A Georgia drug seller who used pandemic reduction cash to help his life-style whereas selling dogfighting will spend two years in federal jail.
Norman Dixson was sentenced Aug. 7 after pleading responsible to sponsoring and exhibiting a canine in an animal preventing operation, based on the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
A decide additionally ordered 35-year-old Dixson to serve three years of supervised launch and pay $171,069 in restitution. He can not possess canine whereas below supervision.
Prosecutors stated movies and images recovered from Dixson’s Facebook and iCloud accounts confirmed he had bred and skilled canine for preventing since a minimum of 2018. He additionally marketed puppies for dogfighting on Facebook.
The canine have been stored on heavy chains or in overcrowded crates and makeshift pens surrounded by waste, prosecutors stated. Dixson additionally recorded fights wherein canine have been critically injured, together with movies of lifeless and dying animals.
Federal investigators stated Dixson fraudulently obtained greater than $170,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program and unemployment insurance coverage funds through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Dogfighting has no place in civilized society,” U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg stated. “Depraved individuals who abuse animals for profit should take notice: We will aggressively prosecute these offenses.”
The U.S. departments of Labor and Agriculture investigated the case.