| Hewitt Grant |
136
malnourished dogs found by Deputies |
Mulberry,
FL |
January
26, 2005 |
Polk County Sheriff's Deputies found 136 malnourished dogs on the property of
Hewitt
Grant,
38, of 2335 Pump Road on Thursday, January 26th, along
with evidence that the dogs had been abused and trained to fight. Polk County
Sheriff's Capt. Dennis
Russell
stated that not a single morsel of dog food was found on the property. Many
of the dogs were confined in cages or chained to stakes and did not have water
available to them. 13 of the dogs were found in such bad shape that they would
be euthanized. Most of the dogs were Pit Bulls.
Grant was charged with one felony count of maintaining
and owning equipment and dogs for baiting or fighting and 10 misdemeanor counts
of animal cruelty. A veterinarian was on the property Thursday night checking
the animals one by one, and more charges could be filed.
The Sheriff's Office stated that Grant was using what is called "cat mills"
to train the dogs to be aggressive. The cat mills are devices in which a live
animal is placed just out of reach of a chained dog to train the dog to be
aggressive. Two cat mills with the remains of small animals were found on
the property.
Grant had been living in a mobile home at the
end of Pump Road,
a rural road southwest of Mulberry. The dogs were kept far back on the property
behind thick clusters of trees, and the nearest neighbors said they had no
idea there were that many animals, or that the animals were neglected.
As Deputies and Animal Control workers walked among the dogs, feeding them
and checking their condition, a loud chorus of barks and wails could be heard
on the property. Curious neighbors gathered gasped when Sheriff's Deputies
bought out an emaciated, terrified Pit Bull covered in sores and scars. The
fur on the dog's neck was worn off, leaving pink scar tissue. The dog was
so thin the knobs of his spine jutted out and his ears were bloody stumps
that appeared to have been chewed. He was timid rather than aggressive, cringing
against an Animal Control Officer's legs and licking her face when she bent
down to pet him. The Officer stated that he should weigh about 50 pounds,
but only weighed about 30.
The dogs remained on the property Thursday night, with a Deputy guarding them
so the investigation can continue the following morning. Sheriff's Officials
stated that it appeared that 71 dogs would be taken to the County Animal Control
facility for medical treatment. The remaining dogs will be kept on the property
temporarily.
Grant was taken to the Polk County Jail, where
he was held Thursday night. Bail information was not available.
Grant has several previous arrests, including
charges of carrying a concealed weapon and another for contempt of court.
(Photo Courtesy of the Ledger)
Arrested
January 26 and charged with:
1 FELONY
count of maintaining and owning equipment and dogs for baiting or fighting.
10 MISDEMEANOR
counts of animal cruelty.
(Photo Courtesy of Ernst
Peters/the
Ledger)
Animal control Officer Mary Kirkland carries a malnourished, 3-year-old male pit bull
found Thursday night at 2335 Pump Road southwest of Mulberry.
(Photo's courtesy of David Mills/the Ledger)
Colleen McCullough, a veterinary technician, separates a male dog that
was attacking a female pit bull at the Polk County Animal Control facility
in Southwest Lakeland.
(Photo courtesy of
Bay9 News)
Animal Control in Polk County had to find temporary cages for 139 animals.
Update:
“Disrepair, filth, emaciation. That’s what this case is going to be about,”
Prosecutor Autumn Burgess told a Jury on January 3rd in the trial
of Hewitt Grant, charged with animal cruelty after more than 100 Pit Bulls
were seized from his home. Burgess described to the Jury how the scarred and
emaciated dogs were found on Hewitt
Grant’s
property, with no dog food on the premises. Some of the dogs were in such
poor shape that they had to be euthanized the same day they were discovered
On Jan. 26, 2005 the Sheriff’s Office went to Grant’s house to do a welfare
check on some animals and ended up removing 139 dogs from the property, the
majority of which were Pit Bulls. Grant was charged with 43 counts of felony cruelty
to a dog, 80 counts of misdemeanor cruelty a dog, and 1 count of possessing
equipment for fighting or baiting.
Two “cat mills” were found on the property, one of which had an animal carcass
in it. A cat mill is a device used to encourage dogs to chase a cat or other
animal, to make the dog more aggressive. Grant
told Deputies that the mills belonged to his father, who owned the property
before him and ran a Pit Bull fighting operation, and used the mills to train
his dogs. He claimed he never used the mills. There were new, unrusted parts
on the mill that had a carcass in it, and a worn-down area around that mill.
All of the Pit Bulls taken from Grant, including the puppies, ended up having
to be destroyed because they were dangerously aggressive or in extremely poor
physical health. There were some dogs that were not Pit Bulls, including a
Beagle, a Chihuahua, a Jack Russell Terrier, a Belgian Malanois, a Rottweiler,
and two Shiba Inus that were put up for adoption.
Burgess’ attorney, Julia
Williamson,
told the Jury that most of the dogs were not in as bad a condition as the
prosecutors claimed. “Some of those dogs were not in good shape, and they
should have been euthanized, but Mr. Grant loved those dogs,” she stated. Williamson denied that Grant ever used his dogs for fighting.
“Mr. Grant is just a simple man,” Williamson told Jurors. He grew up in Polk
County
and inherited some land and the mobile home on it from his father. At the
time of his arrest he was working at a freezer plant, loading freezer parts
onto trucks; before that, she told the jury, he owned a record store and worked
as a DJ known as “DJ Nasty.” It was while he worked at the record store that
he started selling Pit Bulls. “He was catering to the black community, to
the rap community,” and many people in the rap community like Pit Bulls.”
“After Grant
started selling them, he began breeding them, and sometimes took his dogs
to dog shows”, she stated. “Over time, he became overwhelmed because he was
also dealing with family issues, including a mother with cancer.” “The dogs
were in bad shape because they weren’t getting enough attention, because of
other things going on in his life.” “He was doing his best, and he became
overloaded because he didn’t pay attention to how many dogs he had.”
Williamson further
stated that one of the pictures that the Jury was going to see was of a dog
that had open wounds. Those were caused after he got too close to another
dog and got in a fight, and then kept digging in the dirt around where he
was chained, so his wounds never closed. Williamson told the Jury that Grant never used the cat mills, and the one that
the State Attorney’s Office claimed that he was using had weeds growing around
it, which showed it hadn’t been used in “a few months, possibly a few years”.
Deputy Paul
Wright,
one of the first two Deputies to arrive on Grant’s property last January, told the Jury that
after Grant
came to talk to Deputies at his home, Grant admitted that he didn’t have any dog food
on the property that day, but said he planned to buy food the next day. He
stated that when he asked Grant
why the dogs were so thin, Grant told him the dogs had a nervous habit of
chewing on their kennels, and that was why there were thin. Deputy
Wright
also testified that the majority of the dogs had extensive scarring on their
heads, necks, chests, and legs.
Update:
Hewitt Grant of Bartow who claimed he was
only doing what he thought was best for his dogs has been found guilty of
numerous counts of animal abuse. Grant
was found guilty on Tuesday, January 9th of 80 counts of misdemeanor
animal cruelty. The jury, which deliberated for approximately five hours,
acquitted Grant on the other 43 counts of felony
animal cruelty.
(Photo courtesy of Bay News 9)
Hewitt
Grant
was found guilty of 80 counts of animal cruelty.
Grant, 39, stated he raised his Pit
Bulls to be hunting dogs and he liked them lean so they could chase game.
Many of the dogs were in such poor shape when Deputies found them on Grant's property on Jan. 26, 2005, that they had to be euthanized.
Grant stated he fed his dogs six days
a week - every day but Sunday. He said he filled their water bowls on Tuesdays
and Thursdays. He insisted the dogs did not knock over their water bowls and
the water lasted them all week.
139 dogs were taken from Grant's property by Deputies, most
of them Pit Bulls. The Sheriff's Office stated that all of the Pit Bulls were
euthanized due to being in poor health or being too aggressive.
Grant will be sentenced later in January.
Reference:
St Petersburg Times
Bay9 News
The Ledger
Tampa Bays 10