Irish culture of dog fighting exposed

What has been described by Irish animal experts as a factory for the breeding fighting dogs has been exposed in County Armagh. Around thirty pit bull type dogs were seized from the Armagh premises in a joint USPCA, police and Armagh City Council operation.

These fighting dogs of mainly pit bull terrier breed were seized at what was thought derelict farm buidlings on the Old Scarva Road near Tandragee. The horrified inspectors found that the site contained pits thought to have been made for the dogs to fight in, and one other report mentioned what amounted to a fighting dog grindmill to encourage abnormal strength.

The buildings were known to have been raided after animla welfare had received a call from a member of the public. David Wilson from the USPCA said there has been more awareness of the problem of illegal dogs since the new year.
"We've been fielding a lot of calls from concerned members of the public, One of those calls led one of our welfare officers to an address in the Tandragee area yesterday evening and what he found resulted in him calling in the PSNI."

He said the premises were sealed and Armagh council then obtained seizure warrants to remove the dogs from the property. Police said a number of investigations into the circumstances surrounding the seizure were ongoing.

meanwhile The charity, the Ulster Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, is working to rehome animals that they have rescued from what a spokesman described as being kept "vile conditions" and some of the worst conditions he had ever seen. The animals were being taken from a cottage on Saturday, and the rescue was likely to continue for the rest of Sunday.

The rescued animals include rats, mice, gerbils, dogs and ferrets.
The USPCA said it was too soon to say how many animals were kept inside the property, but it was believed they could have been there for months. They said their priority now was to remove them to the USPCA shelter for examination.

The USPCA's David Wilson said the operation, which began at the

"The conditions in it are vile. The animals in the cottage, many of them are simply on the loose, they are running around, In the garden, there are probably 40 or 50 cages in the open air, totally inadequate housing. Some of them are containing 10 or 12 ferrets in a cage. We don't really know the totals, but it's a considerable operation."

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Irish culture of dog fighting exposed