VA: Owner Speaks Out after 10 Dogs Seized from Fluvanna Home

Posted: Jan 17, 2014 1:29 PM EST Updated: Jan 17, 2014 5:54 PM EST

FLUVANNA COUNTY, Va (WVIR) -A Fluvanna County man whose 10 pit bulls were seized by police Thursday is speaking out about what he calls an unexpected raid.

Deputies believe Brenton Mathis may have been running a dog fighting ring. But he says his pit bulls are well taken care of and loved.

The Sheriff's Office and crews with other state agencies showed up at Mathis' mother's home Thursday with a search warrant. After what his mother called five hours of chaos, they left with 10 dogs - all American pit bull terriers, Mathis says.

"I'm trying to figure out why they took the animals and why I didn't have a chance to explain to them and show them these animals," Mathis said.

Mathis showed NBC29 where he says the dogs live. In the woods about 30 feet behind his mother's home are two large cages, several doghouses and a wide-open, muddy space. Though Mathis admits the dogs can get aggressive with one another, he says the open space has never served as a dog fighting ring.

Mathis says he and his family have been raising pit bulls for 15 years, breeding them occasionally. He says investigators took a canine treadmill and a cowhide in as evidence.

Cowhides can be used to strengthen dogs' jaws, but Mathis says it was simply a toy.

"You had a house full of little kids crying, they putting the dogs up there," said Mathis' mother, Trudy Bradley. "If their purpose was to come and check on the health of the dogs, they would have left them down there because there was nothing wrong with them."

Bradley says two of the dogs have scars but that they are from protecting themselves from stray animals on the property. Both Mathis and his mother say there has never been a dog fighting ring on the property.

The dogs are currently being cared for by the state. Mathis is scheduled to appear in court next week for an animal custody hearing.

The Sheriff's Office is waiting on forensic evidence from the state-appointed veterinarian before pressing any charges. Depending on the results of those tests, Mathis could face felony charges.



Owner Speaks Out after 10 Dogs Seized from Fluvanna Home - NBC29 WVIR Charlottesville, VA News, Sports and Weather

 

Fluvanna Co. Man Faces Charges Connected to Dog Fighting

Fluvanna Co. Man Faces Charges Connected to Dog Fighting
Updated: Tue 6:36 PM, Jan 21, 2014

Authorities in Fluvanna County issued arrest warrants for Brenton Mathis on Tuesday afternoon. He was charged with eight counts of felony dog fighting, one felony count for possession of a firearm and 10 misdemeanor counts for failure to care for an animal.

After speaking with Mathis off camera, he explained that he does not fight dogs and that he has done nothing wrong, but evidence collected during a search suggests otherwise.

Logging chains attached to the dogs, a slat mill used for exercising, scars on two pit bulls consistent with dog fighting and a breeding stand were all collected from his property as evidence of dog fighting.

The search was conducted after someone complained about there being more than 30 dogs on the property, but only 10 were collected.

A neighbor across the street from the Mathis home says that she has never had any problems with their dogs.

Another neighbor who has known Mathis for 20 years says that he has never seen any sign of dog fighting and that Mathis treats his dogs better than most.

He also says the dogs are not vicious and that the most they will do is lick you.

A hearing was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon to discuss the evidence collected before charges were made against Mathis, but that was pushed back until January 28th at 1PM. Mathis could have to face a judge in the near future.



Fluvanna Co. Man Faces Charges Connected to Dog Fighting

 

Chains, mill, breeding stand was there evidence??? Terrible!

 

AGK said it best, it doesn't matter how many dogs he has (as long as he's legit with county/city) or what the hell he uses them for (show or take up yard space.) They're his dogs and they're being kept in decent conditions so WTF does it matter?

On a similar note, about 10 years ago I had 6 dogs being kept in the woods on a property of a friend. My friend calls me and says the police and dog pound showed up and took my dogs out of the woods. I was never charged with anything other than animal cruelty. They brought up about how many dogs I had in a neighboring county and they they were kept on chains blah blah blah. I never got an attorney and kept showing up at court as they kept offering me different plea deals. They got to the point where they offered me probation and wanted me get a psychiatric evaluation (because of # of dogs they thought I was crazy) and to agree to never own another dog. I told them to fuck off and I'd keep showing up at court until they got tired of wasting their own time. After stringing it out for months trying to get me to plead guilty and be done with it, they dropped the charges. Point of story, one should always stick to their side if they truly did nothing wrong. The court room tactic of "delay delay" almost always works for the courts. That's why they pull it.