Investigation Into Pit Bull Fighting Rings

In the past year dog fighting has been in the national spotlight - especially in the wake of Michael Vick's arrest.

Today we take a look at where these dog fights are taking place in Chattanooga and the effects these rings have on the fighters who can't speak for themselves.

Officer Nick Wilson introduces us to Wyatt - at first glance he's calm and almost subdued. But if you take a close look you can see scars covering his body, both old and new.

"He had a through and through bite mark on his right jaw and it was pretty bad, pretty much bleeding the entire time we were cleaning him up," Wilson says while holding Wyatt.

Wilson tells us Wyatt joins a number of other pit bulls enduring abuse throughout Chattanooga right now.

"Here lately we're seeing too much of it, we're seeing it too often," Wilson says. "Mostly with with pit bulls?" we ask. "Most of the time it is pit bulls," he responds.

Pit bulls that fight and kill while their owners feed off the results.

"Some of it's money, some of it's straight down pure pride of having the top dog of the fighting dogs," Wilson says. "It's sad to know that these dogs are being tortured the way they are just for simple enjoyment."

Wilson says there are a number of hot spots for pit bull fighting across Chattanooga. He says one of the worst spots is in Alton Park especially along the Fagan street area and he says less than two months ago they actually busted a ring behind a house on Dorsey Street.

And we want you to meet the dogs that fought behind this house. Officers found Gege with her face butchered, under her neck you can see where another dog tore straight through her jaw. Gege endured so much pain she had to be euthanized immediatly.

Then there's Garrett whose legs are gnawed and shoulder blades torn and gashed.

Garrett also had to be euthanized. These dogs have been to war and their faces show the carnage.

"They'll take drive axels out of cars and drive them into the ground and take log chains and hook these dogs to them, that's apparently the only thing strong enough to hold these dogs," Wilson says.

Wilson says they found 30 pit bulls in those conditions at an address on Gay Street in the Tunnel Boulevard area. He says many of those dogs cost a hundred dollars a piece. Some fought on Gay Street, others were sold to new owners to train.

"When these dogs are being trained to fight it's basically sheer torture," Wilson says.

And dogs like Wyatt play into the training process - he's known as a bait dog.

"They'll use those dogs to bait the more aggressive larger dogs with and just kind of taunt them with them until they're attacked and a lot of times the attack will actually take place until those smaller bait dogs are dead with their injuries," Wilson says.

But thanks to an anonymous phone call last weekend Wyatt managed to survive that torture. A day after we first met this bait dog, we came back and found him full of life - a veteran of war looking forward to a bright future.

"If you all had not received a call for Wyatt do you think he would have made it?" we ask. "Probably not," Wilson responds.

And Officer Wilson says they're doing everything possible to crack down on these rings but he says they need your help. He says all you have to do is make an anonymous phone call if you see any illegal behavior going on. The number you can call is (423) 305 6511.