Pittsburgh-Area Cops Suspect Dog Fighting Operation As 14 Pit Bulls Found Abandoned In Home In Foreclosure

In Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Review Tribune reports:

• More than a dozen pit bulls were found Thursday in an abandoned Penn Hills house that authorities believe was being used for the breeding and training of dogfighting animals. "There are some elements that lead us to believe these animals are being used for dogfighting," said Kathy Hecker, a humane investigations officer for Ohio Township-based Animal Friends, mentioning wounds on several of the dogs, the presence of sticks used to pry apart fighting animals and blood splatters on the walls.

• Lt. Jack Kearney of the Allegheny County Sheriff's Department said deputies found an older-model submachine gun inside the house in an isolated area of Lawndale Street, a dead-end street near the border with Homewood. Hecker said nine adult dogs -- two with fresh wounds and several with "significant scars" -- and five nursing puppies were found in dirty cages inside the house.

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• Kearney said a deputy who went to the house Monday to serve mortgage foreclosure papers heard whining dogs inside but did not have authority to enter through the locked gate.

For more, see Dogfighting pit bulls rescued from Penn Hills house.