8 Koreans arrested for dog fight gambling

SAN PEDRO, Laguna, Philippines—Police arrested eight South Koreans and rescued over 300 pit bulls in separate raids on an underground dog fight arena and a dog farm in Calauan and San Pablo City in Laguna.

Chief Inspector Renante Galang, from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group  national office, said the arrested foreigners were the same group of online dog fight operators who were arrested in Indang, Cavite, on December 3, 2011.

“We received information that while they were out on bail they moved and set up another gaming facility in Laguna,” Galang said in a telephone interview on Saturday.

The eight Koreans, who were taken to and detained at the CIDG national headquarters in Camp Caringal in Quezon City, would be charged on Monday with violation of the Animal Welfare Act and illegal gambling, said Galang.

They were identified as Lee Gwi Woo, 21; Jeong Yeon Hwal, 31; Noh Min Chul, 44; Lee Kyung Won, 31; Kim Young Hwan, 29; Hyun Ho Han, 45; Hong Jeong Oh, 43; and Kim Do Kyung, 41.

He said five of them—Noh Min Chul, Lee Gwi Woo, Lee Kyung Won, Kim Young Hwan and Jeong Yeon Hwal—were among those arrested in the raid on a dog fight club in Cavite in December 2011 but were released on bail.

The CIDG and the Laguna police on Friday evening raided the two-hectare dog fight arena in Barangay Limao in Calauan town. Galang said the police arrived just before a “big fight.”

As in the fight club busted in Cavite, pit bulls were pitted against each other in three- to  five-minute fights in the Calauan arena that were  streamed live on the Internet. Patrons, mostly foreigners, placed bets worth hundreds of thousands to a million Korean won through credit cards or Paypal.

“There were high-class cameras installed around the ring,” Galang said. Police rescued 33 pit bulls from the arena in Calauan.

Police then proceeded to San Pablo City, a 30-minute drive from Calauan, to a farm in Barangay San Gregorio were the Koreans housed over 300 other pit bulls.

Galang, quoting the farm caretakers, said the Koreans had been renting the two-hectare lot since February.

Anna Cabrera, executive director of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) which was contacted by the police for the dog rescue, said the pit bulls were found to be in a very bad condition, some of them  injured in previous fights.

“I could not see even one dog whose ribs were  not showing,” Cabrera said.

On the farm in San Pablo, each of the dogs were chained to a steel water drum lying on its side to serve  as the animals’ shelter from rain.

PAWS’ veterinarians found at least 10 pit bulls, held in a cage separate from the others, that were so badly injured they needed to be put to sleep.

“The problem however is that (cruelty to animals is) a bailable offense,” Cabrera said.

Offenders, according to the Philippine Animal Welfare Act, face a maximum penalty of P5,000 or six to two years imprisonment.