Vick Case Opens Dog Fighting Floodgates

Football player Michael Vick and his emerging case of dog breeding for fighting and sport has shed a lot of apparently needed light nationwide on this hidden in plain view animal abuse. I like many knew this strange sport or sickness existed and saw it in movies occasionally, but I have never been witness to an organized dog fight or know anyone else that has either.

However we're now discovering this is going on right in our own back yards here in Illinois too as evidenced by the recent busts being reported and charges being filed right here in urban Cook County

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More charges filed in dogfighting case
chicagotribune.com: "A South Holland man now faces 75 felony charges in connection with what police have called the largest dogfighting bust in state history.

According to an indictment that was announced against Kevin Taylor, 29, of the 15900 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue, he faces 37 counts of felony dogfighting, 37 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals and one count of felony possession of a controlled substance.

The new charges, returned by a Cook County grand jury on Tuesday, were announced today at what was to be a preliminary hearing before Cook County Judge Camille E. Willis in Markham on the initial charges lodged against Taylor last month."

On July 13, Cook County sheriff's police raided Taylor's home and a small barn on his property, recovering 36 pit bull-type dogs and one Caucasian Ovcharka, a large dog bred to guard livestock.

Authorities said most of the dogs were found stacked inside a dark, sweltering, unventilated barn housed in small plastic kennels without water or food. Many of the animals were covered in feces and urine, and a number bore scars and unhealed wounds typical of animals that have been entered in dogfights. continued

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