News, Sports and Entertainment for St. Martin Parish, La.

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Dogs are chained to trees within a walled-off compound at 1406 Breaux Bridge Senior High School Board in this shot taken by a St. Martin Sheriff’s Office deputy. All-told, 47 dogs were confiscated at the property during the Feb. 19 raid.

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Michelle Brignac, coordinator of St. Martin Parish Animal Services, comforts one of the younger dogs, which is emaciated.

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The scars on this dog’s face are evidence of what it’s has been through. In the dogfighting world, winners are doctored up, losers allowed to die or are put to death.

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Antonio Joshwa Boyd

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Jason Haskett Jr.

Dog fighting arena raided – again

Antonio Joshwa Boyd wanted; on probation for similar crime

Acting on a tip, deputies with the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at a sprawling rural compound last week and rescued 47 dogs destined for fighting pens or worse.

It was the same compound where a similar scene took place in November 2010, and one name popped up both times: Antonio Joshwa Boyd.

Boyd, 35, was not present when deputies came knocking at 1406 Breaux Bridge Senior High School Road this past Feb. 19. If you know where he is, the sheriff’s office would like to hear from you. The number is (337) 394-3071.

Arrested was Jason Haskett Jr., 25, of Natchitoches. He was booked into the St. Martin Parish Correctional Center on suspicion of cruelty to animals, dog fighting, illegal drug possession and distribution, possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number and having a firearm while possessing illegal drugs. Bond was set at $65,000.00

Boyd wasn’t there when they hit the compound back on Nov. 9. 2010, either. Deputies nabbed his 28-year-old stepbrother Perum Williams and booked him on a range of charges arising from the evidence at hand – drugs, drug packaging material, a digital scale, a .380-caliber handgun, and a fighting-dog kennel.

“Upon executing the warrant, I located several items which are used in dog fighting” reads the arresting officer’s affidavit. “These items were treadmills, several medications and carpeting with blood stains. I also observed several of the dogs to have marks, such as cuts and swelling which were new as well as old ... consistent with illegal dog fighting.”

The dogs in that 2010 raid were confiscated, of course. Four days later, somebody broke into the St. Martin Parish Animal Services shelter near St. Martinville and stole three pit bulls.

They weren’t the same dogs, which had been placed temporarily with various area veterinarians. In the past, persons suspected of being associated with dog-fighting have been so brazen as to attempt to adopt confiscated pit bulls. The shelter’s policy is to ship them all out of state, those that aren’t euthanized for being too brutalized.

Dog-fighting is not as low-profile an enterprise as, say, cooking meth or cutting cocaine. Dogs growl, and they yelp. The driveway gets a little crowed on Friday and Saturday nights. If the neighbors don’t know what’s up, it’s probably in their best interests.

Among the social ills associated with dog fighting are illegal drugs and weapons and theft of all breeds of pet dogs to be used as “bait” in training the fighters, mostly pit bulls.

Boyd was eventually arrested on those 2010 complaints, including aggravated cruelty to animals. In June 2012 he pleaded guilty to the full rack of charges and was sentenced by Judge Paul de Mahy to seven years at hard labor, suspended, and five years supervised probation. He was also fined $5,000.

The maximum sentence by law is 10 years in prison and a $25,000, per count.

Court records reflect that the 2010 charges on Williams, Boyd’s stepbrother, have yet to be adjudicated.

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