as many of you might have noticed I have not made much comment publicly on the missouri busts. since I have not much nice to say about most of those that were raided and handed over their dogs and ammunition (in many senses) to the "humane" societies I have mostly tried not to say too much. However I have watched the news stories and know quite a bit of behind the scenes info on the whole situation - such as it supposedly spawning from a sideline dog guy in this area getting in some trouble and he had a missouri state trooper for an uncle. I remember reading one of the first stories of the "hero" cops and the one named "Heath" said he liked fighting dogs and enjoyed training them for it.
I wonder how many people realize that the cops were doing (and liking!) exactly the "horrendous crime" they are trying to bust people for. In this article it mentions for the first time I've seen that in fact while most of the dogs seized from/turned over by 'terrible, evil dogfighters' in this whole fiasco were 'saveable', "the majority of the investigation dogs had to be euthanized after compassion care because of their poor condition".
Poll totals are as of the time of posting here. yellow highlight is mine.
Is It Ethical for Police to Have a Dog in the Fight?
POLL:
Last summer, 500 dogs were rescued from a multi-state dog fighting ring in the biggest fight bust in U.S. history. As part of the investigation leading up to the bust, police infiltrated the operation by throwing undercover dogs into the ring.
...
The operation was not taken lightly. U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan says his office decided what the dogs could be subjected to based on "thoughtful discussions with both the state and national humane societies, those individuals involved and with the undercover agents." Callahan declined to specify what training methods were off-limits.
The investigation started in January 2008 and ended on July 9, 2009. Independence day for most of the dogs but not for those who helped enable the bust.
The organization Bad Rap has taken in numerous investigation dogs in the past, including many from this bust. Tragically, in all of those cases, the majority of the investigation dogs had to be euthanized after compassion care because of their poor condition. You would hope these dogs would be in better shape, their condition reflected by the time they spent with the police, not the fighters.
Donna Reynolds rightly feels that ..."These dogs are the sacrificial lambs of the anti-dogfighting campaigns. ...
excerpted from:
https://animals.change.org/blog/view/is_it_ethical_for_police_to_have_a_dog_in_the_fight
This video shows the cops engaged in fighting dogs themselves: