HANLEY HILLS, Mo. — An anonymous tipper lead North County Police Cooperative officers to 57-year-old Brian Maclin's house in Hanley Hills last week.
"Our investigators discovered a plethora of dogs that were stashed in a detached garage on the property location in deplorable conditions," Major Ron Martin, said.
Martin released pictures and the body cam footage of 13 dogs. One was tied to a fence outside and the others were found inside a garage. They are seen in their own feces in crates, stacked on top of each other with no air-conditioning and little lighting. Another dog was leashed to a fence outside.
"Multiple dogs had marks, scars, injuries that are consistent with dog fighting," Martin said.
"I mean it's just abuse from one end to the other," Michael Duke, owner of Max's Second Chance Express, said.
The possibility of a dog fighting ring in St. Louis has been on Duke's radar.
"We kept finding dogs very badly torn up, kept turning up in St. Louis City and County especially north county," Duke said. "No one really took it seriously until the North County Co-op."
The dogs were taken to the St. Louis County Animal Control center.
Duke called on two local rescues to help the dogs recover.
"Both of them stepped up...both of them said they were going to take the dogs," Duke said. "The 13 are going to be cared for."
"We just have to wait for the evaluations to come, and that takes some time with these dogs," Duke said.
Maclin turned himself in Tuesday afternoon and is being held on a $25,000 cash only bond.
"Fourteen criminal charges have been issued against the defendant, and those charges stem from felony dog fighting to animal abuse and animal neglect," Martin said.
"We know there's more people involved," Duke said. "We know for a fact, so if we can get him to tell us who some of those other people are and we can get the whole ring."
Duke said it takes years for fighting dogs to recover from the trauma and abuse.
He said to be on the lookout for people recruiting dogs for fighting purposes.
He advises people not to give away free dogs and to visit the home of anyone interested in adopting their dog.