BONNYVILLE - “Running the numbers and just looking at the number of dogs being lost and found… it’s obvious that (your area has) a huge dog theft problem. They just vanish.”
For the past five years, Sharice Billett has dedicated her life to putting an end to dog fighting through the organization she founded called Stolen, Missing, and Exploited Pets.
Using information gathered through various tips from the public, the Saskatchewan-based group pinpoints areas that could contain dog fighting rings, with the Bonnyville region making the list.
“We do know there’s dog fighting there," Billett told the Nouvelle. “It’s a little too easy, too remote, and they’re too good at what they’re doing. We’ve been looking at that area for five years, and you absolutely do have that. We’re aware of it… and a lot of animal lovers are aware of it."
“I’ve had people who have seen the dog fighting contact us. We get that quite often. It’s always anonymously and they never give us quite enough information to find the places."
From drugs to pets that simply go missing, Billett outlined the numerous signs that could point them towards the feeling that dog fighting is taking place in any given community.
“A lot of animals will go missing, and usually you’re going to see bull breeds, Rottweilers, or anything they think they can fight. You’ll see a lot of dead dogs dropped in stray areas under strange circumstances… Another one is animals found randomly. It’s usually a high level of lost and found animals, a lot of them are dead,” Billett explained. “A lot of drug activity in the area, and these are the ones that are sadistic that are taking animals just to see them ripped apart."
She continued, “It’s the same as what you would see for any criminal activity. You’re going to see a lot of suspicious vehicles, a lot of action in strange places at night. We really encourage people to call in suspicious behaviour and start paying attention to their own areas."
The issue with dog fighting organizations is their ability to go underground and remain undetected.
Billett has seen some cases where the people running the dog fighting ring have cut the vocal chords of the animals so they can't bark.
“They don’t want to be caught,” she stressed, adding their methods of disposing of the animals has also changed.
“At one time they would just be dumped and you would find all of these dog fighting dogs just dumped on the side of the road… but over the last few years, they’ve started getting smarter and they’re burying them, or they’re taking them into extremely remote areas because not all dogs are dead at that time,” Billett described.
As part of their work, the organization releases a map of areas where they have received tips about dog fighting or high volumes of animals going missing.
The Bonnyville-region was identified on one of these maps.
“We really depend on members of the groups to get a hold of us and say that there have been certain types of dogs missing… and to post that on our group so we can see it and get more information,” expressed Billett. “Really, we’re just sitting there (collecting information) and it’s all of those great animal lovers that are giving us information that we then put together."
According to Bonnyville RCMP S/Sgt. Sarah Parke, the local detachment hasn't received any reports of dog fighting activity, or pets being stolen.
The Cold Lake RCMP confirmed the same, however, they did note an incident a few years ago where two Great Danes were believed to have been stolen from a local residence.
In these cases, Parke said, the police investigate the incident like any other crime.
“We would follow-up with the complainant and try to determine why it was they felt it was stolen and hadn’t run off and pursue those avenues and follow-up on any leads, whether there’s any surveillance video in the area,” she stated. “We could canvas and do neighbourhood inquiries to see if there’s any video we could track down and review, and follow-up with any other leads that may come about as a result of interviewing the pet owner and local neighbours."
Billett noted, it can be hard not only to convince the public that there is ongoing dog fighting activity, but also law enforcement.
“It’s a little hard to convince RCMP sometimes that it exists and have them not just think you’re a crazy person. We take in enough that if I have to walk right into the detachment I will drop a huge file of 100 per cent proof in front of them, from there, we walk away,” she said. “The RCMP have improved in the last five years, but we’ve done the education and people know to keep going to them whether they want it or not and to get a file number and to make sure there’s a report taken and a paper trail."
Because the local detachment has never come across this type of complaint, Parke said it's difficult to explain just how they would go about their investigation.
“Being we haven’t had any reports of it, we haven’t had any investigations on that base. A report of a dog fighting ring is the same as any other complaint in the sense that we follow-up with it in the same manners as interviewing anyone involved and following the evidence where it leads us and continually uncovering more evidence as we pursue those avenues to a point where we can try and solve what happened."
Billett worked as an animal protection officer before her MS diagnosis made it so she could no longer work.
Her pet pit bull was a rescue that had been "horrifically abused, but was the most gentle soul in the world," and was her inspiration for creating Missing, Stolen, and Exploited Pets.
“He gave me my life back and he rescued me. All of this is because of that."
With this in mind, Billett had a few tips to offer pet owners to keep their four-legged loved ones safe.
“Keep them safe and secure in your line of sight at all times. I know that’s hard for farmers, so we really suggest cameras. If they see cameras, a lot of lighting, and a lot of activity, criminals are lazy, it doesn’t matter what they’re doing… They won’t work hard to get anything,” she suggested.
Parke said, “Pet owners should still take precautions to prevent their loved pets from being stolen, and that’s just the general pet owner duties of registering their pet with the respective municipality, include contact information on the dog or cat tag so if their pet does go missing the person who finds the pet can reach them either by phone or other means... I think additionally there’s such thing as identity chips that can be implanted into your pet at the vet, so that’s another option.”
Billett also encourages anyone with any information about possible dog fighting to contact their organization and the RCMP.
“Even if it’s just rumours we don’t care, we want to hear those rumours," she stated. “There’s usually a little bit of truth in every rumour."
They implore anyone involved in the crime to reach out.
“Someone that has been to dog fighting, or even a dog fighter that is currently fighting, they have a world of knowledge,” expressed Billett. “Being ashamed of it, I totally get it, you don’t want people to know that you do this and people will look at you like the worst thing in the world, but we’re not going to look at you that way. We just want to understand it."
She continued, “We’re not going to hate the person because they’re extremely valuable to us. In fact, they’re great people to come forward. They do horrible things, but they’re wonderful people if they would at least talk to us. It’s very rare to get a chance to talk to a dog fighter."
Knowledge is power, she added, especially when it comes to locating and putting an end to dog fighting rings.
Billett also warns those who come across dogs with scars not to assume the worst.
“I caution people that when they find dogs with scars on them, not to automatically assume it’s dog fighting because dogs fight among themselves,” she detailed. “Dog fighting has different marks. It’s not just the scars, there will be other things... You have to look and see if certain pieces fit in order to be able to say ‘yes, this was a dog fighting dog.'”
For more information or to provide a tip to the Stolen, Missing, and Exploited Pets organization call 587-207-0930 or by email at [email protected].
