Dogfighting complaints up, but penalties aren't

By Troy Graham

Inquirer Staff Writer

The complaint was routine: a stray running loose near Adams Avenue in Frankford.

But that dog led investigators from the Pennsylvania SPCA to a major discovery. The pit bull had escaped from a nearby warehouse that had been rented under a fake name and converted into a thriving dogfighting operation.

Inside the warehouse, officers uncovered equipment for training dogs, a ring for fighting them, and even bleachers for spectators.

"It was a perfect setup," said George Bengal, the PSPCA's director of law enforcement.

That was nearly two years ago, well before the Eagles signed quarterback Michael Vick, released from federal prison this summer after serving 18 months for operating a dogfighting ring.

The furor over the Eagles' decision brought the issue of dogfighting to the forefront, but chances are only a handful of the city's dogfighters will ever face the same penalties as Vick.

For example, the man accused of running the operation on Adams Avenue, Marcus Miller, 34, of Kensington, pleaded guilty to animal fighting earlier this year and was given house arrest. Officers seized dozens of dogs from the warehouse and near Miller's home.

The nonprofit PSPCA, the lone law enforcement agency dedicated to investigating dogfighting, has a mere 14 officers. Two of them are assigned solely to the city's animal fighting, which includes cockfighting.

Meanwhile, the agency receives an average of 1,000 calls a month about animal cruelty. Although dogfighting complaints are way up this year - topping 400 - they are still a small percentage of the officers' duties.

Busting the bigger, more complex dogfighting operations can take weeks of surveillance and investigation, and occasionally requires the kind of break that led officers to Adams Avenue.

"I just don't have the bodies and the resources to address all of these the way they should be," Bengal said. "You pick and choose out of these the ones that we need to address first. . . . I could have a full-time police force working 24 hours a day and still have calls waiting."

Dogfighting, which is illegal in all 50 states, is a third-degree felony in Pennsylvania, punishable by 31/2 to 7 years in prison. But sentencing guidelines take into account prior records, which often means no jail time.

"First-time offenders, it's just going to be a slap on the wrist," Bengal said. "You're looking at nickels and dimes."

Barbara Paul, an assistant district attorney for the city, said that in the past, some judges did not see animal fighting as a big deal.

"I'm hoping that with more awareness and the Michael Vick case, that lets judges and everyone know that people take these cases very seriously," she said.

The blood sport of dogfighting operates like any other criminal enterprise - underground and with varying levels of sophistication.

The lowest level - essentially dog owners getting together for impromptu fights in parks, yards, or alleys - happens all over Philadelphia.

The highest level, a category in which Bengal placed Vick's operation, involves an interstate network of big-money fights, promoted and discussed in underground magazines. It is not unusual for tens of thousands of dollars to be wagered in such bouts. Philadelphia, at least so far, has not seen an operation of that size, he said.

But locally based, mid-level rings like the one on Adams Avenue are common and invariably linked to the drug trade.

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