As a police officer, if we go to a dogfighting event and see animal abuse such as that, we will seize them and take them to the humane society, because they need veterinary care. As regards whether they be put down or not, that is not a decision we make; that's a decision that animal welfare specialists and veterinarians make.
The ban, we can't do. That has to come from courts and they have to be given the authority under the section 447.1.
From a police standpoint, we would always separate the offender from the animal. In most cases, on something as violent as dogfighting—and we know that it's tied to gang violence—we would try to release them on either a promise to appear in an undertaking if they meet RICE and the “4 Ps”. If not, we would take them for a bail hearing where a justice of the peace could put stricter conditions that until their trial they not have contact with the animals that they were found in possession of at the time.