AL: Samson brothers face hog/dog fighting charge

Samson brothers face hog/dog fighting charge

March 14, 2011

Two Samson brothers face criminal charges of trapping feral hogs for the sole purpose of sport fighting with dogs.

Geneva County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Tony Helms said deputies assisted a state livestock investigator with the state Department of Agriculture in making the arrests on Friday at a residence about eight miles from Samson.

Helms said the investigator arrested Dewey Thomas Denman, 23, and Dylan Frederick Denman, 18, both of Geneva County Road 43, and charged them each with a single misdemeanor count of cruelty to animals and hog/canine fighting.

Helms said both charges are misdemeanor crimes. But he said both brothers were booked into the Geneva County Jail on a $4,500 bond.

“It’s against the law to catch wild hogs, bring them to your house alive, put them in a pen and put dogs in there for the purpose of fighting for sport only,” Helms said.

Helms said the charges stemmed from a tip made by a neighbor about a month ago. He said the livestock investigator, along with deputies, conducted surveillance for several weeks before making the arrests.

“We had to wait until they were actually fighting,” Helms said.

Helms said Friday they found eight hogs in a 10-by-20 pen fighting with two dogs. He said the fighting left some of the hogs injured.

“It’s not a big sporting chance for the hogs,” Helms said.

Helms said the hogs were quarantined on the property, and would later be removed by state livestock investigators. He said dogs were not injured, and were returned to their owners.

“This is the first dog and hog fighting case charged to my knowledge in Geneva County,” Helms said. “When you’re turning dogs loose into a small pen with the hogs, they don’t have sporting chance. They don’t have a chance to get away.”

Court records indicate Dewey Denman was also arrested in October 2007, and charged with felony second-degree assault, but he was convicted in 2009 of a lesser misdemeanor third-degree assault charge.

Records also indicate Dewey Denman was arrested in July 2008, and charged with felony first-degree rape and felony first-degree sex abuse, but he pleaded guilty to a reduced sexual misconduct charge in September 2010. The first-degree sex abuse charge was dismissed.

Return to Hunting Accident Index

Fair Use Notice: This document may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners. We believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

C.A.S.H.
P.O. Box 13815, Las Cruces, NM 88013
Phone: 575-640-7372
E-mail: CASH@AbolishSportHunting.com  
Joe Miele - President

C.A.S.H. is a committee of Wildlife Watch, Inc.
a 501(c)3 Not-for-Profit Corporation.
Contributions are tax-deductible.

All content copyright C.A.S.H. unless otherwise noted.