BORN IN A DOG FIGHTING RING

Once you start rescuing animals, it becomes an addiction you can’t, or rather don’t want to, shake. I started at the ripe old age of six. Yes, my first rescue came in the form of a wild kitten born in a cornfield in upstate New York who lived to be almost 21 years old and had the most incredible life. Fast forward some 30 years, and my wife and I found ourselves adopting Rolo, a Pit-Lab puppy that was born to kill in a dog fight ring who became the epicenter of our lives.

I will never forget the phone call I received about one of the most reprehensible dog fighting rings ever busted in New York City history. An old friend of mine who was an undercover NYPD detective in the Bronx told me about this dog fighting ring he was investigating. I had met him working with the NYPD Animal Enforcement Unit which I advised from time to time. I was horrified by stories of the endless height of cages on top of cages filled with puppies being groomed to fight next to adult dogs that had clearly already been fighting. It was in this anonymous warehouse guarded by thugs carrying AR-15s; a place akin only to the third ring of hell for anyone with a heart, or soul.

At this warehouse, the endless cages of puppies were flanked by cages filled with “bait dogs.” Bait dogs are typically stolen off the street from unsuspecting pet parents who were inside either stores or coffee shops foolish enough to tie up their furrever one to a parking meter, tree box border or pole outside, unprotected. According to the ASPCA, over two million dogs are stolen every year with roughly 25% of them being used as bait dogs in major metro areas like New York. 

When my friend told me about the dog fights that would go until 5am, and the hundreds upon hundreds of humans betting on dogs to kill, my stomach would churn. I remember tearing up thinking about how scared those poor puppies were that were being groomed to kill, let alone the dogs that used to live on Park Avenue, pampered, who now found themselves fighting for their lives against dogs at least twice their size. I remember thinking about how I would feel if our dog Snickers were stolen or used to fight (since she was 55 pounds of muscle in a Bull Mastiff-American Staffy Mix body). My heart would break with even the passing imagined image of another dog trying to kill our girl. Little did I know that is exactly what would happen just a year later. I will get back to that in a minute. 

FREEDOM FROM THE RING
When my detective friend called me about a week later to tell me that they busted the fight ring, I was ecstatic. Hundreds of puppies and bait dogs had been seized from the ring by the NYPD and brought to Animal Care Centers of NYC (ACC). That was, and still is, the protocol for law enforcement in New York as ACC is contracted by the NYC Department of Health and Human Services to manage all of New York City’s animals. That includes animals that are seized as evidence in a criminal or civil case. The only problem with this policy is that when you are caring for hundreds of animals related to a crime, none of them are allowed to be adopted out because they are classified as evidence in a court case. In other words, they are property under the custody of the NYPD and therefore have no rights.

A few days passed after the ring was busted, my wife texted me an intake photo of a puppy named Arnie who was in the ring being groomed. She wanted to see if we could foster him to ensure that he would get along with our girl, Snickers. We both noticed in the photos that he already had a couple of scars around his head. But the look on his face was full of fear, yet we could see the hope in this little boy’s eyes.  

Knowing the law and the likelihood that it wouldn’t be possible, I still called ACC’s Executive Director, who I had been working with for a few years at that point, to see if I could get Arnie released into my custody. As she correctly reminded me, he was evidence in a criminal case. So, I told her to expect a call from the NYPD releasing her of responsibility and to transfer Arnie into the custody of a rescue that we work with so that we could foster him. Having as many friends at One Police Plaza as I have, I called downtown to see what I could do. I had to make the case that there were hundreds of dogs as evidence and that ACC is limited in their space, so releasing Arnie would be the humane thing to do. Thankfully a Captain agreed with me and instructed ACC to release him. ACC couldn’t believe this happened, as it never did before, and happily released Arnie to the rescue we were working with.

A couple of days later, we took Arnie in and became virtually instant foster failures. Kylie and I have always had a food name theme for the animals in our lives (ie – Snickers), so we scrambled to come up with a name because Arnie just wasn’t going to cut it. We landed on a childhood favorite candy of mine, Rolo! For the next year, Rolo and Snickers would play, roughhouse and put massive smiles on our faces the size of which I cannot even describe. Then one day, everything changed. 

You see, when a dog (or any sentient being for that matter) is being groomed to kill from birth, it is not something that ever goes away completely. There will always be a trigger (ie – a smell, a sound, a sight, or a situation) they will react to. And one night around 2am, we found out the hard way that fight rings have a longer effect on animals than even we knew.

LASTING EFFECTS OF VIOLENCE IN THE RING
I was in LA for the Grammy Awards, staying at a friend’s house in the Hollywood Hills. We were watching a movie in his home theater when my phone started to frantically ring. I saw it was Kylie and knew it was after 2am in NY, so I picked up right away to hear sobbing and tears. Rolo had tried to kill Snickers.

Anger, sadness, confusion all took over my psyche. Kylie and a dear friend who lived in our building took Snickers and Rolo to the emergency vet as they were both bleeding profusely, with Snickers taking the lion’s share of damage. I could not imagine losing her, let alone seeing another sunrise without having her in our lives. Snickers was our first pet together and the literal center of our lives. I could hear the fear in Kylie’s voice that our little girl was going to die, and so I started imagining the worst-case scenario for my family. 

Thankfully both dogs were taken care of, though Snickers’ healing and recovery time took months. We knew we had to do something about Rolo, but first we needed to really understand what caused this to happen. How did he go from being our sweet little boy to turning into the spawn of Satan in a millisecond? We came to discover that Rolo started viewing me as the Alpha dog in the house, while Kylie was considered a resource for him. As I had been gone for a week at that point, and Kylie was giving a treat to Snickers at the time, he snapped. He became enraged with jealousy. And he reacted in the primal way he was taught in that ring. 

NEVER SURRENDER
So, the first question I am sure many of you have is, “when did you surrender Rolo?” We didn’t. Yes, I know to many that sounds crazy. Friends of mine would ask me when we were “getting rid of him.” My response was usually akin to this specific response I gave to one of my oldest friends, “Never. When are you getting rid of that child of yours who I had to call in a favor to get released from jail for assault?” Yes, you might think we are crazy, but we took responsibility for Rolo the day we adopted him. He, like Snickers, was our furrchild. There was no way we were ever going to let him go that way.

Unfortunately, resource guarding and jealousy can become a way of life for an animal. As such, twice more, again when I was travelling for an extended period of time, Rolo tried to end Snickers’ life. To be fair, he also began exhibiting some severe mood swings at that time and would randomly act out against another dog he usually happily played with. It became clear that the sweet boy that we still very much loved needed to be handled in a completely different way so as to ensure he and Snickers were safe, well cared for and that he was still able to enjoy his life. 

A WORKABLE SOLUTION
So, we installed a gate system in our apartment so that neither he nor Snickers could ever physically come into contact again. Mind you these gates were slatted so that they could still see and smell each other or say hi through the slats. And they did every single day with their tails wagging. Granted, there were times that this gate system became cumbersome as we would use a holding area in our kitchen to “swap” the dogs out from their respective sides of the apartment. This way, they were still able to smell each other in different rooms, and they virtually lived together but were safely separated. And, yes, it was a bit painful for us to have to navigate this and maintain the gate system, but it was worth every minute spent doing so for our furrever ones. We were very careful to allot the same time for each dog in our living room where we spent most of our time. This way neither ever felt left out.  

We also began muzzle training Rolo for his own protection because under the law, if a canine kills another animal, that canine is likely going to be euthanized by the city. And while Snickers and Rolo never cuddled again, that muzzle training did allow us to have them physically in the same space to sniff each other and say hi without the gates. However, those moments were fleeting to say the least and few and far between as we didn’t want to tempt fate again. 

Believe it or not, Rolo actually lived a very happy life. We never gave up on him. We never surrendered to the endless comments from friends and concerned neighbors. Rolo was our furrbaby. Nothing in the world would ever change that. He spent hours a day being walked and played with as if nothing had ever happened. The only difference was the muzzle and the gates which he didn’t mind at all.

Some six years later, Snickers was diagnosed with lymphoma. On the day we decided to send her over the Rainbow Bridge after giving her every treat and steak imaginable, our vet came to the apartment to humanely euthanize Snickers in her favorite place, our bed, with Kylie and I cuddling her. She passed away peacefully, in our arms, taking a part of our hearts with her. 

I will never forget the blood curdling screams that Rolo let out the minute that Snickers left us. As I sit here writing this, I am literally crying my eyes out thinking about those screams after her peaceful passing. It was as if Rolo was dying himself because his big sister was gone. At least that is how it sounded. We had been scheduled to move to another apartment a few days after Snickers’ passing, so we were thankful that Rolo wouldn’t have to be reminded every day that his big sister passed away in that apartment. He spent the last days there looking for his big sister. You could tell he missed her.  

And for nine months, Rolo was the literal epicenter of our lives. All of our love and attention was dedicated to him. Then fate gave us one final twist; Rolo was diagnosed with a splenectal sarcoma. All of a sudden, one morning he stopped eating and didn’t want to walk. For the first time in eight years, Rolo wanted me to carry him. Sadly it was a literal death sentence even we could not justify fighting as it would have meant he would suffer between surgery that had less than a 10% chance of success and what we knew would be a virtually impossible recovery for him. So, that day, Kylie and I spent hours cuddling him on the floor of our vet’s office saying goodbye to our little prince. And right before it was time to send him over the Bridge, he looked at both of us as if to say, “It’s okay. My time has come. Thank you for being my Mom and Dad. I love you.” Even now, I can see that look on his face in my mind which provides little comfort as we miss him ever so much. 

While this is both a beautiful and heartbreaking story, I want to make sure that you understand one very specific reality; dogs are animals and you can never know how they are going to behave when confronted with new or unique situations. Fight ring dogs are a dime a dozen in major metro areas. But please know that 99.9% of them will never be like Rolo was. They will have their own idiosyncrasies, their own wants and desires like any other dog for sure, and will likely never get into a fight. But when difficulty, adversity or even an attempt on another animal’s life happens, please remember that you took responsibility for the life of that dog. Remember that you adopted them to be a member of your family. That is how we looked at Rolo, and we don’t regret a single decision we made for him. Even Snickers on her last days made an effort to show Rolo more love than usual through those slats. It was beautiful to watch and heartbreaking at the same time.

Rolo spent his life as the spokesdog for our now former animal advocacy, Rock & Rawhide, helping thousands of dogs, cats, and rabbits get into loving and responsible homes. People in our neighborhood would go out of their way to say hello to him. And other dogs loved to play with him. Rolo Edmond Hillman had a pawesome life that most dogs can only dream of. 

In Rolo’s honor, I humbly ask that you consider donating to Animal Care Centers of NYC (ACC) this holiday season, especially in light of the current population overflow crisis shelters across the country are experiencing.  

To learn more about ACC, to donate, volunteer, foster or adopt, please visit NYCACC.org.