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By Carlton Purvis
Published: April 10, 2010

Alice Ammons said she immediately feared someone intended to use her 13-year-old black lab, Spook, for practice for fighting dogs.

She said she can't see any other reason someone would steal such an old dog.

Usually, Spook never went farther than from the back yard, but when he went out March 20, he didn’t come back.

"I walked out there and he was gone. They just don't disappear like that," Ammons said.

That night, she slept with the door open surrounded by pictures of the 100-pound dog.

Ammons and other dog owners in the Pee Dee are concerned their missing dogs are being used to train dogs for illegal dogfighting rings. Although some say "bait dogs" are an urban legend, some residents whose dogs go missing under suspicious circumstances think otherwise.

But what looks like a string of dog thefts may be par for the course with the onset of warmer weather.

A letter to the editor from Ammons prompted the Morning News to look into the disappearances.

More than 25 dogs are missing from homes in the Pee Dee, mostly in rural areas, since the end of February. Most of the dogs are small breed dogs weighing 20 pounds or less or puppies. Others were dogs associated with aggression - pit bulls, chows and German shepherds - and older dogs with physical disabilities.

By the time Ammons finishes telling her story, she's in tears.

"Those are the ones that get targeted because they are so docile," she said. "It's hard for me to think he lived for 13 years and ended up like that. That's just so cruel and vicious."

Spook, it turns out, was caught by animal control officers after wandering into someone’s yard and returned to Ammons on April 1.

Her story had a happy ending, but other pet owners haven't been so lucky. Their first thoughts also went to dogfighting, and their dogs disappeared under even more peculiar circumstances.

Melinda James, who lives in Mechanicsville, had a dog go missing 12 years ago and takes the disappearances in her neighborhood very seriously. She spends her free time searching for dogs that have gone missing and concentrates her searches in rural areas.

"I went down roads that most people don't know exist looking for my dog. I found people's houses in places you would never expect people would live and they would meet you with a shotgun in their hand and tell you that you couldn’t go any further," she said.

James lives just minutes outside of Darlington where one year ago, 10 pit pulls were seized and four men were arrested in connection with a dogfighting operation.

James said people have even offered her money for the 140-pound Rottweiler/sharpei mix she has now. She keeps this dog inside, but with the doggy door locked.

Disappearing in groups

Barbara Lynch said both of her dogs disappeared in one day from her home near the Roche Carolina plant in Mars Bluff. She said they could have both escaped, but she suspects someone could have taken them. Both the dogs were 5 and were locked in a yard.

Her missing dogs are Lucky, a plott hound and Sugarbell, a Walker hound with only three legs.

Like Ammons, Lynch's first thoughts were dogfighting. "I don't know what someone would want to take someone else's dogs for," she said.

In Florence, Jessica Gatling said her family dog disappeared around the time a black sport utility vehicle was seen in the driveway. In Coward, Ashley Parrot's chihuahua, King, and the neighbor's poodle both disappeared the same week in February. At the Marion County Animal Shelter, a lock was cut and three puppies - a German shepherd, a boxer and a pit bull — were stolen March 23.

In a area at West Smith Street and Cale Yarborough Highway in Timmonsville, resident Sharon Ard, said the dogs of four neighbors all went missing over two days.

Sharon and Jeff Ard had two bulldog mixes. She made a short trip to her workplace and in 15 minutes, the female of the pair of 3-month-old pups was missing. When the Ards couldn't find her around the yard, they moved the search to the rest of the neighborhood.

"That's when we ran into the lady from up the road and she said she was looking for her dog, too," Sharon Ard said. Their neighbor was looking for her Jack Russell terrier that went missing from a pen in the backyard the same day.

Ard's home is just feet from the highway were a free-roaming dog could easily run into traffic, but she said she found out later two more neighbors were missing their dogs.

Where some dogs go

Tucked behind Florence National Cemetery on Stockade Road, the Florence Area Humane Society animal shelter is quietly outgrowing its space while trying to raise money to move into a better-equipped facility. In the spring, the shelter takes in five to 10 dogs daily. By the end of the monthm that number will probably be closer to 10 to 15.

Energetic dogs are more likely to escape from yards, even ones that are fenced in. And although many dogs that end up at the animal shelter are escape artists, other disappearances can be attributed to the change in seasons, shelter manager Katy Hollingsworth said.

"The dogs go into heat and it's nice weather so they get out and start running," she said. “Even the dogs that are fixed will sometimes still smell the females in heat. Unfortunately, sometimes people don’t come back here to look for their dogs once they get out."

James is skeptical.

"I've lived out here for 24 years and it’s a fact that at certain times of the year dogs go missing. I believe with all my heart that these dogs are being scooped up and used as bait for dog " she said.

The bait dog issue

In an online article about bait dogs, certified dog trainer and behavioral consultant Mary Harwelik said pit bull culture often includes stories of bait dogs - young, weak or inexperienced dogs used to teach dogs how to fight. Pit bull culture often includes elements of myth, she warned.

Based on rules that govern animal conditioning, Harwelik said, bait dogs wouldn't be a very effective way to train a dog for dogfighting.

"A dog when repeatedly placed into certain situations and encouraged to fight through goading, tormenting or other means of environmental pressure will likely have increased fighting behavior in the future under similar circumstances," she wrote.

"There is a big difference between fighting a weaker opponent that does not fight back, and fighting a well matching opponent in the pit. When it comes time for a real match, the shock of being up against an opponent that fights back could very well send a dog running for the hills - even if that dog had been 'trained' on ‘bait dogs.’”

Harwelik said the idea probably came from old magazines and books that showed dogs being encouraged to run on treadmills with a small animal caged in front of the him. She suggests people may have misinterpreted "rolling," a technique in which a young dog is placed with an older dog in a pit to give him experience.

Most of the dogfighting operations uncovered in South Carolina haven't yielded small breed animals, said Alicia Domina, director of New Hope Pitt Bull Rescue in Goose Creek.

"Several, however, have yielded dead carcasses of similar sized dogs, presumably other pit bull terriers, on the properties that were raided," she said. "We believe that most individuals engaging in these activities use dogs already on their property or in their possession from litters they have produced."

Pit bulls are the primary dogs sought for dogfighting, but dogs are also stolen for breeding or to resell if they can pass for purebred.

Keeping dogs safe

Dog theft is rare and there have not been any significant reports lately, Florence County Sheriff's Capt. Mike Nunn said.

"Usually, dogs and other pets are considered property, and their theft would be handled as such, which depending on the value of the dog, could either be petty or grand larceny," he said. Logistically, the small breed dogs and puppies are easier to steal and easier to transport, Hollingsworth said.

"Although dogfighting is a scary, ugly thing, when a dog goes missing, it shouldn't be assumed that it was stolen by a dogfighter," Domina said.

Local shelters said one of the best ways for pet owners to keep track of their pets is to microchip them and, if they go missing, check the shelters. Stealing a dog that can be positively identified with microchips or identification tags earns a fine from $500 to $1000, 30 days to six months in prison or both.

Shelters throughout the Pee Dee network when it comes to locating missing pets. When someone contacts the humane society about a missing pet it, only takes an e-mail to get in touch with other local shelters. Hollingsworth said the FAHS has actually reunited many owners with pets that way.

"Spaying and neutering can also help deter the roaming habits of some animals, so it's highly advisable to take advantage of the resources available to get pets altered before they go out looking for a mate when the time comes," Domina said.

And even if no one else is actively looking for lost dogs, one person definitely will be.

James said she is happy for Alice Ammons and Spook’s happy ending, and it gives her the kind of hope it takes to keep looking for missing dogs.

"People have told me, 'Melinda, you better be careful. People will kill you over that.' If I can make a difference, I want to make a difference," she said.

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