Veterinary tech used workplace supplies for dogfighting, DOJ says

Warren, 49, was sentenced Monday for conspiring to fight dogs and promote dogfighting using interstate publications, the Justice Department announced. A federal judge in Virginia sentenced Warren to 20 months in prison and three years of supervised release, ordering him to forfeit the dogs and fighting-related items that were found at his home last year.

The Justice Department said Warren’s occupation “enabled him to steal or otherwise obtain” medication and other supplies while he ran a dogfighting yard.

“The defendant’s certification and work as a veterinary technician, which he used to further these fights and promote the barbarous treatment of dogs, makes his crimes even more reprehensible,” Todd Kim, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s environment and natural resources division, said in the release.

An attorney for Warren did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Warren began fighting dogs when he was a teenager, the Justice Department said.

Starting in 2016, he began to write, edit and distribute the Connector, court documents state. He mailed the magazine across the United States, including to California, Virginia, New Mexico and Puerto Rico, investigators say.

Warren also ran a dogfighting yard on his property in Rapidan, court documents say. Though the documents do not specify how long Warren ran the yard, they say he kept at least 11 dogs there, raising them for fights in Virginia and beyond. He also harvested and sold reproductive material from the dogs to be used for additional breeding, according to court documents.

During the fights, Warren treated the dogs “until they lost or refused” to keep going, the Justice Department said. When dogs lost or refused to fight, Warren killed them. According to a document signed by Warren, he and other dog fighters killed dogs who lost fights by shooting, drowning, hanging, strangling and electrocuting them.

Warren kept exercise mills, as well as different types of collars, ropes and veterinary supplies on the property. Federal investigators found the items during a March 2022 search of Warren’s property, according to the Justice Department.

He pleaded guilty in January and was sentenced this week.

During his three years of supervised release, Warren will not be allowed to own or care for animals, the Justice Department said. He is also required to forgo his professional licenses and not seek any new ones related to animal care.

“Dog fighting is savage and inhuman,” U.S. Attorney Christopher Kavanaugh said in the Justice Department’s release. “And it will not be tolerated.”