I hope this means that the British government is getting serious about going after dog fighters and their supporters.
Many, many thanks to the good people who called Crimestoppers. If anyone wonders why we have to keep talking about dog fighting, tell them how these evil men were stopped by people who realized there was a problem that they could help address. If no one had called the Birmingham Crimestoppers, these scumball dog fighters would still be torturing and killing innocent dogs. We don’t know the names of the people who stepped up and made the calls, but I hope life rewards them for this one good deed!
Thanks to the Guardian Unlimited for this article.
Please be advised that this article has some very graphic and upsetting information, especially in the latter part of the article I did not include in this post.
Ten convicted of being involved in ‘sadistic and pitiless’ dog fight
Sam Jones
Friday September 21, 2007
The GuardianTen men were yesterday convicted of involvement in a “sadistic” dog fight described by the RSPCA as one of the largest and most savage bouts it had ever come across.
District Judge Kal Qureshi found five men guilty of attending the fight and five others guilty of the same offence and more serious charges, including causing animals to fight, at the end of a three-week trial at Birmingham magistrates court.
He described the dog fight, which took place in February last year at the back of a kitchen interiors shop in the Alum Rock area of Birmingham, as “a sadistic event … [that] involved inflicting unimaginable pain without any pity for the animals”. The crowd at the fight – 26 spectators in all – was so big that the arresting officers had to flag down a double-decker bus to transport the men to the police station.
The judge issued fines ranging between 750 and 1,400 to the five men found guilty of attending the fight. The other five defendants were remanded on bail for sentence in October, along with two other men who admitted several offences prior to the trial.
Ummar Ahmed, 26, of Birmingham, Zahir Ahmed, 31, of Perry Barr, Barkat Hussain, 42, and Waqqas Mughal, 18, both of Smethwick, Zahoor Hussain, 40, and Intikab Hussain, 31, both of Ward End, and Sohail Hussain, 27, of Saltley, were told they could be jailed. Fourteen other men were fined between 500 and 1,300 early this month after pleading guilty to attending the fight.Despite its elaborate organisation, the bout was discovered by accident. Police were alerted after a member of the public, who was puzzled by the number of people going into the shop and the shouts and squeals coming out of it, called Crimestoppers.
PC Paul Foster, the first officer on the scene, told the court of hearing yelping and howling followed by waves of cheering from inside. The noises persuaded him to call for back up.
When he and 30 other officers smashed their way into the room they found a small carpeted arena ringed by kitchen cabinets and encircled by cameras set up to record the action. Close by was veterinary equipment, a treadmill and sponges to soak up the blood.
They also found two dogs. One of the animals, a black pit bull terrier named Elvis, staggered weakly towards the police as they approached. The other, a badly mauled brindle pit bull called Bullet, was discovered in a cupboard. Both were treated by RSPCA vets, but their injuries proved too severe. Bullet died within hours while Elvis had to be destroyed two days later.
