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 Owning pitbulls for fighting earns five-year sentence
By MADELAINE VITALE
Staff Writer, Atlantic City Press (609) 272-7218
Published: Tuesday, May 22, 2007
MAYS LANDING — A Superior Court judge sentenced a Philadelphia man to five years in prison Monday for owning more than a dozen pitbulls he used for fighting. Michael Amaro was sentenced to the lengthy term four years after the dogs were found in cages on a Mullica Township property.
Amaro pleaded guilty three weeks ago to the use of fighting animals in exchange for a three-year state prison sentence. Superior Court Judge James Isman, however, rejected the deal because of the severity of the charge and Amaro's prior record of animal abuse. Before imposing the sentence, Isman said, “A dog is man's best friend. It appears you are a dog's worst enemy.”
Amaro's prior record includes 76 animal-abuse or related charges in Clifton, Passaic County, in 2001. He is serving a federal prison term on an unrelated charge.
In November 2003, 12 adult dogs and four puppies were located on a property on First Road in Mullica Township, after the Atlantic County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals received a call from local police regarding abandoned dogs. Amaro admitted at Monday's hearing that he housed the animals there to fight them.
The following day, the SPCA discovered as many as 32 pit bulls at the property. Some of the dogs were skinny or dehydrated. Blood splatters on the walls of a shed on the property and benches and chairs inside the shed, documented by SPCA investigators, indicated that dog fighting was taking place. The SPCA obtained warrants and seized some of the dogs, but many had to be euthanized because of deadly training.
In addition to the prison sentence that Amaro will serve when he completes his federal prison term in the next few months, Isman ordered him to pay $4,371 for the medical treatment and cost to euthanize the dogs.
“I think it is absolutely appropriate and it sends a message that if we find you owning or possessing fighting dogs or even roosters, we will prosecute you,” Nancy Beall, president of Atlantic County's SPCA said after the hearing. “I would like to see this be a clear message to legislators and prosecutors that the public does not want to see this. They want the animal cruelty to stop, and until the penalties are increased — I'm talking jail time — it will continue.”
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