A Blood Sport Exposed

"These are short combats, about 10 to 15 minutes," said Sakach, "during which the prospect is going to get lots and lots of lavish praise. The point is, you want the dog to start associating praise with what its master wants it to do, which is fight."

After a few months, this "schooling" process turns deadly serious, as the dog begins preparing for its "game test," a full-fledged bout with a kennel-mate in its prime, to measure how much punishment the young pit bull can take. The prospect trains for six to eight weeks, hour upon hour -- running, swimming, jumping, chomping -- until test day arrives.

"The idea here is, you want your prospect to get hurt," Sakach said. "You don't want it hurt so bad that it's going to die. But you want it hurt badly enough so that it really understands pain and exhaustion. Because you want to know if your dog's going to quit."

For a prospect that fails, life is short. "If they're not going to make money for you," Sakach said, "then you don't want them around."

At Bad Newz, the indictment says, Purnell Peace, 35, shot two dogs "that did not perform well" in schooling. Vick, Peace and Quanis Phillips, 28, allegedly executed eight others by "hanging, drowning, and slamming at least one dog's body to the ground."

Sakach said such brutality is common. "Some guys just decide they're going to exact some retribution for what they apparently feel is a betrayal."

Pit bulls that survive schooling become full-time canine prizefighters. But not all have long careers.

In March 2003, according to the indictment, the men of Bad Newz Kennels traveled to a venue near Blackstone, Va., with two pit bulls that they entered in separate bouts. The bets: $13,000 per side on one match, $10,000 on the other. After both dogs lost, "Vick retrieved a book bag from a vehicle containing approximately $23,000 in cash" and gave it to the winning dog man.

The female dog defeated in the $13,000 match not only cost its owners a bundle of money but apparently suffered horrible injuries. So it was disposed of, the indictment says.

"Peace, after consulting with Vick about the losing female pit bull's condition, executed the losing dog by wetting the dog down with water and electrocuting the animal."