Last week the prosecutor in Surry County, Va. said since he didn't have any eyewitnesses, he couldn't charge Michael Vick with dog fighting. Well, ESPN has a confidential source that said he's been involved in dog fighting for more than 30 years and has trained and fought over 2,000 pit bulls and he's poised to tell all about the time in 2000 when his dog squared off against a dog owned by someone he referred to as one of the "heavyweights" of the dog fighting world: Atlanta Falcon quarterback Michael Vick.
"He's a pit bull fighter," the source said of Vick. "He's one of the ones that they call 'the big boys': that's who bets a large dollar. And they have the money to bet large money. As I'm talking about large money -- $30,000 to $40,000 -- even higher. He's one of the heavyweights."
"I've fought dogs, I pitted them, I bred them and I've done everything with them," said the source of his three decades in dog fighting. He then went on to describe the scene from that night seven years ago, as he took his 42-pound dog into the pit (the area dogs fight in) to face off against Vick's dog. He says Vick did not get into the pit but had a member of his entourage handle his dog while Vick placed bets with the 20 or so people in attendance. "Then he started, you know, waving money," the source said. "He was betting with everybody … He said he got $5,000. He said he's betting on his animal."
Although the source said he doesn't know how much Vick bet that night, he does recall the matches' outcome: Vick's dog lost. He said Vick is known in the dog fighting community as "the man that comes with all the money" and his reputation is "[that] he brings a good dog and he's going to bet and he's going to bring a nice sum of cash."
(ESPN)
on one count of conspiracy to transport dogs across state lines for the purpose of dog fighting. Papers, filed earlier this month by federal authorities in U.S. District Court in Richmond, noted that dog fights have been sponsored by "Bad Newz Kennels" at the property since at least 2002. Fifty-four animals were recovered from the property during searches in April, along with a "rape stand," used to hold dogs in place for mating; an electric treadmill modified for dogs; and a bloodied piece of carpeting, the documents said. During a June search of the property, investigators uncovered the graves of seven pit bulls that were killed by members of "Bad Newz Kennels" following sessions to test whether dogs would be good fighters, the documents said.
