A Nation in the Ring (Part 1: The Dogs and the Territory)

September 7, 2007


©Michelle Riley/The HSUS
Humane agent Jennifer Kulina cradles Rita in her lap.
By Nancy Lawson

Oblivious to the oozing abscess beneath her eye, Rita leaps across the sofa and gnaws the arm of a chair before plopping onto Jennifer Kulina's lap for a belly rub.

"How could you ever fight this dog?" Kulina asks, recalling the blood that once flowed from the brown pit bull's chin.

A humane agent at the Capital Area Humane Society in Columbus, Ohio, Kulina filed five counts of animal cruelty against Rita's owner on July 17, the same day Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was indicted on felony dogfighting charges.

A table at Kulina's shelter bears evidence from Rita's case and many others—heavy logging chains used as leashes and tethers, certificates listing champion bloodlines, a "keep journal" detailing treadmill regimens and fight statistics and a calendar recording breeding dogs' heat cycles.

Dogfighting: A National Epidemic

1. The Dogs and the Territory
2. The Costs of Dogfighting
3. Pit Bulls as Currency

"They have no voice," says Kulina of the pit bulls in her community. "I have a chance to be a voice for them....It's scary, but it's an honor."

Suiting up in a bulletproof vest, Kulina prowls the back alleys and mean streets in search of animals in distress. Many are pit bulls with chewed-up faces, fighting scars and open wounds.

Some she can help, and for some, it's too late.

Dogfighting Territory

Central Ohio seems an unlikely hotbed of dogfighting. Home to the country's largest college campus, Ohio State University, Columbus has fewer than 800,000 residents. Its compact homes with A-frame roofs are typical of a small Midwestern town. But since 2002, the Franklin County Sheriff's Office has served more than 40 dogfighting-related search warrants and secured more than 50 convictions.

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Pick a spot anywhere in the United States and you'll find a similar story: if you're not in dogfighting territory, you're not far from it. While Kulina was nursing Rita's wounds, Oregon prosecutors prepared an 11-count indictment of a suspected Portland dogfighter. Police in Florida seized drugs, fighting paraphernalia and 32 dogs from a Tallahassee property. An animal control officer in Nebraska interrupted a pit-bull street fight staged by teenage boys.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Though the Vick case has thrust dogfighting into the national spotlight and the conscience of a horrified public, it isn't a new phenomenon. Once a clandestine activity confined to rural areas of the South, it has migrated into the inner cities after being embraced as a macho symbol of the urban hip-hop culture.

While some 40,000 people participate in organized rings with high-stakes betting, The HSUS estimates that at least another 100,000 fight dogs informally for the chance to win a few bucks and bragging rights.