Craig Boyd Case Summary

Craig Boyd had a very interesting dog fighting case. Boyd and two older ladies posed as animal rescuers to obtain dogs they could use to fight. The old ladies would claim that Boyd was a trainer for Pitbull’s who were aggressive and/or out of control and get the families to transfer ownership (Raeke, 2009). Once Boyd obtained the dogs he would train them and fight the dogs against each other (Raeke, 2009). Boyd was let off easy with almost no penalty until drugs and weapons were involved even though he continued to offend.

Timeline The first discovery made was in Chicago on June 6, 2000 when sanitation workers found three dead dog bodies in trash cans outside of Craig Boyd’s house (ALDF, 2009). This should have been a red flag to alert authorities, but nothing happened. A week later June 13, the same sanitation workers discovered two more dead dogs outside of Boyd’s home (ALDF, 2009). Neighbors complained of an awful smell from dead dogs in Boyd’s hot basement (ALDF, 2009). The Animal Abuse Control Team of Chicago’s police department raided Boyd’s house finding the basement was set up for dogfight training (ALDF, 2009). Six dogs and one puppy were
I feel this case was a stepping stone towards passing the Animal Fighting Prohibition Act in 2007 due to the lack of punishment received for the dog fighting during Boyd’s first offense. The police raided Boyd’s home three separate occasions seizing dogs used for fighting purposes each time and if the third time there wasn’t drugs or weapons, I don’t think they would have done much again. The federal police still have not investigated Boyd’s dog fighting ring violations or the transport of animals across state lines from the two old ladies. The passing of the Animal Fighting Prohibition Act of 2007 is a great thing since offenders of dog fighting would keep offending due to a lack of