July 1, 2009

Jennifer Panton, shown with Anthony, adopted her Pit Bull after a NYC-animal fighting ring was busted. Anothony's story inspired her to start an anti-animal fighting campaign. (ZT Pet News Photo Courtesy of United Action for Animals)

Dogs Get Help as Animal-Fighting Case Heads to Court:Seven men will head to court on July 8, to face felony charges of animal fighting and cruelty after the NYPD rescued 16 Pit Bulls and two roosters last summer. The case has prompted a massive anti-animal fighting campaign.

NEW YORK -- A former Realtor, Jennifer Panton turned her life and focus around two years ago, after she discovered a Pit Bull “rotting in a city shelter.”

New York City’s Animal Care and Control was holding the young male dog as evidence in a cruelty, dog-fighting case, but Panton was shocked, she said, at how this Pit and “other abused animals were going into an abused situation, not being socialized, just languishing, for months and months on end.”

Panton adopted the dog in 2006 and named him Anthony, a moment that marked only the beginning of their journey together. Today, Panton credits Anthony for facilitating her involvement in the nonprofit organization, United Action for Animals, of which she is now the president.

Anthony’s story also inspired Panton to launch an anti-animal fighting campaign this year, filling a void, she says, in the New York City animal control and welfare community.

“We started this campaign primarily due to the lack of advocacy to fight game-cock and dog fighting in New York City,” Panton explained. “The ASPCA is so underwater with all of their cases that there are a lot of animals that are not being helped. This is a massive problem in the city, and the magnitude of it is much greater than people think.”

The Tipping Point

UAA’s first major campaign focuses on a dog-fighting ring bust in June 2008, when New York City police rescued 16 Pit Bulls and two roosters from a Bronx backyard on 179th street.

The seven men arrested for involvement in the case are set to attend a hearing in the Bronx Supreme Court on July 8, facing felony charges of animal fighting and cruelty, as well as misdemeanor charges of promoting gambling and owning an animal for fighting.

If convicted, the seven men -- Alexander Estephane, 44, who lives at the aforementioned East 179th street address, Lauritz Acoy, 41, Eric Boyce, 33, Israel Cuevas, 34, Juan Toledo, 38, Alterik Mason, 29, and Darnell Walker, 34 -- could face up to four years in prison, according to Joseph Pentangelo, the ASPCA’s assistant director of humane law enforcement.

Leading up to the men’s trial, the UAA is working to organize animal advocates in the New York City region and beyond, encouraging individuals to attend the July 8 hearing.

One of the 16 dogs involved in the alleged fighting died shortly after the bust, and several of them had to later be put down for aggression. But the UAA has helped put three former fighting dogs back on a track to becoming companion animals, and this month, facilitated an adoption. In conjunction with Derrek's Gleeful rescue, the formerly tortured Pit, named Dianna, has found a forever, loving home in Queens.

Panton hopes the UAA can continue to help raise awareness about the 16 Pit Bull ring bust, while also gaining involvement in other like cases, advocating for the foster and release of affected dogs.

“City shelters don’t have the means to care for these animals in the long term, and there is really very precious kennel space,” Panton said. “The good news is that we now have a program in place that gets these animals out of the shelter quicker, and into rescue or foster situations, so they are not languishing in a shelter for months on end, which is what they used to do.

“We got an attorney that allows us to do that, so the city relinquishes ownership of these dogs so they don’t have to stay eternally in these conditions.”

From Fight Rings to Forever Homes

Dianna's forever home is with Debbie Gonzalez and her family. Gonzalez says Dianna -- estimated to be around two-years-old -- was used as bait in the fighting ring. She came to the family with an eye infection caused by bite marks, but soon healed and developed into “the beautiful baby that she is now.”

Dianna exhibits puppy-like behaviors, but retains a mysterious history the family struggles to decipher.

When Gonzalez’s 13-year-old son went off to school with an umbrella one day, for example, Dianna “went nuts,” prompting the family to think she had been beaten with a rod-like apparatus.

When Gonzalez spoke with Zootoo Pet News, Dianna could be heard barking loudly in the background, “flipping out” as someone tried to empty a clothes hamper.

“Does she think they put dead dogs in there, or something?” Gonzalez asked. “We just don’t know her background.”

Dianna -- whose middle name is Houdini, a nod to her tendency to try and run away -- has quickly become a part of the family, though, as Gonzalez calls her “the love of our lives.”

Another rescued female Pit, Dior, hasn’t had quite as good of luck -- though she lives with a foster family in the Catskill Mountains, a prospective adoptive family has yet to materialize.

Dior’s foster mother, Krissi Buckley, says she is “doing very well,” and interacts wonderfully with her two young children, aged six and nine.

“For a long time, she was reserved, but then she just came out of her shell and loves to cuddle up with everybody,” said Buckley, who also owns six dogs. “She is very laid-back, easy to walk, and just enjoys being with you.”

Buckley says Dior was likely a breeding dog, and that while she does not have any aggression issues, she “isn’t exactly dog savvy.”

“She does fine with them, but doesn’t really like it when dogs get up in her face,” Buckley explained. “We think she would do well with an older couple, or a family with school-aged kids would be appropriate, but she should probably be an only dog.”

To learn about the upcoming dog fighting trial, visit UA4A.org, and to inquire about Dior, visit Petfinder.com/shelters/NY697.html

Amy Lieberman is a Zootoo Pet News correspondent covering the New York City region.