A Hanson man will go to prison for dogfighting, “an extreme form of cruelty to animals,” in a first-of-its kind sentence in federal court in Massachusetts.
John D. Murphy, 51, pleaded guilty last November to nine counts of possessing animals for use in an animal fighting venture, the same number of counts he was indicted on in March of last year. On Wednesday, U.S. Senior District Judge William G. Young sentenced Murphy to a year and a day in federal prison, with the last three months to be served “in community confinement.”
“Dogfighting is a blood sport rooted in cruelty and greed. For years, Mr. Murphy brutalized defenseless animals for profit and sport – training them to fight, suffer and die for his own financial gain. His actions were not only illegal but deeply disturbing,” said U.S. Attorney Leah Foley.
Federal prosecutors in the case said that dogfighting “bears no resemblance to the quarreling that pet dogs might do in a backyard over a toy.
“It is an extreme form of cruelty to animals — not only inside the fighting ring itself, but also in the specific practices leading up to a fight and, if either dog survives, after a fight,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo earlier this month.
Photographs included in the prosecution’s sentencing memo show Murphy himself egging on the pit bull-type dogs in their blood-drenched fights in what appears to be a cheaply constructed particle board ring on a concrete basement floor. Other photos show a dog hooked up in a harness above a treadmill to endlessly chase a caged raccoon set in front of it to condition it for fights.
Federal investigators conducted aerial surveillance of Murphy’s residence in late March and early April of 2023 where they allegedly observed a “stockaded enclosure as well as what agents believed to be outdoor housing structures for fighting dogs” and during both days of surveillance “observed one or more dogs within or immediately outside of the enclosure.”
A June 2023 search conducted at Murphy’s Hanson home found stacks of kennel boxes in which nine pit bull-type dogs were kept. Several of the dogs had scarring that prosecutors say are common among fight dogs.
The U.S. Marshals Service seized the dogs that day. Only eight of them survived, because one they described as a “red, underweight male” and possibly suffering from cancer, died during the seizure.
Residents can report dogfighting to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General through a complaint hotline online at USDAOIG.oversight.gov/hotline or by calling the hotline number at 1-800-424-9121.
This is a developing story.
