WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | Video sold at West Columbia gas station depicts dog fighting

Video sold at West Columbia gas station depicts dog fighting

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - We got a tip about a video being sold at a West Columbia gas station, so we went to check it out. We found some of the first dog-fighting DVD's to make their way into our market.

This cruel and usually secret underworld is now very much out in the open. Ann Chynoweth of the Humane Society of the US says, "It's a way of promoting dog fighting, it's a way of promoting illegal activity."

WIS News 10's Dan Tordjman found DVD's selling for about seven bucks at Midlands convenience stores.

"Are you familiar with dog fighting?" Dan Tordjman asks the store manager.

"No, no idea," he says. The store manager tells Dan he doesn't even know what dogfighting is.

He says the DVD's were put there by a vendor who set up this rack in his store. The vendor tells WIS News 10 he thought the DVD's were documentaries.

But, Chynoweth says, "These DVD's are clearly not documentaries. They celebrate the mauling of two animals. It's absolutely inexcusable."

On one DVD - entitled "Unleashed" - dogs bite each other's heads, ripping off chunks of flesh. Amid all of this - random images of women dancing naked appear.

After Dan spoke with the store manager, he says he removed the entire rack. The vendor tells us he'll pull the DVD's from stores he's put them in.

Both men are now well aware that depicting animal cruelty is a federal crime punishable by as much as five years in prison.

Next stop in our investigation the "US1 Metro Flea Market." While it's closed Thursday, we did find a sign inside that reads the sale of illegal merchandise is prohibited there. But it's where the vendor says he unknowingly bought the dog DVD's because they were mixed in with other DVD's being sold by a wholesaler.

"How they're culpable, that's to be determined by law enforcement. At the very least, the vendor should've known what was on the DVD's . It's vicious dogfighting movies," says Chynoweth.

Tracking down the original distributor is difficult, officials say - as is finding the makers of the films, who predictably remain hidden and stay off-camera throughout the film. Chynoweth says, "There's really some dark place in people's hearts - to find it entertaining to see two animals maul each other to death."

Reported by Dan Tordjman

Posted by Chantelle Janelle