A person who bred canine for preventing for many years, promoting them worldwide and exhibiting “extraordinary cruelty,” has been sentenced to seven years in jail
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A person who bred canine for preventing for many years, promoting them worldwide and exhibiting “extraordinary cruelty,” was sentenced to seven years in jail, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace introduced Friday.
Antonio Casillas Montero owned Stone Metropolis Kennels in Puerto Rico and had been accused of conspiring to violate the Animal Welfare Act. He pleaded responsible in Might and was sentenced in late September.
Authorities mentioned he ran his enterprise for greater than 35 years, with canine taking part in additional than 150 fights in nations together with america, Mexico, Ecuador and Peru.
“The federal government has not discovered a comparable case of somebody with as many dogfights for as a few years as Mr. Casillas,” prosecutors mentioned throughout sentencing.
Authorities accused Casillas of letting canine die from their accidents as an alternative of eradicating them from fights, which generally lasted greater than an hour. As well as, canine seized from his property had pustules, fungus, had been limping and had jaw clamping, based on courtroom paperwork.
“Casillas exhibited extraordinary cruelty,” prosecutors mentioned throughout sentencing.
They famous dogfighting is an open secret in Puerto Rico that isn’t focused by native regulation enforcement.
As well as, prosecutors famous that “a willingness on the a part of sure veterinarians in Puerto Rico to assist Casillas facilitated his years of dogfighting.”
He would inject canine with steroids and call sure veterinarians to acquire well being certificates required to move some canine to the Dominican Republic through ferry, officers mentioned.
Casillas additionally was accused of breeding and promoting preventing canine for hundreds of {dollars} and delivery them to individuals throughout the globe.