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COLUMBIA — For years as a politician in South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster has raised alarms surrounding vicious dogfighting. When he was attorney general in 2004 he formed an anti-dogfighting task force.
Twenty years later, during his State of State speech in 2024, and again last week, he called for the cruelty to end. "Animal fighting, especially dog fighting, is one of the cruelest criminal activities in our society," McMaster said Jan. 29 during his statewide address, emotion in his voice.
"Law officers estimate that most of the people participating in this barbaric activity have long criminal records," he added before reasserting his call for additional state funding "to end this unforgivable savagery." Governor Henry McMaster addresses a combined House, Senate and Supreme Court, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025, during the annual State of the State address at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia.
He called for the end of dogfighting in the state. McMaster's executive budget recommends a $500,000 appropriation needed by the State Law Enforcement Division to bolster its animal fighting efforts. At the time of SLED's budget request, 105 dogs were in custody and in need of care.
Dogfighting has a dark history in the state. One of South Carolina's largest dogfighting rings was taken down about 25 miles outside of Columbia, in Eastover, and raids across the Midlands accounted for more than 300 dogs seized, the Post and Courier reported in 2022. At least 17 people were arrested.
Many dogs wore heavy chains staked to the ground or trees, had severe scarring, and were found isolated, according to federal court documents. An indoor dogfighting pit had blood stains, and a dog’s skull was found at another site. A photo taken during one of the aerial flyovers showed dogs isolated from one another at a property in Rembert wearing chains that weighed 40-60 pounds, the filing said.
In the Charleston area, one notorious case emerged in April 2004 when Charleston area pit bull breeder David Ray Tant was arrested and ultimately pleaded guilty to 41 criminal counts of dogfighting. Tant's operation was uncovered when a land surveyor was wounded by a booby-trapped shotgun after accidentally wandering onto Tant's property near Rantowles-Red Top. Investigators who converged on the scene found an expansive dogfighting operation, including a cattle prod, treadmills and sticks used to unclench a dog's jaws.
Tant, who had become one of the world's most successful breeders of ferocious pit bulls, served just shy of six years of a 30-year state sentence after he was paroled early. While much has been done to stop dogfighting over the years, the crime is complex and difficult for investigators. Legislatively, there hasn't been a push to increase penalties for the crime.
No bills targeting dogfighting have been filed for the 2025 S.C. legislative session, though bills addressing animal cruelty and chicken fighting have been filed in past years.
Rep. Jay Jordan, R-Florence, vice chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said that, legislatively, the only way he could think of to target the issue more effectively would be to increase penalties for the crime. A dog seized in 2022 by federal and state authorities in South Carolina's largest takedown of a dogfighting operation.
"I think if you talk to most folks at the Statehouse they would say dogfighting is certainly a bad thing, and anything we can do to lessen it or get rid of it all together would be a good thing," he said. "But other than increasing the penalties associated with someone who's involved in it, I don't know what we could do to impact the existence of it." Dogfighting is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
During a recent criminal justice budget subcommittee meeting, SLED Chief Mark Keel said the agency seized about 174 dogs who had been in dogfights. Keel said his agency partners with organizations like the Animal Humane Society, which helps with the cost of animal care. But he said SLED can't always rely on these organizations for assistance, which is why they are requesting the $500,000 included in McMaster's budget.
"We end up incurring the cost of care when we seize these animals," he said. "These dogs have to be boarded, they have to be taken care of, the ones that are not euthanized. Some are euthanized because of their health and the injuries that they have, but bottom line .
.. that's one of those things that comes along with that dogfighting unit, is veterinary bills and board.
" There is precedent for lawmakers to invest more. In the 2024-25 budget, McMaster's effort helped secure funding for SLED to hire another three agents dedicated to animal fighting. In 2024, the SLED dogfighting unit opened 18 cases, rescuing 205 dogs, and making 60 arrests resulting in 351 total charges, McMaster's office said.
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