Investigators: Dog Fighters Caught in the Act
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YORK, S.C. – Pictures show two scared, roughed-up looking dogs the York County Sheriff’s Office says have definitely been used for fighting. Another dog and two others were also taken from the backyard of a mobile home on Lincoln Forest Road in York Wednesday afternoon.
Investigators say they also found weights, chains and other dog fighting equipment in the debris-filled yard. It started with a complaint call at 12:35 PM about a Cadillac up on cinder blocks, blocking the roadway. The deputy who responded didn’t get an answer when he knocked on the front door. York County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Trent Faris says, “(He) just walked around the house to find out who the owner of the car was, and observed what appeared to be dog fighting in progress.”
Deputies are looking for one guy who ran from the scene. A woman, Charlina McKinney, is charged with providing false info.
And two men, Johnny Moore and James Rhodes, are now charged with felony dog fighting. One woman who lives in the home was clearly angry about the news crews and law enforcement that showed up. She yelled, “I don’t gotta talk to y’all or nothing. Police (inaudible), I don’t fool with y’all, period.”
Other family members deny Rhodes is a dog fighter and insist he was trying to separate the animals. Kenneth Rhodes says, “One of the dogs had broken the chain, the leash, and attacked another dog here on the property. He came to stop the fight.”
Another relative of Rhodes’, Quentin Cunningham, says, “The police officer, he can say what he wanna say. That ain’t true.” But after seeing the dogs, and hearing what investigators saw, at least one medical expert backs up the deputy’s story. Faris says, “The veterinarian did say that one of the dogs has injuries consistent with dog fighting today and in the past.”
More charges are pending against the three people arrested. As for the fate of the pit bulls, the Sheriff’s Office says that’ll be up to York County Animal Control to decide.
