U.S. & World

MAYWOOD, Ill. (CBS) ― They were the victims of dogfighting, bred to kill or be killed.

They have now been rescued from a dogfighting ring that operated at a garage in Maywood, according to police.

And it was not at just at any home. It was a day care home.

An animal activist called it one of the sickest stories she's ever seen, and she's seen a lot of them.

Parents brought their small children – pre-school children – to a day care home, just feet from the heart of a dogfighting ring, police said.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said approximately 10 children were found in the day care during the raid Tuesday, but they were not in the immediate vicinity of the dogs.

Nine battered dogs -- four of which were puppies -- were rescued, police said.

"The dogs were in horrific condition," Dart said at the Animal Welfare League in suburban Chicago Ridge, where several of the dogs were undergoing surgery and rehabilitation. "This is as bad as we've seen."

He described a gruesome scene in the day care's garage, with blood all over the floor and a car. Police also found items such as syringes, bite sticks and a treadmill that had been altered to be used specifically to train the dogs. Officers also recovered a 1996 edition of "Sporting Dog Journal."

One puppy had a badly scarred face. Another dog was barely able to walk.

"This leg has to be amputated because they broke her leg and never got medical treatment," said Linda Estrada, executive director of Animal Welfare League.

Those dogs were not among the most critically injured. At a garage in west suburban Maywood, Sheriff's police said they found a pit bull, his chest shredded from a fight, body parts almost bitten off, near a pool of blood.

That garage was mere feet from a swing set in the backyard of a daycare home. Ten children were at the home when police arrived Tuesday.

"I think it's one of the sickest stories we've ever had," Estrada said

Three puppies were also there in a wire cage, police say, soaked in feces and urine. Officers found dogfighting gear there.

Charles Sutton, 42, was charged with felony dogfighting. His wife operates the daycare home. She has not been charged and told police she knew nothing of the dogfighting. She said dogs were never near children.

Dart said he finds her claim hard to believe.

"I think it's a bit difficult to understand how someone could not be aware of what's going on out there when you can see it from the window; when you have a swing set attached to a device that used for the fighting and your husband's the one in custody," Dart said.

Two other men were charged as part of the investigation. Lance Webb, 27, has been charged with felony dogfighting. Martez Andersen, 38, is charged with being a felon in possession of an unspayed or unnetured dog.

The sheriff said Andersen kept the fighting dogs at his Maywood home.

Two other men who are targets of the investigation have not yet been apprehended or charged, according to the sheriff's office.

Andersen insisted there was no dogfighting. How did he explain the injured dogs taken from his property, including being used a bait to train the dogfighters?

"The white one - the door fell on the dog. That's how the dog's eye came out," Anderson said. "The dog was never in a dogfight."

He said it was never his intention to have any of those dogs in dogfighting. "No, never. They're puppies. They're babies."

The Department of Children and Family Services shut down the daycare home Wednesday. A DCFS spokesman said two complaints were filed regarding the daycare home, one in December of 2006; the other in July 2007. Both said dogs were in the home.

The spokesman said both times investigators showed up at the home immediately, unannounced, and found dogs locked in garages, away from the children.

The spokesman said he did not know what conditions the dogs were in when investigators went to the house.

Last month, Gov. Pat Quinn signed a law that requires DCFS staff to report whether they've seen signs animal abuse.

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