The New York Times cites a mounting body of evidence about the link between those who engage in dog fighting and “serious crimes of more narrowly human concern, including illegal firearms possession, drug trafficking, gambling, spousal and child abuse, rape and homicide.” Among law enforcers, animal-cruelty issues were long considered a peripheral concern, distinct from the work of enforcing the human penal code. Charles Siebert writes, “But that illusory distinction is rapidly fading.”
“With traditional law enforcement,” Sgt. David Hunt, a dog-fighting expert with the Franklin County Sheriff's Office in Columbus, Ohio, “the attitude has been that we have enough stuff on our plate, let the others worry about Fluffy and Muffy. But I'm starting to see a shift in that mentality now.” Hunt has traveled to 24 states to teach law-enforcement personnel about the dog-fighting underworld, often stressing the link between activities like dog fighting and domestic violence. “You have to sell it to them in such a way that it's not a Fluffy-Muffy issue,” he said of teaching police officers about animal-abuse issues. “It's part of a larger nexus of crimes and the psyche behind them.”