And pit bulls stolen.
Case illustrates African-American dominance of racket formerly run by the Ku Klux Klan
CALL, Texas––Forty-three suspects were arrested at an alleged dogfight on November 22, 2025 by the Newton County, Texas sheriff’s office.
Forty vehicles, $73,858 in alleged betting money, and two pit bulls seized in mid-fight were impounded. Another eight pit bulls were impounded later.
The raid momentarily put unincorporated Call, Texas, population 170, forty miles north of Beaumont, ten miles as the crow flies from the Louisiana border, on the U.S. map
“All but two of the 43 suspects have bonded out of jail,” reported Travis Noriega for KLTV in Newton, Texas, about 15 miles farther north, after the Newton County sheriff’s office released the identities of the suspects on November 24, 2025.
Pit bulls left on site were stolen
Worse than that, the Newton County Sheriff’s Office admitted late on November 26, 2025, “While efforts were actively underway to locate placement,” for as many as 16 pit bulls who were left at the dogfighting premises, “the dogs were removed from the property by unknown individuals. “
Said Newton County sheriff Colton Havard, “I suspect some of the individuals we arrested were involved with the removal of these animals from the property.”
The pit bulls were left at the scene, unguarded, Havard said, because “Newton County has very limited resources available and does not have ananimal shelter.”
ANIMALS 24-7 first documented the propensity of pit bulls seized in dogfighting cases to be promptly stolen in March 2000.
Two suspects held on previous warrants
“Edmund Lee Parker remains in the Newton County Jail due to a previous warrant, according to Newton County sheriff Colton Havard,” said KLTV reported Travis Noriega.
Sheriff Havard “said the other unreleased suspect, who he was unable to name, was transferred to another agency,” where the suspect was also held on a previous warrant.
What neither Travis Noriega nor Sheriff Havard mentioned was that 40 of the 43 dogfighting suspects also happened to be African-Americans. Two of the others were men of Spanish surnames; one was a Caucasian woman.
The distribution of ethnicities was a stark black-and-white reversal of who was arrested for dogfighting before World War II, when five African-American humane evangelists hired by the American Humane Education Society cris-crossed the South preaching against dogfighting, cockfighting, and cruelty to animals in general.
(Photo courtesy of granddaughter Evangeline Olive Morris.)
Dodging KKK, African-American humane evangelists preached against dogfighting
Dogfighting and cockfighting at the time were mostly protected from law enforcement––for a big cut of the proceeds––by the Ku Klux Klan, then at the height of their overt power and influence.
Three African-American humane evangelists––Seymour Carroll, John W. Lemon, and Frederick Rivers Barnwell––persisted for decades each, despite dodging frequent threats of lynching and sometimes actual Klan-led lynch mobs.
(See Four black leaders who built the humane movement––long before MLK! and Black humane history found in great-grandpa’s attic near a town called Ark.)
Texas was Barnwell’s territory from 1914 to 1942.
If there were any African-American dogfighters in Texas in Barnwell’s time, they made sure Barnwell (1883-1958) never heard of them.
The long humane careers of Seymour Carroll, John W. Lemon, and Frederick Rivers Barnwell, and unfortunately the history of black leadership within the U.S. humane movement for at least the next several generations, to this day, were terminated by the 1942 ascent of Eric Hansen, a Missourian, to the presidency of both the Massachusetts SPCA and the American Humane Education Society, a Massachusetts subsidiary.
Carroll, already gravely ill, died in 1943. Lemon, who doubled as principal of the Bethel School in Ark, Virginia, and minister of the black church there, also faded rapidly out of the public eye.
Barnwell, went on to become Director of Negro Health Service at the Texas Tuberculosis Association, and cofounded the Omicron Upsilon chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity of black businessmen and professionals.
Only decades later, long after memories of Barnwell and the lessons he taught faded, after the Ku Klux Klan lost control of dogfighting and cockfighting, did dogfighting cross into the African-American community via prison gangs and the illegal drug traffic.
Sheriff’s office heard the call
What happened in Call, Texas?
“In March of 2025,” the Newton County Sheriff’s Office recounted in a media release headed ”Operation Pitbull,” the sheriff’s office “began an investigation into an alleged dog-fighting ring in the Call community.
“Over the last several months, numerous complaints and tips were received regarding dog fighting. Probable cause was established, and a search warrant was signed by a Newton County justice of the peace.
“On the evening of Saturday, November 22, 2025,” the media release said, “the Newton County Sheriff’s Office, with assistance from several other law enforcement agencies, converged on the property to serve the search warrant.
(Newton County Sheriff’s Office photo)
Drones spotted the “spotters”
“Prior to the warrant service,” the media release explained, “the sheriff’s office utilized the department’s drone to conduct surveillance for officer safety purposes. Deputies located ‘spotters’ on the perimeter of the property.
“When law enforcement arrived,” the media release continued, “an active fight between two dogs was taking place in a pit clearly constructed for the purpose of dog fighting. Most of the individuals at the scene fled into a wooded area, but were ultimately captured by law enforcement. Deputies then separated the two dogs and placed them into kennels for their safety.”
Hauling the 43 arrestees to the Newton County jail and booking them required not only the Newton County jail transport van, as paddy wagons are called these days, but also two more transport vans and the assistance of Jasper County sheriff’s office staff.
Two pit bulls transported to vet
“The two dogs involved in the fight were transported by deputies to the Nederland Emergency Veterinarian Clinic for treatment of their wounds,” the Newton County sheriff’s office media release stipulated.
Along with the Newton County and Jasper County sheriff’s officers, the raid received assistance from the Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas Parks & Wildlife.
Newton County sheriff Colton Havard extended special thanks to Newton County sonstable Greg Harbison and Jasper County constable Chad Ainsworth.
Sheriff Harvard noted that many of the “approximately 40 vehicles towed from the property contained illegal narcotics in plain view, firearms, and U.S. currency.
Seizing the currency
“We will be petitioning the court to seize all currency and other items related to criminal activity,” Sheriff Harvard said.
“Dog fighting and animal cruelty will not be tolerated in Newton County. In my years in law enforcement, this is one of the most disturbing crimes I have ever witnessed and the individuals involved should be ashamed of themselves,” Sheriff Harvard said.
The Call, Texas bust came five days after U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis sentenced Samuel Alexander Gray, 53, of Leesville, South Carolina, to serve 15 months in prison on a plea-bargained conviction on charges of dogfighting and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
14 pit bulls, six firearms, 400 rounds of ammo
According to a U.S. Department of Justice media release, “Evidence obtained in the investigation revealed that in September 2023, Lexington County Sheriff’s Department and Animal Services responded to a citizen’s concern about animals on a rural property. Investigators found a large fight pit with a carpeted floor, covered in blood. There were also lawn chairs set up around the pit for spectating.
“Investigators found 14 dogs on the property. Many had heavy chains around their necks with weighted collars, a training method used to strengthen dog’s necks. Several had injuries and scarring consistent with dogfighting,” the Department of Justice media release continued. There was no food or clean water nearby. Several animal carcasses and skulls were also found. Ultimately, 14 dogs were seized from Gray’s property.
“Gray also had six firearms and 400 rounds of ammunition,” the Department of Justice media release added. “He is prohibited from possessing both due to prior felony convictions.”
(See Two big dogfighting convictions & a dogfighting bust give FIGHT Act a boost.)
(Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office photo)
“Concerned citizen’s tip”
Gray was sentenced about a month after two more in a series of alleged dogfighting arrests in South Carolina, including the one leading to Gray’s conviction, that began in 2022.
The first of the recent South Carolina alleged dogfighting busts, disclosed on October 15, 2025, came after Berkeley County deputies arrested Quentin Roderick Reid, 42, of Goose Creek, in response to “a concerned citizen’s tip,” reported Jameson Moyer for WCBD television in Charleston.
Reid, Moyer continued, “is charged with 50 counts of rabies control violations and 49 counts of ill treatment of animals with torture.
“The Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office said it received a tip in July 2025 about possible dogfighting activity at a home on Reese Court in Goose Creek,” Moyer added.
“The office launched an investigation, which led to a drone operation and multiple search warrants executed at the location in question.
Pit bulls, drugs, guns & a pickup truck
“When deputies searched the home, they found over 50 dogs living in ‘deplorable conditions’ and evidence consistent with dog fighting, a Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson explained.”
Further, Moyer said, “Authorities discovered about 118 pounds of marijuana, 4.5 grams of crack, 7.8 grams of cocaine, three stolen firearms, four firearms, 36 doses of a scheduled narcotic, and about $3,842 in cash during the search. They seized a 2021 RAM-Diesel Cummins truck.
Detailed Moyer, “Reid is facing charges of trafficking marijuana over 100 pounds, possession with intent to distribute cocaine, possession with intent to distribute crack, three counts of possession of a stolen firearm, and six counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.”
(South Carolina Law Enforcement Division [SLED] photo)
Second bust the same day
Also on October 15, 2025, 64 miles northwest of Berkeley, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division arrested Christopher Corbitt, 53, in Springfield, Orangeburg County, charging him with “animal fighting and baiting, as well as ill treatment of animals,” reported Brooke Ashton for WIS television in Columbia, South Carolina.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division “said 24 pit bull-type dogs were found on Corbitt’s property,” Ashton reported. “Warrants released by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division state several of the dogs had open wounds, scarring as well as ‘inadequate housing.’ A number of the dogs were also tied up with heavy logging chains.
“State agents also searched Corbitt’s home,” seizing more than 1.3 ounces of methamphetamine, 24 grams of cocaine, a quarter-kilogram of fentanyl powder, THC vape cartridges, five oxycodone pills, two handguns, four vehicles, a cash-counting machine, and $22,421 in cash,” Ashton recited.
(Newton County Sheriff’s Office photo)
Fighting for the FIGHT Act
Meanwhile in Washington D.C., the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking [FIGHT] Act “would ban online gambling on animal fights, allow courts to seize fighting pit bulls and other property used by convicted animal fighters in the commission of their crimes, stop the shipment of fighting roosters through the mail,” and allow animal advocates to “bring civil suits against cockfighters and dogfighters when governmental authorities are too slow to act,” summarizes Animal Wellness Action and Center for a Humane Economy president Wayne Pacelle.
The FIGHT Act now has 106 House cosponsors and ten Senate cosponsors, but remains kenneled in the House Committee on Agriculture and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry.
First introduced in May 2023, the original FIGHT Act died with the end of legislative business in the 118th Congress, but was reintroduced in the 119th Congress to reinforce the existing federal legislation against dogfighting and cockfighting, passed in 2008 in the wake of the 2007 dogfighting-related conviction of National Football League star Michael Vick.
“We never, ever had southern sheriffs before”
“We just continue to build support for the FIGHT Act, within Congress and outside,” Pacelle told ANIMALS 24-7.
“We just got the endorsement of the Major County Sheriffs of America, and with the Oklahoma Sheriffs’ Association coming on board, we’ve now hit 1,000 endorsers,” Pacelle said.
“We never, ever had southern sheriffs’ associations before,” Pacelle mentioned, but “We now have 38 state sheriffs associations and state prosecutor associations, plus the nationals.
“The Newton County case is important,” Pacelle continued, “because it reminds everyone that this is a dogfighting bill, too. “Three of the four provisions in the FIGHT Act apply to dogfighting.
“Only the prohibition on shipping adult roosters via the U.S. Postal Service applies just to cockfighting, and only because the U.S. Postal Service already forbids shipping dogs of any age or either sex.”
(Daniel Leventhal photo)
Concluded Pacelle, “Of the 70 or so animal bills [introduced into the 119th Congress, no animal bill has more bipartisan support than the FIGHT Act. It will soon eclipse 50 Republican cosponsors in the House,” Pacelle predicted.
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This most horrendous of blood sports finally, after decades of pleading for attention from animal advocates and sympathetic legislators might now have a chance of being lawfully curtailed if not banned and one can only hope and trust that this is the case! Thanks go to Mr. Pacelle and his Animal Wellness Action who have been relentlessly advocating for such a result as well as to SHARK and Steve Hindi who has also given his expertise in this realm full throated expression throughout many years. The time has morethan come to end this despicable and unconscionable brutality to sentient dogs and its stain on our society.
I failed to mention that Phyllis Daugherty of Animal Issues has also devoted many years attempting to bring notice and legal action to curtail the pit bull concerns that have rightly troubled many citizens. While I am aware of the ‘ dog not the breed’ question, after reading countless reports of the most abhorrent injuries and deaths of bobies to senior victims over many years, I too now add my pleas that it is way beyond time that this question of the ownership of such dogs is justifiable and if legally allowed, then by whom. The law must address these critical questions.
After investigating several cases of dogfighting I have concluded that because pit bulls are the dog preferred by lowlife scum and gangbangers, they have no choice but to turn into “killing machines.” Most pitbulls these days are bred and raised in the ghetto and crated all day until it’s time to kick them around or else they wind up on the end of a logging chain in some rural hellhole being owned by Billy Bob who demands that they fight or he puts a bullet in their head. In either case, if they wind up getting seized and adopted out, the ignorant owner has no ability to care for them properly and that my friends, leads to an explosion.
I’ve owned/showed UKC, ADBA, AKC/rescued American pit bull terriers from 1991-2015. MOST current pit bulls are casually bred suburban pets, NOT in “the ghetto” or the holler. No one forces a pit bull to fight, look at all the ones raised to be social with other dogs that cannot stop being reactive/mauling. There are plenty of cold ones, thank God, but the instinct to maul is so ingrained that even mixed breed pit bulls cause fatalities. I will never own or encourage anyone else to own a pit bull, I don’t think they can be ethically bred to be safe around other pets.
i Am wondering if we know one another you have to understand that pit bulls and not the only dogs like this and if your goal is to breed a dog that is safe around other pets be honest with yourself please . they are dogs , Dogs are hunters, hunters kill other animals . there is not a breed out there that is going to always be safe around other pets . some people should not have dogs . and dog fighters need 15 year minimum sentences i hate them . but i do know what you mean i Owned BullyhouseKennels my dogs were York And Gaff lines and i have had Kennel fights . its a lot But you know how great they are when they are in the correct environment. the problem is always a human that is not fit to own a dog that always seems to want a Pit Bull for All the wrong Reasons
Both historically and currently, the vast majority of domestic dogs have been primarily scavengers and ratters, not hunters of any prey large enough to do them harm. Statistically speaking, pit bulls have accounted for 87% of the pets and other domestic animals killed by dogs in the U.S. since we began logging the data in 2013; see the data here: https://www.animals24-7.org/wp-content/uploads/2024-projected-animals-killed-by-dogs.pdf, and the methodology here: Pit bull attacks on other pets lead to a third of disfiguring human bite injuries.
what you say is crazy , i am a k9 trainer in NYC i have worked w countless breedes of dogs 1 all dogs have the ability to be aggressive. i can go on for hours on this . you can not blame an animal that has been abused since birth . my heart aces for the animals . the people that commit this type of crime need to be erased from this world. and yes there are scum bags . but not all pit bulls are bred in such conditions. i personally own and train Dobermans, bull breeds are not good for my line of work they lack human aggression.
More than 770 fatal pit bull attacks on humans, out of 1,150 total fatal dog attacks, and more than 6,300 disfiguring pit bull attacks, out of about 9,000 since ANIMALS 24-7 began logging the data in 1982, suggest you have no idea what you are talking about.
The Doberman totals over the same time, incidentally, are 11 fatalities plus 36 disfigurements. Pit bulls outnumber Dobermans in the U.S. dog population by approximately 16 to 1. Projecting the Doberman attack data to a hypothetical population equal to pit bulls thereby suggests that Dobermans are only about a fifteenth as “human-aggressive.”
I agree wholeheartedly and have made a similar comment on this tragedy! Thank you!
Sharing with gratitude, and dare I say, hope?
BSL NOW. Get it done!
This outstanding article and the comments demonstrate to me that animals themselves are all natural and perfect until humans get their hands on them, and make changes to facilitate whatever those humans want them to be. They will breed traits into dogs for appearance, size or use that give them physical, health and aggression problems. The same in done with roosters in cockfighting.
As in pretty much ALL animal issues, the problem is the human and NOT the animal.
All because of training by humans.
“Training” is a much misunderstood misnomer when applied to fighting pit bulls. Pit bulls need no training whatever to fight; they often begin fighting each other even before weaning. Fighting pit bulls do, however, often receive extensive physical training to build their strength before they are placed in a fighting pit.
Thank you, Arlene for a statement of fact that makes me daily ashamed of so many of our species and the damage being done to others, animals wild, farmed and domestic and the lands, oceans and air about which we all care so much! We are destroying the gifts with which we were blessed by Nature and will perish as a result ! Stupid beyond belief!
Yes, the human punishment/jail time should be a lot more increased!!!