Police now suspect ten of involvement in illegal dog fights

Controversial BBC documentary sparks strong feelings on message boards

print this

The National Bureau of Investigation, Finland's central criminal police arm, now suspects around ten persons of involvement in illegal dog fights in Southern Finland. All those who have been interviewed by police are Finnish, and they have connections with one another and at least to other dog fighting circles in Scandinavia and possibly also in Russia.
      The individuals, who live in the south of the country, are suspected of animal cruelty offences. Dog-owners and others are among those under suspicion.
     
The police have investigated between four and six dog fights that have apparently been arranged within a small circle of people around Southern Finland.
      The case will be considered for formal prosecution by the end of October.
      "I would not like to speculate on the motives for the arranging of these dog fights", says Chief Inspector Olli Töyräs of the NBI. "At least thus far there has been no evidence of illegal gambling on the outcome of fights. There also does not seem to be any large-scale organisation behind the incidents or connections with organised crime groupings. It would appear to be the pastime of a group of individuals."
      Töyrä commented that around a dozen American pit bull terriers had been in the fights.
     
On Thursday night, YLE's TV2 screened a controversial British documentary by the BBC Panorama team that explored illegal dog fighting in Northern Ireland and mainland Britain, and exposed links to Finland. Pit bulls were allegedly exported from this country under false pretences, with documentation claiming the animals were boxer-retriever crossbreeds.
      A BBC journalist and a former military man with links to Northern Ireland went undercover and infiltrated a notorious Ulster dog fighting ring, The Farmers' Boys, which led in turn to people in Finland who arranged fights and raised dogs for fighting purposes.
     
The entire issue of pit bulls is an emotional topic in Britain, following cases in which examples of the breed have savaged and even killed children.
      The Dangerous Dogs Act of 1991 prohibits the sale or breeding in Britain of "any dog of the type known as pit bull terrier", but the programme - which also showed graphic images of injuries caused by dog-bites - clearly sought to show that this legislation has been ineffective.
     
The undercover investigation lasted over a year.
      In the programme, which was exceptionally shown in Finland at the same time as it was aired in the U.K., one of the undercover team took part in a dogfight arranged in Finland, and the journalist and her male assistant also bought an American pit bull terrier from a Finnish breeder. The dog, given false papers, was brought illegally back to Britain via Germany and Ireland, crossing the porous border with Northern Ireland and then taking a ferry across to the English mainland.
     
At the dog fight in Finland, which was shown in part via hidden cameras, a dog belonging to a Finnish man was severely injured in a fight. The man allegedly finished off the dog by rudimentarily wiring it up, pouring water on it, and giving it an electric shock. At the first attempt, the fuses blew, and the death-by-electrocution had to be repeated.
     
The BBC contacted the Finnish police in the course of making the programme, and on the basis of the television footage and other material, the first Finnish arrests were made at the beginning of August (see earlier article).
      ”We have only had vague unconnected hints of this sort of activity in the past, and on the basis of these it was not possible to mount an earlier investigation", said Chief Insp. Töyräs. The NBI is now investigating dog fighting in Finland for the first time.
     
Dog fights involve the setting of two animals upon each other in front of an audience. Fights take place in a carpeted pen, and wagers are often made on the outcome of the bout, which in many cases ends with the losing dog also losing its life. Even the winners are often badly injured and scarred.
      In many countries, including Finland, the practice is regarded as barbaric and is outlawed on animal cruelty grounds.
     
Thursday night's documentary was shocking, and prompted an immediate outpouring of comments on internet message boards and discussion forums.
      One of the dog breeders featured in the programme - which in its Finnish version used pixellated faces and did not broadcast the names of those persons involved in Finland - denied the accusations to Helsingin Sanomat in the early hours of Friday morning.
     
The dog breeder is an active member of SATHY, described on its website as "a Finnish club devoted to dog breeds not recognized by FCI related associations (such as the Finnish Kennel Club, and some others). [The] Most important breeds for us are the American Bulldog, American Pit Bull Terrier, Toy Fox Terrier, American Hairless Terrier and Olde English Bulldog."
      On Thursday evening the SATHY website displayed a statement to the effect that the material in the BBC documentary was manipulated, edited, and strongly dramatised, and that legal action had been taken against the British journalist by Finnish dog-owners.
      At the end of the documentary the journalist had revealed her true identity and purpose to the members of the alleged Finnish dog fighting ring.
     
On the SATHY discussion forum and elsewhere on the Net, Finnish message board posters discussed the programme very actively, with moderators having difficulty keeping pace and removing posts and threads that divulged more than Finnish laws on privacy permit.
      Outside of the SATHY site, the general tenor of the writing was one of shock and disgust, albeit that many felt that the dogs were more sinned against than sinners.
      As advocates of the pit bull terrier have often written: "Punish the deed, not the breed".
      For some internet posters, however, the punishment would fit the crime - more than one person advocated setting the dogs on the humans and letting them get on with it.
     
     
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish Police: Illegal dogfights organised in Southern Finland (14.8.2007)

See also:
  HS Discussion Forum (in Finnish, requires registration)

Links:
  BBC: Gangs in pit bull smuggling ring

Helsingin Sanomat