As I said before, criminals get smarter. As we charge them, prosecute them and bring them to court, they learn. They used to have places where they trained and they used to go to abandoned warehouses and rent them to have these dogfighting events, but they no longer do that. They tend to move the dogs around. They have the dogs split up for training and bait dogs and how to fight. They use these electrocution and shock methods and other things, so that they don't have a large stock of animals in one area. When they have the dogfights, they move them around so they don't have them in one location anymore.
In Ontario, we know that there are probably seven to 12 people who are involved in training the dogs and running these dogfights. I think you are in possession of the OSPCA 2015 report, where they did extensive studies. I've met with our guns and gangs unit. Right now, we have a couple of individuals in Ottawa running these gangs and dogfights. We go to conventions. They're used to recruit. They're used to trade and sell their guns and drugs and the illegal gambling is quite substantial. In the States, it's more substantial than in Canada. In Canada, there's less, but in the States, they put up houses, boats, cars, you name it. One purse can go for over $200,000 and that's the norm. It's not unusual to have four or five dogfights at one event.
I was in the aftermath of one of the dogfights and the young people there witnessed things that we would never, ever want to witness. The dogs look like hamburger coming out of there. They take young children to these fights and it's to acclimatize them to the violence. Just like police officers, we see so much in our lives. When we talk to some of our family members and they're shocked, we realize, “Oh my, you're shocked about that. Oh yeah, you don't normally see this.” It's the same thing. That's how they bring children into this. They're recruiting. It's a bloody, heinous crime.
When I was up in behavioural science, we had a video turned in from Durham Regional Police and a gang member was initiated by biting the head off of a live bunny rabbit and spitting it into a pail. The offender was about 14 or 15 years old. It's things like that. These dogfights are used for all kinds of purposes.
As a police officer, it is a tool for us to get warrants. Through confidential informants and other means of investigation, we can apply for a warrant. If we find out where these dogs are being held and when a dogfight is happening and go in at the time of it, we can seize drugs, guns and illegal gambling. We can get a large cache of gang members at these places because they're very well-attended. It's a tool for us to manage these things. If we find out that a certain person, say in Greely, Ontario, is training dogs, then every patrol officer is going to stop every car coming in and out of there because they have grounds. At a time when everybody is looking to find a way to limit gang violence, it's a tool for us to do so, if we have proper legislation in our favour.