Dog Fight Ringleaders Tortured Dozens Of Pit Bulls: Prosecutors

NEW YORK CITY — Dog fight ringleaders who trained pit bulls with "breaking sticks," forced animals to fight to the death, then stored the dead bodies in their freezers landed in New York criminal court Friday, prosecutors said.

Four men stand accused of running a dog fighting ring that sprawled from Long Island to Manhattan, The Bronx and upstate New York for more than a year, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance announced.

The foursome — Jose "Gator" Rivera, 55, Evans "Hustle" Fuentes, 39, Benito Gittens, 46, Edward "Big Myke" Johnson, 37 — allegedly forced at least 29 pit bulls and fight from September 2018 to October 2019, said prosecutors.

Training involved starving the dogs, forcing them to run on treadmills in weighted vests, and prying open their mouths with sticks in homes in Washington Heights, Central Harlem, Uniondale and Middletown, said prosecutors.

Fuentes trained the pit bulls, Johnson coordinated the fights, and Gittens, an unlicensed veterinary clinic worker, treated injuries and euthanized dogs too badly hurt to recover, prosecutors said.

Rivera also trained dogs in the Washington Heights building where he lived and worked as a super, and where investigators found a dead dog found in his freezer, two guns, four kilos of heroin and three kilos of fentanyl, said prosecutors.

The 29 abused dogs taken from the four men's homes are now being treated by the ASPCA, prosecutors said.

The foursome was charged with conspiracy, animal fighting and failure to feed the dogs and Rivera also faces drug trafficking charges, according to the District Attorney's office.

“Animal cruelty has no place in 21st-century New York,” said Vance.

“I am thankful to our partners in the NYPD who helped us put a stop to this horrific animal abuse, as well as to the ASPCA for removing the dogs from these despicable conditions and doing everything in their power to care for them.”