(Beth Clifton photo/collage)
Dogfighting, drugs, & firearms
AKRON, Ohio––Convicted dogfighter Ronald Smith, 39, of Akron, Ohio was on December 19, 2022 sentenced to serve ten years and three months in jail, after pleading guilty to a 22-count indictment, including charges of dogfighting, drug trafficking, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
U.S. District Judge John R. Adams further ordered Smith to pay $233,367.70 in restitution to K2 Solutions, a dog training facility located in Southern Pines, North Carolina, for the care and rehabilitation of 15 pit bulls impounded from Smith in May 2022.
U.S. Marshals Service posted reward
Smith, after some time at large, was reportedly arrested in Akron in July 2022, two weeks after the U.S. Marshals Service posted a reward for information leading to his capture.
“In May 2022,” explained WKYC news reporter Ben Axelrod, “Smith was charged with 15 counts of possession and training of dogs for the purposes of an animal fighting venture; conspiracy to distribute and possess, with intent to distribute, a controlled substance; distribution of a controlled substance; possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, and felon in possession of a firearm.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Caged rabbit
“Authorities found found Smith to be in possession of items used to train and prepare dogs for participation in dog fighting at two residential properties he owned and maintained in Akron,” Axelrod said.
“Those items included two treadmills designed for dogs; a caged rabbit placed in front of a treadmill; performance-enhancing and first-aid-related dog medication; numerous ‘break sticks’ spattered with blood and teeth marks; and a walled pit spattered with blood.”
Eight pit bulls were found at one location, with seven at the other.
Also seized were three firearms, oxycodone, fentanyl, and fentanyl analogs.
Smith had previously been convicted of aggravated assault, burglary, possession of cocaine, trafficking heroin, possessing weapons while facing drug-related charges, and disrupting public services in the Summit and Medina County Courts of Common Pleas, Axelrod recounted.
Vincent Lemark Burrell.
(Paulding County Sheriff’s photo)
Carolina connection?
That the 15 pit bulls were transported approximately 527 miles south to K2 Solutions in North Carolina, instead of being transferred to one or more of the many pit bull rescue organizations in the Akron/Cleveland corridor, may hint at a North Carolina connection in the case.
There may also be a Carolina connection in the background of the November 14, 2022 impoundment of 106 pit bulls from Vincent Le Mark Burrell, 55, in Dallas, Georgia.
Reported Eric Moody for Black Enterprise, “Authorities found 106 dogs in poor condition at Burrell’s property, according to the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office. The office posted on its Facebook page that Burrell was arrested at his home following a lengthy investigation.
(Beth Clifton photo)
“Over 100 additional counts expected”
“Authorities found dogs tied to trees and other objects in Burrell’s yard,” continued Moody. “The investigation also revealed that dogs were found in the basement of the home, with a strong odor from urine and feces present. Officials said protective equipment was required to safely enter the house where the dogs were located.”
Burrell was held without bond in the Paulding County Jail on three felony counts of cruelty to animals and one felony count of dog fighting.
“Although this investigation is still in its infancy, we expect over one hundred additional counts against Burrell as this case continues to unfold,” said Paulding County Sheriff Gary Gulledge, who acknowledged having worked with “many local, state, and federal entities” to arrange the bust.
Busted in September 2022, among many others: Toriano Marcellus Cave. (Guilford County Sheriff’s Office photo)
Biggest dogfighting busts ever in September 2022
Raiding alleged dogfighters in the Carolinas for at least the seventh time in 10 months, “a joint team of more than 60 federal and state law enforcement officers executed nearly two dozen warrants” over the weekend of September 24-25, 2022 “in what is believed to be the biggest takedown of a dogfighting operation in South Carolina history,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina announced on September 26, 2022.
“In total,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, “305 dogs were rescued.”
Of the 305, 275 pit bulls were “believed to be associated with dogfighting.”
(See Big dogfighting busts follow plea bargains by alleged perps in South Carolina.)
The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not disclose how much of the evidence presented to obtain the warrants came through recent plea bargain settlements of previous dogfighting cases in the region.
Anthonio Latoranodo Orr.
(York County Sheriff’s Office photo/
Beth Clifton collage)
Two-time loser
However, the September 24-25, 2022 raids appear to have culminated a series of events that may have begun with the June 24, 2019 arrest of Anthonio Latoranodo Orr, 49, in York County, South Carolina, on seventy-five warrants alleging his involvement in “animal fighting or baiting, ill treatment of animals, violation of county ordinance, trafficking ice crack cocaine, weapons violations, and other drug violations,” itemized WBTV of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Beth, Merritt, & Teddy Clifton.
Orr had already served a five-year prison sentence after he was arrested for alleged dogfighting in February 2010, and convicted in March 2011.
Orr, now 52, on August 22, 2022 pleaded guilty to some of the charges in York County Criminal Court and was sentenced to serve seven years in prison.
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Why on earth there isn’t a no-exceptions policy to destroy these dangerous dogs is beyond me. They serve no purpose and will be a danger whatever happens to them as long as they live.
Sharing with gratitude and all of the usual thoughts and emotions…
Wow. The dogs are the victims. You act like they are the criminals.
Moral judgements as to who are the victims and who are the criminals have nothing to do with the reality that pit bulls have been bred for centuries to kill both humans and other animals, accounting for more than 70% of human deaths by dog attack, and more than 80% of animal deaths by dog attack, even though pit bulls are fewer than 6% of the total dog population.
When the pit bulls have a history of having been trained or used for dogfighting, their record is even worse. Before the Best Friends Animal Society popularized the notion that former fighting dogs might be rehabilitated, after the 2007 arrest of former football player Michael Vick on dogfighting-related charges, there had been only four human fatalities inflicted by dogs rehomed from animal shelters in 147 years, two by wolf hybrids in 1988, and one each by a pit bull and a Doberman in 2003. Since 2007, at least 85 dogs including 61 pit bulls rehomed by animal shelters have killed people. That record alone should be sufficient to demonstrate to anyone of sound mind that trying to rehome pit bulls of known fighting history is like playing Russian roulette with other people’s lives.
And how did Best Friends do in trying to rehabilitate and rehome the Michael Vick dogs? Despite much hype and hoopla from Best Friends about that experiment, it was an astronomically expensive failure. See Pit bull wisdom & dog pound foolishness, by Liz Marsden, who was among those who actually worked with the Vick dogs.
Dogs are the tools, and they are not pets. Fighting bloodlines are not the same as your friendly pit bull. They will always be game and not safe around other animals.
Just a very sad and uneducated comment! For those of us who love the breed and truly know that they are like any other breed and depend on responsible owners. Sad that so many people have to hate something to be happy, very sad.
One need not “hate” pit bulls to be cognizant of the reality that pit bulls are NOT “like any other breed,” and indeed have been bred to uniquely accentuate “gameness,” reactivity, and indiscriminate aggression while giving few if any warnings of an impending attack.
Reality includes that every dog breed suffers from irresponsible owners, as can be measured by looking at the array of breeds involved in running-at-large, births of accidental litters, and breeds found in hoarding cases, all of which ANIMALS 24-7 has done in a systematic manner from time to time for more than 40 years.
Pit bulls have always been over-represented in each of these categories of irresponsible owner behavior, but as the severity of irresponsibility and the consequences to others escalates, from “dog at large” to “dog killing animal,” “dog disfiguring someone,” and “dog killing someone,” the frequency with which the dog is a pit bull escalates from about twice the representation of pit bulls in the U.S. dog population in general to about 10 times the representation of pit bulls in the U.S. dog population in general.
From these facts it is possible to conclude both that pit bulls for whatever reasons are twice as likely to have irresponsible owners as other dogs, which has by now been affirmed by many studies published in peer-reviewed academic journals, and that pit bulls even in “responsible” homes with “responsible” owners are dangerous to an extent which makes keeping a pit bull under any circumstance an inherently irresponsible behavior.