From the Jun 24 – Jun 30, 2004 issue

News

Dog Fight

Neighbors Wary of Pit-Bull Training

by Amy Jenniges

When Mayor Greg Nickels arrived at Rainier Valley's Othello Park on Saturday afternoon, he was greeted by a crowd of neighbors eager to tell him all about the park's new problem, pit bulls. Lately, neighbors have seen people training pit bulls by urging the dogs to jump up and latch their jaws onto tree branches, a definite clue that violent dog fighting is happening behind the scenes. Neighborhood activist Ron Momoda reached up for a tree branch, shredded by a pit bull's teeth. "Imagine a 60- or 70-pound dog hanging from here," he said, describing how the pit bulls are forced to train.

Nickels, in the park as part of a neighborhood tour, nodded as the neighbors described the training. It's just one of the problems at Othello Park, residents say--they also report knife fights, and groups of youths going after each other with baseball bats--but dog fighting is the issue that's grabbed the most attention. For at least the past few years, neighbors in South Seattle have heard that parks are the scene for amateur dog fights, but it's been rare to catch people training their dogs in the park, and even rarer to witness the secretive fights. "We get sporadic calls throughout South Seattle about youths who might be fighting their dogs," says Don Jordan at Seattle Animal Control.

But Animal Control usually can't pinpoint a specific park as a popular spot for pit bull fighting. Several months ago, a Seattle Animal Shelter volunteer wrote an article in neighborhood papers like the South Seattle Star detailing things to watch out for on dogs--scars, chains, aggressive behavior--so residents could report suspected dog fighting. Now, Othello Park neighbors' reports--which the Star followed up on last week--give Animal Control a lead.

It's unclear how big of a problem pit bulls in Othello Park are, though. Jordan says his officers have patrolled the park a few times in recent weeks, but haven't seen any pit bull training or fighting yet--both illegal, under animal cruelty laws. "We don't know how problematic it is," he says. The incident Momoda described to the mayor is the only citizen complaint on file so far.

Othello's neighbors, though uniformly concerned about the pit bull training, aren't sure themselves how large a problem the training is. A teenage boy in the park said his cousin owns a pit bull, and brings it to Othello Park to train it in the trees. "They'll bet $20 on how long the dogs can stay up," said the teen, who didn't want to be named. He knows more than the other neighbors, though--he says there have been at least two fights lately, deeper in the park, out of view from the neighborhood. "The dogs are hella vicious," he said.

amy@thestranger.com