One dog had a jagged wound down its back that someone had closed with a staple gun. Two pit bulls that had gotten loose were in such a ferocious fight that Pennsylvania SPCA workers later had to euthanize one.
An adjacent building was an animal horror house, filled with tools that dogfighters - called dogmen - typically use to train and breed dogs. A blood-spattered enclosure served as gory testament to the canine carnage that occurred behind the building's grimy stucco walls.
Police are looking for the man they say ran the dogfighting dungeon that sickened even seasoned animal-cruelty investigators.
The grim discovery - the latest in a rash of dogfighting and animal-hoarding cases handled by the PSPCA since August - prompted the organization this week to declare animal cruelty an "epidemic" in Philadelphia.
PSPCA agents have taken in about 100 animals - all suspected victims of illegal dogfighting or hoarders - to its Juniata shelter since August, said the PSPCA's chief executive, Howard Nelson.
"I've been doing this for 16 years, and I've never seen so much of it in my life," said PSPCA Officer George Bengal, an animal-cruelty investigator.
As PSPCA officials pleaded for the public's help in nabbing animal-abusers, police detectives yesterday said they hoped to make an arrest within days. PSPCA agents seized the pit bulls, which are being evaluated by PSPCA veterinarians this week.
The man leasing the site was two months into a three-year lease, Bengal said.
Inside an adjacent one-story building, PSPCA agents found plenty of proof that the pit bulls weren't cuddled as pets.
They found a "rape stand," upon which female dogs are restrained for mating; a treadmill and water tank used to increase dogs' strength and stamina; a medical kit including syringes and a staple gun; and a breaking stick, which dogmen use to pry open a dog's jaws.
