16 pit bulls rescued in Rizal raid
Police rescued 16 pit bulls and arrested 69 people during a raid on a dogfight arena in a farm in Tanay, Rizal last Saturday.
Chief Superintendent Ricardo Padilla, Calabarzon police director, said the raid in Barangay Sampaloc was the result of three-month surveillance.
“They were moving from one place to another to evade detection. Finally, we caught them red-handed with the help of an insider,” he said.
Padilla said he dispatched a 20-man team headed by Chief Inspector Jess Kabigting, head of the Special Operations Group, to the
Kabigting told The Star that while their five-vehicle convoy was on transit, their informant – an animal lover – sent them a text message stating “Crypton,” the call sign for the dogfight aficionados to be able to enter the enclosed area.
When he blurted out the word “Crypton,” Kabigting said those manning the wooden gate allowed them to enter.
It was too late for the gate watchers to realize that it was a police raid. “When we entered the gate, we ran toward the enclosed dogfight arena and announced the raid. Some managed to escape but majority of those inside were arrested,” Kabigting said.
Among those arrested was a certain engineer Jun Cuevas, the alleged organizer of the dogfight, he said.
Some of the rescued pit bulls had fresh wounds, indicating that they had figured in recent dogfights.
Kabigting said they found several luxury vehicles at the parking lot of the dogfight arena.
He said some of the pit bulls’ owners offered to redeem their animals for P50,000 each, but they politely declined the offer.
Interviewed right after their arrest, the aficionados claimed that they normally would place bets ranging from P50,000 to P100,000.
Padilla said some of those arrested even hailed from provinces like
“It only shows that the dogfight was on an invitation basis, that was why it was hard to crack. We were after them for a long period of time and got lucky because an informant walked in to help us bust the syndicate,” he said.
Padilla ordered the Rizal police to take custody of those arrested pending the filing of appropriate charges against them.
Meanwhile, the rescued pit bulls were turned over to the custody of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society.
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