MACON, Ga. — Georgia's Cane Valley Kennels owner illegally trained dogs to fight and will now spend the next five years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The breeder was sentenced Tuesday to the statutory maximum sentence after a multi-state dog-fighting and cocaine trafficking ring investigation, a news release stated. After his prison sentence, the Suwanee dog breeder will also be under three years of supervised release and have to pay a $10,000 fine.
The 49-year-old previously plead guilty to conspiracy to participate in an animal fighting venture, records show. In that agreement, he also agreed to forfeit $116,819 in cash seized during the investigation.
Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division said the Georgia man is "being held accountable for his violent, illegal and inhumane actions."
Law enforcement spent the last two years investigating a criminal organization involved in both cocaine distribution and organized dogfighting based out of Roberta, Georgia, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Investigators learned operations extended into North Georgia, Florida and Alabama from May 2019 until February 2020.
However, investigators said the dog breeder's criminal activity started years beforehand.
Between October 1996 and February 2020, law enforcement said the owner of Cane Valley Kennels, bred, trained, sold and transported dogs for the purpose of dogfighting.
Prosecutors said the kennel owner would offer a seven-week keep as part of his business and would train dogs for animal fighting, prepared pedigrees for the fighting dogs bred and trained at Cane Valley Kennels. Evidence shows the kennel owner kept training and conditioning equipment including slat mills, chains, a staple gun, hanging weight scales, break sticks, flirt poles and various medicines to treat injuries or disease sustained by dogs made to fight.
Last February, law enforcement seized more than 150 dogs that were being used for organized dogfighting, according to the DOJ.
“This case illustrates that dog-fighting is intimately connected with the underworld of drugs and organized crime, and that the Department of Justice will investigate and prosecute it to the fullest extent of the law," Kim said in a news release.
