs in the history of the state of Illinois," Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart said at a news conference outside the home of the dogs' owner, a 29-year-old man now facing felony charges related to dog fighting and animal cruelty.

Thirty-seven dogs -- from puppies to adults in top fighting condition to broken, wounded older animals -- were removed from cages stacked three high in a dark room in the barn behind the suspect's home.

Most appeared to be pit bulls, but one -- a urine-soaked dog, larger than the pit bulls, and whose hair was falling out -- was thought to be a "bait dog," used to train the pit bulls to fight, investigators said.

Treadmills to increase the animals' stamina and amphetamines to make them fight harder and stronger also were recovered, Dart said.

The suspect was taken to the sheriff's police headquarters in Maywood. Charges won't be filed before Saturday, spokeswoman Penny Mateck said. It would not be the first time the man has faced charges in connection with dog fighting, Dart said.

"This is an individual who was just recently convicted of attending a dog fight in Livingston County, by Pontiac, Illinois," he said. "We were involved in that arrest as well. That was a large outdoor dog-fighting event that went on about a year and a half ago."

Investigators have not found any evidence dog fights took place at the South Holland barn. Authorities said the suspect bred and trained the dogs to sell or rent to individuals who entered them in fights elsewhere. The dogs typically sold for about $500 each, an investigator said.

The property in the 15900 block of Cottage Grove Avenue, surrounded by homes, seemed an unlikely location to house, breed and train fighting dogs.

With the doors to the barn open, the pungent odor of dog urine and feces wafted through the neighborhood, and the sound of the dogs could be heard a block away.

"It's one of the things that I found astounding when I came here, both from the aroma and the noise, that more people did not know about it," Dart said. "But there is a level of insulation inside the barn that keeps you from hearing things inside and out, and there also was a mechanism in the ventilation, where it kicked in radios as well to try to drown out the sound [of the dogs]."

It appeared to work. Neighbors gathered throughout the morning and afternoon, incredulous when they learned of the dogs.

"This is going to come as a shock to everybody," said Charles Dixon, 53, of the 15900 block of South Drexel Avenue, about a block from where the dogs were discovered. "We knew he had dogs. You could open your window last summer and the stench would knock you out. We went to him and asked him to clean it up, and he did."

Dixon said he never suspected his neighbor was raising dogs to fight.

"He seemed like a real nice guy," he said. "But then, they say John Wayne Gacy was a hell of a nice neighbor, too."

Dart said a concerned citizen contacted South Holland police and his office in May. He declined to identify the person, but two workers for animal shelters who were watching the bust said they tipped off police. Officials close to the investigation confirmed their role.

One of the workers, who did not wish to be identified for fear of reprisal, said she and her colleague went to the suspect's home May 14 and told him he was breaking the law. The police were called, and the workers said the officers told them they had to leave the suspect's property.

The two workers told reporters they believed police did not take their suspicions seriously. But an investigator at the scene said that as a result of the May 14 incident, officers with the sheriff's police special operations unit and the South Holland department began trying to develop evidence for a search warrant.

A neighbor who lives across the street said he began seeing police in unmarked cars watching the home the last several weeks, and one investigator interviewed him about a week ago.

"I told him that the place was like a gas station -- people coming and going constantly at night," said the man, who did not wish to be identified. "I thought maybe he was dealing drugs."

Dart and investigators said the process by which a happy puppy is transformed into a brutal fighter is simple: First, break the animal's will by keeping it in the dark, in a cramped cage without adequate food or water, and, on occasion, batter it with loud music. Then, once the animal is reduced to a shell, rebuild it physically and mentally through better feeding, strength training and beatings and torture to make it angry. Then, take it out and bet money on what essentially are death matches.

The sheriff said it was too soon to know whether any of the dogs would be put to death.

Dart said the investigation is ongoing.

He lamented the cachet dog fighting has garnered, both in bragging points for gang members and as a lucrative moneymaker.

"That's one of the things that's really so troubling," Dart said. "They become status symbols within the gangs, and it's also used as a way of making money. It's not anything like what somebody might say is a harmless offense. This is incredibly serious -- the amount of cruelty toward the animals is unbelievable."

Case Updates

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