A Hanson man will go to jail for dogfighting, “an extreme form of cruelty to animals,” in a first-of-its form sentence in federal court docket in Massachusetts.
John D. Murphy, 51, pleaded responsible final November to 9 counts of possessing animals to be used in an animal preventing enterprise, the identical variety of counts he was indicted on in March of final 12 months. On Wednesday, U.S. Senior District Choose William G. Younger sentenced Murphy to a 12 months and a day in federal jail, with the final three months to be served “in community confinement.”
“Dogfighting is a blood sport rooted in cruelty and greed. For years, Mr. Murphy brutalized defenseless animals for profit and sport – training them to fight, suffer and die for his own financial gain. His actions were not only illegal but deeply disturbing,” stated U.S. Lawyer Leah Foley.
Federal prosecutors within the case stated that dogfighting “bears no resemblance to the quarreling that pet canines would possibly do in a yard over a toy.
“It is an extreme form of cruelty to animals — not only inside the fighting ring itself, but also in the specific practices leading up to a fight and, if either dog survives, after a fight,” prosecutors wrote of their sentencing memo earlier this month.
Images included within the prosecution’s sentencing memo present Murphy himself egging on the pit bull-type canines of their blood-drenched fights in what seems to be a cheaply constructed particle board ring on a concrete basement flooring. Different photographs present a canine attached in a harness above a treadmill to endlessly chase a caged raccoon set in entrance of it to situation it for fights.
Federal investigators carried out aerial surveillance of Murphy’s residence in late March and early April of 2023 the place they allegedly noticed a “stockaded enclosure as well as what agents believed to be outdoor housing structures for fighting dogs” and through each days of surveillance “observed one or more dogs within or immediately outside of the enclosure.”
A June 2023 search carried out at Murphy’s Hanson dwelling discovered stacks of kennel bins wherein 9 pit bull-type canines had been stored. A number of of the canines had scarring that prosecutors say are frequent amongst struggle canines.
The U.S. Marshals Service seized the canines that day. Solely eight of them survived, as a result of one they described as a “red, underweight male” and presumably affected by most cancers, died throughout the seizure.
Residents can report dogfighting to the U.S. Division of Agriculture’s Workplace of Inspector Basic by a grievance hotline on-line at USDAOIG.oversight.gov/hotline or by calling the hotline quantity at 1-800-424-9121.
This can be a creating story.
Courtesy/U.S. District Courtroom
A canine is seen on a treadmill on the Hanson dwelling of John D. Murphy to situation it for preventing. (Courtesy/U.S. District Courtroom)
Courtesy/U.S. District Courtroom
A pit bull-type canine is seen in an out of doors enclosure on the Hanson dwelling of John D. Murphy. Federal investigators say they noticed this construction throughout aerial surveillance earlier than looking out the house. (Courtesy/U.S. District Courtroom)
