Meghan Youker

OMAHA (KPTM) -- The Nebraska Humane Society is looking after four pit bulls thought to be involved in a dog-fighting ring.  The animals were seized from a Tecumseh man indicted this week in the largest dog-fighting sting in U.S. history.

Law enforcement seized about 400 dogs across eight states from Mississippi to Illinois.  28 -year-old Julio Reyes of Tecumseh is the only Nebraskan implicated in the case.  Prosecutors say he took two pit bulls to a farm in Northwest Missouri, and then placed bets on the outcomes of several fights.

Caged and scared, yet remarkably well behaved.  That's how the Nebraska Humane Society describes four pit bulls seized Thursday in Tecumseh.  Their owner is accused of conspiring to fight dogs for sport.

Vets say although the pit bulls are mostly healthy, some have old scars on their head, chest, or legs.  "That would lend credibility to the fact that these dogs may have been fought or may have been used to train fighting dogs because there is scaring in the areas that fighting dogs typically have," said Pam Wiese.

The humane society is caring for the pit bulls until trial.  Experts say while dog fighting is concentrated in rural areas; it is an issue in the Omaha area.  "We get tips all the time from people that suspect dog fighting, we have found paraphernalia in homes, dead dogs in dumpsters," Wiese said.

Animal control workers say they're always on the look out for signs of trouble.  "We run into a lot of cases where we've located dogs after the dog fight, where they had severe enough injuries they've had to be euthanized because they were so bad," said field investigator Kelli Brown.

Signs of dog fighting include a large number of pit bull like breeds in the same location, including dogs that tend to be aggressive toward other dogs and have scars or visible injuries.

Many times owners also force their dogs to run for hours or hang heavy chains around their necks.  "Tools used to train the dogs, such as treadmills, ropes hung from trees that allow the dog to jump up and hang from it and that helps the dog to build muscle strength," Brown said.

Experts say dog fighting is a very difficult crime to crack, because it's so underground and the people involved stay pretty closed lipped.  The humane society does offer big bucks for information that leads to a dog fighting arrest and recovery of the animals involved.

The humane society says it's too early to tell if the dogs involved in the Tecumseh case can be rehabilitated, but they're hopeful and just glad the dogs were saved before they were seriously hurt or killed because they didn't perform.