Two men, Walter Citizen and Arnett Counts, were sentenced to five years and three years respectively for their role in a dogfighting ring they had in South Los Angeles. You can read the story here.
Accoring to the article these two bred and trained pitbulls for fighting. Officers found 17 dogs and puppies on the property last year when they were arrested. The adult dogs were found staked to heavy chains in the backyard while others had wounds that were stapled shut. Most dogs were injured, underweight and had open sores.
A neighbor said that he could hear the dogs biting, screaming and hollering.
Arnett Counts was found guilty on all 10 felony counts of dogfighting and was sentenced to five years in state prison. Walter Citizen pled guilty on some of the charges and received a three year sentence this past February.
According to Citizen’s attorney the dogs were well cared for – huh?? His attorney also stated that his client is an animal lover and is remorseful about his involvement. I guess he’s such an animal lover that all but three or four dogs had to be euthanized due to the severity of their injuries or aggressiveness. That sounds like this “man” loved and took very good care of his dogs.
Citizen’s attorney also continued to say that “what happened in the past is in and now we go forward”. “In today’s world there is not a place for this kind of activity and his client recognizes that”. He said Citizen grew up in Louisiana where dog fighting is part of the culture and fairly rampant there.
Let me get this straight, his client comes from a culture where this is acceptable, participated in it, made money and as a result of his conduct most of their dogs were euthanized. And we are to say the past is the past, let’s move forward. What kind of lesson is that? But since he got caught, he NOW knows it is wrong. Yeah, ok. I believe that.
Isn’t it amazing how these two “men” received stiffer sentences than our good ol’ buddy, Michael Vick and it appears that Vick had the added pleasure of killing his own dogs in the most horrific way and only gets 23 months and will be in a halfway house the last six months of his sentence. Isn’t life great???? (sarcasm intended!)