Who, age	What	Where	When	Last Known Address
Robert A. Lowery, 33	Former Deputy Sheriff charged with dogfighting - 30 dogs seized	Madison, WI Dane County	1982	Dunn, WI
Robert A. Lowery, 57	Former Deputy Sheriff charged with drug trafficking - 47 fighting dogs seized, others charged with drug trafficking	Madison, WI Dane County	June 14, 2006	Dunn, WI
Julie Ann Dzikowich, 48 aka Julie Lowery	drug trafficking - 47 fighting dogs seized,	Madison, WI Dane County	June 14, 2006	Dunn, WI
Jason J. Carr, 25	drug trafficking - 47 fighting dogs seized,	Madison, WI Dane County	June 14, 2006	Genesee, WI
Heather R. Lane, 26	drug trafficking - 47 fighting dogs seized,	Madison, WI Dane County	June 14, 2006	Genesee, WI
Type of Crime	Other Crimes	#/Type of animal(s) involved	Case Status	Next Court Date
	drug charges	47 pitbulls, 6other dogs, 26 chickens, 2 goldfish , a macaw, 2 parakeets & 1 cat	Convicted on drug charges

A former Dane County sheriff's deputy was arrested after state agents executing a drug search warrant found 47 pit bulls, some of them mangled from apparent dog fighting.

Robert Lowery, 57, was being held by Justice Department officials on a federal charge of conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

His wife, Julie Ann Dzikowich, 48, was in the Dane County Jail on charges of possession of a firearm by a felon and possession with intent to deliver between 40 and 100 grams of cocaine.

The seizure of the dogs has put the squeeze on the Dane County Humane Society, where the dogs -- some scarred and injured, and one with a leg partially amputated -- are being held.  "We're at maximum capacity right now," said Gail Viney, public relations coordinator for the shelter.

The pit bulls, have to be fed and cared for at the shelter, which is funded through the county and state, until the court case proceeds. Viney said she had no idea how long that might be.  "Legally, we have to hold these dogs," she said.

The Humane Society is also dealing with the house dog, a black Labrador, from Lowery's property, as well as 5 other dogs, 26 chickens, 2 goldfish, a macaw, 2 parakeets and "a very traumatized cat" confiscated at the property.

Veterinarian Sandra Newbury said some of the dogs appear healthy, but others show signs of serious trauma, ranging from puncture wounds to scars, eye injuries and "major orthopedic injuries."  She said the dogs are prone to react to other dogs and are being kept away from other pets.  "They are all very reactive to the presence of other dogs," she said.

While some are comfortable around people, others are nervous.  "These are not typical house pets," she said. "They don't behave like house pets."

Lowery has a long history of breeding pit bulls for fighter dogs. In 1982, after he was fired from the Dane County Sheriff's Office, he and his roommate were arrested at 3424 Lake Farm Road for animal fighting. Deputies confiscated 30 pit bulls, a dogfighting ring and a treadmill, used to train fighting dogs.  Charged with six counts of animal fighting, Lowery pleaded no contest to two counts, and was placed on probation for two years.  Lowery was sentenced to six months in jail on dogfighting and drug charges in 1983.

Lowery shipped at least 32 dogs across state lines in 1995, and his wife shipped about 25 dogs in 1994, while Lowery served a prison sentence for conspiracy to distribute cocaine.  Records show that Lowery has also previously been convicted in federal court in Florida on drug charges.

Some of those dogs went to known dogfighters. He has in the past advertised in such underground dogfighting publications as Sporting Dog Journal under the company name Windy City Combine, boasting dogs with championship lineage.

Animal control officer Cheri Carr said Lowery has long been under suspicion, but officers have not been able to gather enough information for a search warrant, and Lowery never allowed officers onto his property.  "We knew what was going on out there," she said. "We just couldn't prove it." The state's investigation, she said, allowed them to get inside and seize the animals.  "The rumor is it was a fairly professional level of animal fighting," she said, but wouldn't provide further details because of the ongoing investigation.

Update 6/15/06:  Humane Society staff went to Lowery's home just west of Lake Waubesa after officials with the state Department of Justice contacted them, said Humane Society spokesman Sean McBryde.

There, they found dogs with torn ears, cuts and bruises, a dog with part of its leg bitten off, a dog with a broken leg that had healed improperly and a dog blinded by eye injuries.  "The evidence is pretty overwhelming that there was dog fighting going on," McBryde said.  McBryde said the investigation took place at 3554 Lake Farm Road

Law enforcement officers initially went to the residence for an unrelated search warrant, said Mike Bauer, legal services administrator for the Department of Justice.

McBryde said the pitbulls had to be transported to the facility in complete isolation, because if they saw each other they "went into attack mode."  When approached by humans, he said, they are extremely submissive.  "They're worried that you're going to pick them to come out of the cage because they'll have to fight."

Newbury said the Humane Society is assessing all of the dogs for emergency medical needs and collecting evidence for possible animal-cruelty charges against the owner.

McBryde said the courts will decide what ultimately happens to the dogs but expects some of them will have to be euthanized because of their aggression.  "It's really heart-wrenching to see. It's terrible that a human would do this to animals."  "They didn't ask for this situation. They're good dogs. They've just been taught all the wrong things."

Update 6/16/06:  Lowery has been charged with being part of a conspiracy to deal 100 kilograms of marijuana, and is being held without bond in Milwaukee for now, a magistrate judge ruled.

Judge Aaron Goodstein, of the Eastern District federal court, denied Lowery's request that he be allowed to put up his Dunn property as a bond in the case after Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Jacobs pointed out that federal authorities in the Western District court in Madison filed a lien against the property.

That property is where state and local law enforcement authorities armed with a search warrant seized guns, drugs and the dogs.

Seized in the raid, carried out by detectives from the State Justice Department's Division of Criminal Investigation and the Dane County Sheriff's Office, were 15 pounds of marijuana and 25 ounces of cocaine, along with 5 guns and $47,000 in cash.

Lowery was charged with Jason Carr, 25, and Heather Lane, 26, both of the town of Genesee, with conspiring to distribute 100 kilograms of marijuana.

An affidavit by Special Agent Neil McGrath of the Justice Department's CID, says Lowery hired Carr and Lane to travel to Arizona to bring back large shipments of marijuana. Carr told one unnamed confidential informant that he went to an Arizona house, which had a tunnel that went beneath the border into Mexico, the report said.

Lowery would pay Carr and Lane $5,000 for their trips to Arizona, in which they usually used a rental car and brought along their young son as well as their pitbull. The affidavit says Carr and Lane were stopped in Oklahoma for speeding and when police asked if they could search the car, they refused.  Police brought in drug-sniffing dogs, but they found nothing. Carr and Lane had 170 pounds of marijuana in the car at the time, the affidavit says.

The 14-page document also says Lowery shows up in many DCI reports of drug investigations, even during the two-year period in 1979 to 1981 when he was a sheriff's deputy. Lowery tried to get information on drug dealers from detectives in the department and provided license plate numbers of undercover police cars to dealers he knew.

Lowery also is mentioned in DCI reports in the 1980s as being involved in trying to obtain the names of confidential informants in drug cases and with threatening to kill witnesses, although he was never charged with any crimes.

Update 6/17/06:  Julie Ann Dzikowich was released from jail after prosecutors declined to bring any criminal charges against her.

Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard said there was a lack of evidence against Dzikowich to merit charges against her.

Dzikowich was also arrested on tentative cocaine and weapons charges.

Blanchard said he did not know whether his office or the U.S. Attorney's Office in Madison would seek to file charges against Dzikowich in the future. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil said he could not comment on the case.

Update 6/22/06:  The large-scale marijuana distribution case against Lowery was moved to Madison when he and two co-defendants were indicted here by a federal grand jury.

Lowery, along with Carr and Lane were indicted on the same charge -- conspiracy to distribute more than 100 kilograms of marijuana -- that they faced in federal court in Milwaukee. In addition, Lowery was indicted on charges of possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The indictment alleges that Lowery possessed a revolver, two semi-automatic handguns and two shotguns.  If convicted Lowery faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and up to 40 years in prison on the cocaine count and up to 10 years in prison for possessing the weapons. All three defendants also face up to 20 years in prison for the marijuana conspiracy charge.

Lane is scheduled to appear in federal court on July 13. No court appearances for Lowery and Carr have been scheduled yet, according to federal court records.

Update 6/26/06:  Old Village Road in the Town of Genesee is roughly 2,000 miles from the border, but state and federal investigators see it as the starting point for a Mexico to Madison marijuana smuggling operation.

This, authorities say, is how it worked:  Every 5 weeks or so, Lane and Carr left their home on Old Village Road, got into a rental car with their young child and pitbull and headed for the border. They’d stop in Nogales, AZ, checked into a motel and hooked up with a man who smuggled marijuana across the border through a tunnel.

With as much as 1,000 pounds packed in their rental car, Carr and Lane would drive back to Wisconsin and head for a large, fenced compound southeast of Madison, the home of Lowery.  After unloading their cargo, Carr and Lane would return to Old Village Road and await their next trip for Lowery.

But the suspected smuggling operation wasn’t seamless, and federal investigators discreetly monitored it for a little under 4 months before swooping in and arresting the 3.

Lowery’s compound has become the focus of a civil forfeiture proceeding in federal court because of its suspected ties to drug trafficking.

Court records indicate that investigators put together their case against the three with a mix of information from 4 informants, cell phone transmission data and GPS tracking devices.

The first tip came in February.  The first informant with details about the smuggling operation contacted investigators Feb. 22, reporting that Carr and Lane were about to travel to Arizona to get up to 1,000 pounds of marijuana for an unknown man who at the time was believed to be a pitbull breeder living in the Milwaukee-Waukesha area. Carr and Lane, according to the informant, made a similar trip for the unknown man in January, returning with 200 pounds of marijuana.

Under an arrangement that had been in place for some time, the unknown figure paid for the rental car and all the other expenses associated with the trips, set up the contact with the Mexican marijuana supplier and gave Carr and Lane a portion of the pot and several thousand dollars as payment, documents allege.

In March, a second informant reported that Carr was making twice-weekly, multiple-pound marijuana deliveries to a Kenosha drug trafficker, prompting investigators to begin secretly watching the comings and goings of Carr and Lane.

On March 8, investigators learned the identity of the third figure in the operation when they followed Carr and Lane to Lowery’s compound.

When Carr and Lane left Lowery’s compound that day, investigators followed them to Dubuque, Iowa, and ended their surveillance as the rental car continued south. The agents subsequently contacted an informant who was able to reach Carr by cell phone in Missouri.

Investigators then got a federal court order to keep tabs on Carr in the following days by tracking his cell phone calls when they bounced off towers in Arizona, New Mexico and Iowa. The cell phone tracking told them when Carr and Lane returned to Lowery’s compound the afternoon of March 11 and when they returned to Old Village Road later that night.

On April 24, an informant told investigators that Carr and Lane were about to embark on another trip, and the following afternoon, agents watching the Town of Genesee home saw Lane pull up in a rented 2006 Toyota Camry. Late that night, as Carr and Lane slept, investigators slipped under the Camry and attached a GPS tracking unit.

Five days later, agents were watching Lowery’s compound when the Camry pulled up. An hour later, it left and returned to the home on Old Village Road, and during the night, agents slipped back under the car and removed the GPS tracking unit, which later showed them that the Camry had gone to Arizona.

On May 1, agents sent an informant to buy marijuana from Carr. While there, Carr told the informant, who was wearing a hidden transmitter, that he had just brought back 170 pounds of marijuana.

During the return trip, Carr said, a sheriff’s deputy in Oklahoma stopped the Camry for speeding and asked the young couple for consent to search their car. They refused, so the deputy summoned a colleague with a drug-detecting dog, but the animal was unable to run its usual routine because it was distracted by the couple’s pitbull. A second K-9 team also was unable to detect the marijuana hidden in the trunk.

A few days later, Carr told the same story to another informant, adding that he was about to get a truck with a lockable bed. On May 5, investigators sent to watch the Genesee home found a silver 2006 Dodge Ram pickup in the driveway.

On June 13, investigators watching Lowery’s compound arrested Carr shortly after he left it.  Inside his truck, they found 10 pounds of marijuana.

When Carr and Lane were questioned at the Waukesha County Sheriff’s department, they admitted smuggling marijuana from Mexico for Lowery, who surrendered to authorities a few days later in Florida.

Update 6/30/06:  A Madison veterinary clinic that treated dogs belonging to Lowery, was searched by police looking for evidence that he conducted dogfights, according to a search warrant.

But the owner of the Spring Harbor Animal Hospital, 5129 University Ave., said he would have given police anything they wanted without the warrant, which he called "overkill." Dr. Morris Link also said he never saw any evidence that Lowery used his dogs for fighting.

The items found at Lowery's home included skin staples; needles and suture to sew wounds; 20, 22 and 23 gauge hypodermic needles; epinephrine, a drug used in cardiac resuscitation and to treat shock; a clamp used for surgical procedures; various prescribed animal medications; and numerous VHS videocassettes containing footage of dogfighting, the warrant states.

Police also found a treadmill alleged to have been used for conditioning dogs to fight and a "cat mill," also used to condition fighting dogs by using a cat as bait.

From Spring Harbor, police took into account patient history reports for Lowery along with medical charts for Lowery's dogs and drug dispensing logs.

Link said he was not at the clinic when police arrived with the warrant but went there to answer questions about Lowery and his dogs.  "I was kind of surprised that they came with a search warrant and all that business," Link said "They could have come in and talked to us about whatever they wanted to talk to us about."

Link said Lowery brought dogs to the clinic and that he occasionally went out to Lowery's property to give vaccinations to his dogs.  "He always took good care of his animals," Link said. "I never saw him be rough with any of his animals. He was kind of a big-hearted guy when it comes to his dogs."

  (Photo courtesy of WISC-TV)

Update 7/21/06:  Lowery is petitioning for the return of 48 dogs taken from his farm on June 14, 2006.

(Photo courtesy of WISC-TV)   Lowery maintains in a petition that he and his partner are professional breeders and that's why he had the number of dogs he did on his property.

(Photo courtesy of Henry A. Koshollek/The Capitol Times) 

 (Photo courtesy of WISC Channel 3000) 

(Photo courtesy of WISC-TV of Julie Ann Dzikowich)

Update 10/11/06:  Lowery will be released from federal custody as he undergoes treatment for advanced cancer, a federal magistrate judge ordered.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Reinhard said he was concerned about the possibility that Lowery would flee the country or re-contact others involved in the drug case and will appeal the order to U.S. District Judge John Shabaz, the trial judge on Lowery's case.

Lowery's case was put on hold in early August after he was diagnosed in late July with cancer, which has caused a baseball-sized tumor in his neck, said Lowery's attorney, Charles Giesen.  Had he been treated sooner, Lowery would have had as much as a 30 percent chance of survival, but the cancer has progressed and his chance of survival is now down to 10 percent, Giesen said.  "That's with immediate, appropriate treatment," Giesen said.

Lowery has not yet decided whether he will seek aggressive treatment to try to overcome the cancer or to be treated simply to manage his pain.

Lowery is being treated at a hospital that treats prisoners in Butner, NC. Under a release plan approved by U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker, he would stay with a relative in Verona under electronic monitoring and receive cancer treatments at UW Hospital.

Update 10/17/06:  A federal judge reversed a ruling that would have freed Lowery, in order to undergo cancer treatment while awaiting a November trial.  U.S. District Judge John Shabaz ordered that Lowery be allowed to be treated at UW Hospital for a tumor in his neck diagnosed in late July.

Charles Giesen, Lowery's attorney, said arrangements would be made to transfer Lowery to a secure unit at UW Hospital. Lowery is being treated at a Butner, NC hospital.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Reinhard appealed the order to Judge Shabaz, saying Lowery was "a danger to the community" and "a flight risk."

Update 11/9/06:  Lane, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiracy charge for bringing hundreds of pounds of marijuana from Arizona to Lowery; her boyfriend, Jason Carr, pleaded guilty to the same charge.

U.S. District Judge John Shabaz ordered both jailed until they are sentenced on Jan. 17, despite a request from Lane to be allowed to care for the couple's 5-year-old son who is receiving treatments for leukemia.

Carr and Lane each face a mandatory minimum of five years in prison.

Update 12/9/06:  Lowery pleaded guilty in federal court to a marijuana conspiracy charge.  Lowery admitted to conspiring with Carr and Lane, to distribute more than 450 pounds of marijuana between Jan. 1 and June 13, 2006.

Despite having a cancerous tumor "the size of an orange" on his neck according to court documents, Lowery was scheduled to stand trial.  Lowery appeared in court wearing a blue jail inmate's uniform and moved and spoke without difficulty.

Shabaz has twice ordered the federal Bureau of Prisons to begin treating Lowery for his illness, but to date, he has received only painkillers according to court documents.  Shabaz ordered Lowery be detained at a Federal Medical Center so he can be treated for his illness.

After court, Lowery's attorney Charles Giesen wouldn't comment on whether or not Lowery was healthy enough to be at his two-day trial or if his client's illness figured into his decision to plead guilty.

Reinhard said the evidence against Lowery was "pretty strong" including the expected testimony of Carr and Lane.

Update 12/13/06:  Lowery who pleaded guilty to major drug charges in federal court, and Dzikowich, were each charged with three counts of being party to the crime of instigating fights between animals.

The dogs have been impounded at the Dane County Humane Society since the June raid, and the county recently approved a $100,000 item in the county's 2007 budget to help pay for the cost of housing the dogs. Lowery has filed suit in Circuit Court to have the dogs returned to him, but that case is still pending.

Humane Society board of directors president Cathy Holmes said she's very pleased charges have finally been brought in the dogfighting case.

The total bill for caring for the dogs so far amounts to $180,000, said Humane Society attorney Joseph Goode. The society has petitioned the court to get some compensation from Lowery, who has refused to relinquish ownership of the pitbulls; a hearing is set for Jan. 23 in civil court to see if the dogs should be returned to Lowery.  "We have an obligation to take care of the dogs, but we want the judge to order Lowery to pay for it," Goode said.

Holmes said that after the pitbulls are evaluated, several options, including euthanasia, are available for the dogs, but home adoption most likely won't be allowed.  "Their background makes me nervous to have them put into normal adoption," she said.

The complaint against Lowery and Dzikowich is based largely on items seized during that raid, including numerous e-mails sent or received by Lowery that can be interpreted as dealing with dogfighting, but also includes statements by a former employee of Lowery's landscaping business who says he witnessed Lowery training dogs for fighting and saw him kill dogs that were not up to standards.

Antoine Richards, who said he met Lowery through a joint interest in pitbulls and then worked for him at the J&B Lawn Service, said he saw at least 20 training fights between pitbulls on Lowery's property in an 18-month period. Richards told investigators that he went with Lowery to Battle Creek, MI in the winter of 2004 and watched as Lowery entered a dog in a fight there, and placed money on the dog to win.

He also is quoted in the complaint as saying that he saw Lowery kill pitbulls on his property at least six times, and that Lowery killed the dogs because they had a "flaw," and might quit during a fight.

Lowery has, through his attorney Charles Giesen, repeatedly denied that he engaged dogs in fighting and has said he raises pitbulls for show. Dr. Morris Link, who runs the Spring Harbor animal clinic and is the primary vet for Lowery's dogs, also has said Lowery does not engage in fighting pitbulls.

But the complaint quotes Dr. Sandra Newberry, director of animal medical services at the Dane County Humane Society, as saying 32 of the dogs taken from Lowery's farm appeared to have been involved in fighting, "due to the scars and wounds to their bodies and skin that appear to be consistent with dogfighting." The complaint said some of the dogs had puncture wounds, torn ears, dental fractures, and wounds to the head, face, forelegs and cervical region.

Among the e-mails seized in the raid was one to a person named Chris, sent by Lowery. "I did not see Regan's first but he was very impressive in his second and third," the e-mail says. "His third was over a son of Barney and China girl (I think that is the one) that had murdered his first two opps. He had Greasy Corner's dog helpless in 26 min when Greasy picked up. Regan did the same to him in 28 min."

Also seized was a bunch of newspaper clippings about Lowery's previous arrest and 1983 conviction for training dogs to fight, as well as newspaper clippings from a high-profile 1983 Dane County murder case in which former tavern owner Herbert Herro was convicted of killing Robert Nelson in a dispute over drugs.

Lowery faces a sentence of 5 to 40 years on the federal charges.  In the animal-fighting case, Dzikowich faces up to 3 1/2 years on each of the charges.

Update 1/4/07:  A preliminary hearing for Lowery was postponed until next month.  The Dane County Sheriff's Office was unable to bring Lowery back to Wisconsin from a prison hospital in Butner, North Carolina, where he is being treated for cancer.

Lowery will be sentenced on Feb. 16 by U.S. District Judge John Shabaz for taking part in a marijuana distribution conspiracy.

Dane County Circuit Judge Stuart Schwartz re-scheduled Lowery's preliminary hearing in the dog case for Feb. 19.

Update 1/25/07:  Pitbulls bred and kept by Lowery and Dzikowich, were only intended for show, Dzikowich testified during a civil trial for the return of the couple's dogs from the Dane County Humane Society.

The trial, is being heard by Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi without a jury.    The couple's attorney, Charles Giesen, intended to call Lowery as a witness, but Lowery, who is at a federal prison hospital in Butner, NC for cancer treatments and has been listening to the trial by telephone, had to leave the phone and was unable to return.

Dzikowich testified briefly about the many dog shows in which she and Lowery entered their dogs. She brought to court two 5-foot trophies awarded during shows to 2 of their dogs, Dexter and Pretty. Both are among the dogs being kept at the humane society.  Dzikowich has not been asked about allegations that the dogs were used in fights.

Sumi also heard testimony from dog-training expert Tom Rose, who runs the Tom Rose School for Professional Dog Trainers in High Ridge, MO.  Rose testified that he briefly examined the dogs at the humane society in September and said none of them poses a safety risk to people.  Under cross examination from humane society attorney Joseph Goode, however, Rose said his examination was not as comprehensive as he would have liked because there were some tests he was unable to perform to judge the dogs' friendliness toward other dogs or fearfulness of other animals.

Update 1/30/07:  Of the 47 pit bulls seized in a drug raid last summer and confined since then at the Dane County Humane Society, 25 of the dogs are considered a threat and will be killed, officials say.

At least nine of the dogs will be returned to owners Robert Lowery and Julie Dzikowich as part of a settlement reached that dropped dogfighting charges against the couple.

In turn, a civil suit filed by Lowery and Dzikowich against Dane County and the Humane Society demanding the return of the pitbulls is being dismissed.

Humane Society staff will determine where to place the remaining 13 dogs.  "This gives us our ending," said Humane Society board president Cathy Holmes. "Now we have something we can move forward with."

The pitbulls have been locked up in isolated cages at the Humane Society's shelter on Voges Road for the past 8 months, waiting day after day for some resolution to the case.

The civil suit ended when District Attorney Brian Blanchard dropped the charges of 3 counts each of instigating dog fights mainly because Lowery is currently awaiting sentencing on federal drug trafficking charges while being treated for cancer at a federal prison hospital in Butner, North Carolina.

Under the terms of the settlement, 9 of the 47 pitbulls deemed "friendly" by Humane Society dog behaviorists will be returned to Dzikowich; of the 38 that will stay at the shelter, 13 will be evaluated to see if they are friendly enough to be turned over to either a pitbull rescue organization or an animal sanctuary.  Holmes said that the 25 dogs deemed a threat to public safety "will be euthanized for sure."

Lowery "felt it was extremely inhumane to keep the dogs confined to their small kennels," Giesen said. "That was one of the motivations to settle this."  The 47 pit bulls have been locked up in individual cages and kennels for 230 days, ever since they were seized on June 14, 2006.

The Humane Society estimated it was costing about $6,000 a week to care for the pit bulls. The total bill up to this point is about $220,000.  The Humane Society wanted the couple to pay at least part of the bill, but Holmes said the settlement releases Lowery and Dzikowich from having to pay the shelter's costs for taking care of the dogs.

Dane County committed $100,000 in the 2007 county budget to help the shelter with the extra expense, but Holmes said it's still undetermined how the bulk of the pitbull bill will be paid.  "We'll sit down with the county and figure out how it's paid for," she said. "It was more important to end things now than to quibble about the money."

Holmes said she's disappointed any of the 47 pit bulls were being released to Dzikowich, but felt safeguards being put in place for the dogs will assure the dogs won't be involved in any dogfighting activity or will be bred for fighting.

Four of the dogs being released showed no signs of fighting, and the other five will be spayed or neutered, vaccinated and implanted with microchips before being given back to Dzikowich.  "Our goal is to have these dogs live the life of a family pet," Holmes said.

With the clock ticking on the dangerous dogs, however, the shelter is considering beefing up security just in case anybody has an idea of trying to "rescue" the dogs from the shelter.  "Security could be a concern when we start euthanizing the dogs," Holmes said. "We plan on continuing to have a security guard on site at least through February."

The Humane Society has a new contract this year with Dane County, with one major change being the shelter is no longer considered a permanent impound for animals seized by humane officers.  "We can find a much better solution than having dogs go through something like this," she said. "We have to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Update 2/23/07:  A settlement between the owners of 47 pit bulls and Dane County officials has not taken effect because the dogs' owners are seeking changes and have not signed the final agreement.

Consequently, the Dane County Humane Society still does not own the seized dogs and cannot euthanize the dangerous ones or let people adopt the others.

At issue is which 9 of the 47 pitbulls the owners will get back as part of the settlement.

The couple agreed in January to a list of the 9 dogs they would get back. But their attorney, Charles Giesen, said Dzikowich would like to switch "one or two" of the dogs on the list. In one case, the couple's 9-year-old daughter wants a favorite dog back that is not on the list, he said. 

Giesen downplayed the delay in signing the agreement. "There's nothing going on except some tweaking," he said.  Humane society officials have asked for small changes, too. "My view is there should be some give and take on both sides," he said.

Cathy Holmes, president of the humane society board, said the society has not sought any changes. She said the couple is asking to swap out 5 dogs, not one or two, and some of those are more aggressive than the ones originally agreed to.

Deputy District Attorney Judy Schwaemle said she doesn't believe the delay is due to wanting a favorite dog back.  "I think they want a delay simply because it doesn't cost the defendants anything, only the other side," she said. "I think they hope to get further concessions by virtue of doing that."  Until the couple signs the agreement, the dogfighting charges will move forward, Schwaemle said. No court dates are set.

Lowery was sentenced to six years in prison for running a large-scale marijuana importation business.

Update 3/22/07:  After spending nearly $200,000 to care for 47 pitbulls, the Dane County Humane Society has agreed to pay $9,000 to the dogs' owners to settle a civil suit.  In exchange, the humane society gets ownership of the 41 surviving dogs -- more than half of which will be euthanized because they pose a significant threat to public safety, board president Cathy Holmes said.

The Dane County district attorney's office also has asked a judge to dismiss dogfighting charges against owners Robert Lowery and Julie Dzikowich, said Deputy District Attorney Judy Schwaemle.

"It was always the goal of the humane society to take (ownership of) all of the dogs that they could," said humane society attorney Joseph Goode, adding that the $9,000 settlement was "a small price to pay" to ensure the dogs would not be used for fighting.

"Lowery is going to die in prison," Schwaemle said. "It's no longer in the public interest to pursue prosecution."

Under the settlement, Lowery and Dzikowich, 49, will pay none of the humane society's costs for caring for the 47 pit bulls seized from their property. The humane society spent $197,000 for the dogs' care through the end of December, and Dane County paid $42,000 for their care in January and February, Holmes said.

Twenty-five of the surviving dogs are considered a significant threat to public safety and will be euthanized, Holmes said. The others will be re-evaluated and either euthanized or placed with rescue groups outside of Wisconsin.

Two pitbulls had to be euthanized after one chewed through wire fencing over the 6-foot-high cinderblock walls of its kennel and got into the other dog's kennel, Holmes said. Both dogs had multiple puncture wounds and other injuries, and one had a broken jaw, she said.  Four other dogs also were recently euthanized for medical reasons, including 1 that had mentally deteriorated from the months of confinement to the point that it was walking in circles, Holmes said.

In January, the humane society announced it had reached a settlement that would have returned 9 dogs to Dzikowich, but that agreement could not be finalized, in part because of a new ordinance in the town of Dunn prohibiting more than 5 dogs at a residence, Goode said.

Along with providing some compensation for the value of the dogs, the settlement will end the "intolerable" conditions in which they have been kept for the past 9 months, Giesen said.

The district attorney's office drew criticism for waiting 6 months to file dogfighting charges against the owners, fueling speculation by the couple's defenders that prosecutors did not have a strong case.

But Schwaemle said the discovery of the dogs was "a surprise" and that "the investigation only began when the dogs were seized."  "There was a considerable amount of investigation that needed to be done," she said. "It was unfortunate and I regret it took as long as it did."

Reference:

The Freelace - Star	Capital Times
Dane County Humane Society	WISC Channel 3000
Wisconsin State Journal	Isthmus weekly
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel	Wisconsin Court System