{"id":12868,"date":"2012-12-12T15:26:57","date_gmt":"2012-12-12T20:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=12868"},"modified":"2012-12-12T17:44:32","modified_gmt":"2012-12-12T22:44:32","slug":"couple-accused-of-running-deadly-dog-fighting-ring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=12868","title":{"rendered":"Couple accused of running deadly dog-fighting ring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pit bulls were trained to fight, killed if they didn\u2019t, authorities said<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan displays disturbing photos taken at a West Brandywine Township residence, where a couple allegedly ran a dog-fighting ring.<\/p><\/div>\n

A West Brandywine Township couple operated\u00a0 \u201ca house of pain and horror\u201d for\u00a0 dozens of pit bulls used in a multi-state, dog-fighting operation, authorities said Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

Even worse, said Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan at a news conference, five young children lived in the home, which was equipped for\u00a0 breeding, training, fighting, and torturing\u00a0 up to 16 animals at a time.<\/p>\n

When police executed a search warrant on Dec. 5, they found what Hogan termed\u00a0 \u201ca full gladiator gym for dogs:\u201d treadmills for endurance training,\u00a0 tools to incite biting,\u00a0 steroidal medicine \u201cto amp up their savagery,\u201d a noose used to hang a dog that bit one of the children, and a blood-splattered basement arena for staging the fights.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Shane L. Santiago is accused of running a dog-fighting operation from his West Brandywine Township residence.<\/p><\/div>\n

Hogan said Shane L. Santiago, 33, and his wife,\u00a0 Laura Ann Acampora, 33,\u00a0 are both incarcerated and face charges that include animal cruelty, conspiracy, and endangering the welfare of a child. They were taken into custody on unrelated warrants during the investigation and will be arraigned on the new charges on Friday, according to court records.<\/p>\n

Over the past year, authorities have seen indications that dog fighting\u00a0 was occurring in Chester County when maimed or dead pit bulls were found abandoned, Hogan said.\u00a0 He said the multi-agency investigation ramped up in September when smoke along Rt. 82 led a local fire chief to discover a pit bull burning\u00a0 to death in a locked cage.<\/p>\n

Hogan said the publicity from the case\u00a0 caused participants in the dog-fighting world to lie low for a while, but investigators kept pursuing leads. Santiago\u00a0 ended up on detectives\u2019 radar\u00a0 during Operation Silent Night,\u00a0 an initiative to combat violent crime in Coatesville.<\/p>\n

About the same time, West Brandywine Township\u00a0 had received complaints about possible dog fighting at Santiago\u2019s residence\u00a0 in the 1300 block of North Manor Road, Hogan said. He said investigators got a break when they contacted Santiago\u2019s landlord, learned he was going to be evicted Dec. 5, and got permission to search the home.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Laura Ann Acampora, 33, faces multiple conspiracy charges for her role in the alleged dog-fighting ring.<\/p><\/div>\n

Because both suspects had outstanding warrants –\u00a0 Santiago had drug charges stemming from Operation Silent Night and Acampora had traffic warrants \u2013 they were taken into custody after leaving the residence on Dec. 5, Hogan said, adding that the children were placed with relatives. He said\u00a0West Brandywine Police and Chester County Detectives, who began searching the home, contacted the Chester County SPCA when they found injured animals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The agency rescued six dogs, ranging from a young puppy to a severely disfigured adult pit bull, said Becky Turnbull,\u00a0 the animal protective servies coordinator for the Chester County SPCA. She said it is too early to determine whether the animals will ever be adoptable.<\/p>\n

Hogan said investigators who conducted the search also found a dead pit\u00a0 bull puppy in a trashcan outside, double-wrapped in plastic bags. He said an unfinished basement served as the arena for the fights, which can generate tens of thousands in bets and attracted participants from a wide geographic area. A fight ends when a dog is killed or refuses to keep fighting, Hogan said.<\/p>\n

In the gruesome world of dog fighting,\u00a0 only winning dogs have value, Hogan said. A dog \u00a0that quits \u00a0is generally killed by shooting, drowning, hanging, or electrocution, The latter typically involves car-jumper cables, Hogan said, adding that the ones found in the couple\u2019s basement had\u00a0 dog hair on them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Craig Baxter of the Chester County SPCA shows some of the training devices found at the West Brandywine Township residence.<\/p><\/div>\n

According to the criminal complaint, Santiago, who referred to the animals as \u201clivestock,\u201d acknowledged\u00a0 killing at least 10 dogs by hanging or electrocution.\u00a0He said he used a cable to fashion a noose for one dog that bit\u00a0 his daughter and wouldn\u2019t let go, adding that it \u201ctook three minutes for the dog to die,\u201d the complaint said.<\/p>\n

Santiago told investigators\u00a0 that he and Acampora \u201cwere planning on making the training and fighting of pit bull dogs a family business,\u201d the complaint said. He said he had planned to host\u00a0 two upcoming dog-fighting matches in his home \u2013 one in December and one in\u00a0 January, the complaint said. Asked about\u00a0 an injured dog that had been reported being carried out of his home in August, Santiago said some men brought the animal to spar with his fighting dog, and\u00a0 it got hurt, the complaint said.<\/p>\n

Representatives from the various agencies who worked on the case attended the news conference, including West Brandywine Township Police Chief Walt Werner. \u00a0Hogan said the arrests would not have occurred without the successful collaboration, and he said the investigation is continuing.\u00a0\u201cAs a prosecutor, this is deeply troubling,\u201d said Hogan of the dog-fighting ring, urging residents who suspect this kind of activity is occurring to contact\u00a0 authorities.<\/p>\n

Hogan said one of the more unsettling finds in the squalid home\u00a0 was a parenting magazine. \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure\u00a0 nowhere in this magazine does it say: This is how to raise children,\u201d\u00a0 he said.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pit bulls were trained to fight, killed if they didn\u2019t, authorities said By Kathleen Brady Shea,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times A West Brandywine Township couple operated\u00a0 \u201ca house of pain and horror\u201d for\u00a0 dozens of pit bulls used in a multi-state, dog-fighting operation, authorities said Tuesday morning. Even worse, said Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,317],"tags":[2328,1961,1455,2360,2359,2358],"class_list":["post-12868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-region","tag-chester-county-detectives","tag-chester-county-district-attorney-tom-hogan","tag-chester-county-spca","tag-laura-ann-acampora","tag-shane-l-santiago","tag-west-brandywine-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}