Seven face jail over dog fight

The RSPCA said the discovery of a total of 26 men at the contest at a kitchen showroom in February last year was further evidence of an apparent revival in dog fighting.

A three-week trial at Birmingham Magistrates' Court was told that those caught at the fight in the Alum Rock area of the city were herded onto a double-decker bus to be taken away for questioning.

Some of the men later claimed to be attending a Blues party, while one asserted that the fighting pit occupied by two pit bull terriers was in fact a dancefloor.

Speaking after ten men were convicted of various offences in relation to the "sadistic" event, a member of the RSPCA's Special Operations Unit described it as one of the most gruelling and highly-attended dog fights in history.

Speaking outside the court, Chief Inspector Ian Briggs said: "The judge has rightly taken this case very seriously. Dog fighting is barbaric, and this was one of the longest, most brutal and most highly-attended dog fights we've ever come across. If we're entering a new era of dog fighting, then we need to stamp it out fast."

The court watched graphic video of the fight, which lasted for 90 minutes and showed the terriers, named Bullet and Elvis, squealing in pain as they were encouraged to bite each other. Their trial was told that one dog, which had been pushed up into ceiling tiles in an attempt to hide it, died a few hours after the fight and the other was so badly injured it had to be put down 48 hours later.

Finding ten men guilty of various charges in connection with the fight, District Judge Khalid Qureshi said obvious suffering had been inflicted on the pit bull terriers involved.

The district judge issued fines ranging between £750 and £1,400 to five of the men, who were found guilty of just one offence, and remanded the other five defendants on bail for sentence at the same court on October 18, along with two other men who admitted several offences prior to the trial.

Mr Qureshi told the seven men who will be sentenced next month that the offences they had committed crossed the custody threshold and all sentencing options would be considered. Fourteen other men were fined between £500 and £1,300 on September 4 after pleading guilty to attending the fight.