Winning the fight vs. animal cruelty

Drs. Martha Smith and Gary Patronek examine wounds of a pit bull recently found floating in West Beach in New Bedford. Experts say dogfighting isn't a problem in Massachusetts. (STAN GROSSFELD/GLOBE STAFF)

About a week before Boston Animal Rescue League officers found the mutilated bodies of two pit bulls floating in the waters of West Beach in New Bedford, Alan Borgal was at home trying to clean himself up.

He had deer guts all over him.

Borgal, a lieutenant with the Rescue League for almost 30 years, remembers when there was street-level dogfighting in Boston, with gangs unleashing their animals on each other for money or simply for bragging rights.

"It was very much out in the open," he said. "They used these dogs as weapons and intimidation, but they also fight them."

Things aren't like that anymore. Most days, Borgal is riding in vans, picking up deer, serving as animal control officer more than dogfighting crusader.

In the last 10 years, he said, the breeding of animals in Massachusetts to fight in other states has been more of a problem than the fighting.

The New Bedford incident -- coupled with the publicity surrounding Falcons quarterback Michael Vick's involvement in dogfighting -- has given the animal cruelty crusade new life.

Borgal believes in stopping the problem before it starts. The catch is that it's hard to convince people there's a problem, especially when he acknowledges that dogfighting in Boston isn't as prevalent as it was about a decade ago.

"They say there's no dogfighting in Massachusetts, but we do have all the animals [that end up fighting]," he said. "It's all connected to what they're looking for."

The breeding, the training, and the mistreatment of the animals are cruel and illegal. But unless officials witness a fight, Borgal said, it's hard to convince area legislators there's even an issue.

Until May, it wasn't even a federal felony, and at the state level, it's still a misdemeanor in Wyoming and Idaho.

The image of Vick, freshly cut hair, sharp black suit, crisp blue shirt and tie, has been featured prominently in virtually every newscast across the country. The more he's on television, the better for the Humane Society of the United States.

"We live in a celebrity culture," said Michael Markarian, the organization's executive vice president. "I think when a high-profile celebrity or a musician or whoever it might be is involved in one of these issues, it does shine a spotlight on the issue. So if any good comes out of this, we hope it's that America has been awakened to the cruelties of animal fighting."

The Humane Society agreed that Vick was entitled to his day in court -- his attorneys have said he will plead guilty to conspiracy charges in a hearing in Virginia Monday -- but he should also be used as an example, according to Markarian.

The constant images of Vick, of the rallies both in support and protest, and of abused dogs swirling through TV screens, magazines, and newspapers led Patti Strand, director of the National Animal Interest Alliance, to say that the Humane Society may have "actually glamorized the underworld of dogfighting and inadvertently promoted it." As much as Vick has been under fire, so has the Humane Society, with president and CEO Wayne Pacelle using his blog to fan the flames

The Center for Consumer Freedom accused the organization of using the Vick case as a fund-raising tool, of exploiting donors by suggesting it would take care of the dogs found in Vick's home but never actually following through.

"Like most Americans, we can't stand dogfighting," David Martosko, director of research for CCF, said in a statement. "But we also can't stand animal-rights fund-raising that smells this fishy."

Pacelle defended his organization from his keyboard.

"Let me be clear," he wrote. "Every dollar we raise online, on the phones or in the mail on this topic will be devoted to ending the scourge of staged animal fights. If we raise $100,000 or $1 million, that will be that much more money put into the fight to stamp out this vicious cruelty. The more money the public provides, the more reason that dogfighters and their ilk have to fear us."

Residual effects aside, the organization's fundamental stance seems irrefutable: animal fighting is wrong.

"The whole idea of people standing around an arena, being entertained and tearing these two animals to shreds is dehumanizing and it's something that's sure to have been relegated to the Dark Ages," said HSUS investigator Eric Sakach. "The idea that it's something that goes on in this age is incomprehensible. And it's something that needs to be brought to the public's attention."

Said Borgal, "What our intelligence is saying is we have in Massachusetts what we feel are people involved in professional, hobbyist-type dogfighting and the breeding of such dogs. But our intelligence is pretty much telling us that we don't have any evidence that they're fighting in Massachusetts."

The best example of what Borgal is seeing would be a case from 2002, when a Newton man was suspected of running an illegal kennel out of his home. The suspect, Christopher DeVito, fled to New Hampshire, where he was eventually arrested. He was convicted on 23 counts of animal cruelty and sentenced to 2-5 years in jail. Police seized more than $291,000 from his home, and DeVito also pleaded guilty to laundering cash proceeds from drug trafficking.

Note that DeVito was convicted of animal cruelty. Sakach and Borgal both say that what typically lands dogfighters in jail is proof of cruelty that can show that dogfighting was in their plans.

So whether it's rummaging through letters, monitoring Internet activity for patterns, or examining animals for certain types of scars, investigators go to great lengths to prove that an animal was owned for no other purpose than for fighting.

"There's no law that says pit bulls are illegal or game fowl are illegal," Sakach said. "But there are laws that say it's illegal to own or possess these animals with the intent to fight them."

The fact that 48 states recognize dogfighting as a felony is a sign of progress. When Sakach started, only three had felony laws. And another step was taken when President Bush signed a bill in May that made dogfighting a federal felony. After all, punishing dogfighting as a misdemeanor defeats the purpose, Sakach said, because most of the high-rolling gamblers can chalk up the fines to the cost of doing business.

"Good laws have to be passed," Sakach said. "But no law's any better than its enforcement."

There's a reason Borgal is doing more deer pick-up these days. It's because of the success of programs such as Operation Dog Tag and Operation Dog Safe -- multi-agency initiatives that combined the efforts of the Boston Police, Boston Animal Control, the Animal Rescue League, and the Boston MSPCA.

Waiting months or years to find an actual dogfight wasn't nearly as important as "being proactive and trying to stop the alleged cruelty to these dogs before they ever get into some sort of a dogfighting ring," Borgal said.

And, for that matter, it wasn't as effective.

Instead, the group filed reports of every animal incident documented by each organization. They used those reports to respond daily to animal abuse or dogfighting at the street level and, Borgal said, within a year they were able to take back the streets. Since then, there have been only five documented cases of dogfighting in Massachusetts, and none in Boston.

The key?

"We started to be able to prosecute people, taking people to court for cruelty to animals," said Borgal.