State and federal agents staged raids in several states, charging individuals in Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas following a more-than-year-long investigation originally tipped off by the Humane Society of Missouri.
In Missouri, prosecutors said members of a multistate ring routinely denied the dogs medical treatment and “destroyed” injured dogs who were no longer able to fight by shooting them “in the head, throwing them into the river or burning them in a barrel.”
Although the arrests stem from the same investigation, the rings were not “one concentrated, organized conspiracy.” United States attorneys in four districts will try the cases separately.
Kathy Warnick, president of the Humane Society of Missouri called the raid the “largest coordinated rescue in U.S. history.” “This heinous, heinous bloodsport is not going to be tolerated,” she told the New York Daily News.
The Humane Society of Missouri is sheltering more than 300 dogs - believed to be mostly pit bull terriers - seized in Missouri and Illinois raids. The dogs will be housed, cared for and evaluated at an undisclosed emergency shelter in St. Louis.
I just can not wrap my mind around humans that do this. I just can not. They would kill the losing dogs by shooting them and burning the bodies.
