Dogs rescued from Cleveland dogfighting ring have tick-borne illness

CLEVELAND - Two of the pit bulls that were rescued from a dog fighting ring on Cleveland’s east side have tested positive for a tick-borne illness.

At the end of last year, Cleveland police confiscated 27 dogs from 33-year-old Collin Rand, Jr.’s house on East 91st Street.

After the raid, one of the pit bulls became very sick. After some testing, rescuers found that she had babesia gibsoni, which is an illness that spreads through ticks and bite wounds. All of the animals were tested and both of the ones taken by Rowdy to the Rescue were positive along with three others.

“It’s very common in dog fighting cases because the dogs are usually kept in pretty bad conditions,” said Chris Hughes with Rowdy to the Rescue. “In this case, these dogs were just in cages in a basement, where ticks can go from dog to dog.” Police described the conditions as “horrific,” noting there were treadmills for the dogs and blood stains on the walls.

Now, rescuers are trying to come up with the money for the pricey treatment for Liberty and Lola.

“The difficulty with this is that the treatment is very expensive,” Hughes said. “It’s $500 for the shot. Then you need to do multiple blood work to test because it’s an illness that’s difficult to show up.”

Hughes said there is an 80 percent chance the illness, which causes dogs to be anemic, can be treated. Babesia gibsoni is important to treat because it can easily be spread to other dogs.

Rand has since been charged with 28 counts of dog fighting and pleaded not guilty. He also facing drug-related charges and is out on bail.

“It’s sad that the gentleman who did this to these dogs is out on bail free and that there are multiple rescue groups scrounging and trying to raise as much money as possible to make these dogs healthy. And he’s out there doing who knows what.”

Donations to help pay for the treatment and to help all of the 27 animals, can be made to the Friends of the City of Cleveland Kennel. For more information friendsofclevelandkennel.com/hopefor27.html