32-year-old JOEDARRYL L. MCBRIDE (pictured), is scheduled to appear in Allen County Superior Court on July 12, 2024, to face dogfighting charges among other offenses.
According to the Probable Cause Affidavit obtained by Voice For Us, on February 18, 2024, the Fort Wayne Police Department responded to a domestic dispute call and since the caller said that she wanted to surrender eight Pitbulls, Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control (FWACC) Officer Werling and Officer Speer also responded to the scene.
Officers learned from the caller that MCBRIDE had hit her in the mouth and fled the scene.
The caller told Officers that MCBRIDE had been fighting dogs and training them in the home.
The Affidavit identified the dogs found at the home as:
3-month-old tan female Pitbull mix named Daisy
3-month-old tan female Pitbull mix named Princess
3-month-old black and white male Pitbull mix named Ray
3-month-old black and white male Pitbull mix named Ruthless
2-year-old tan female Pitbull mix named Eve
2-yearold tan female Pitbull mix named Queen
2-year-old tan male Pitbull mix named Debo
2-year-old black and white male Pitbull mix named Katos
The caller went on to tell Officers that MCBRIDE had been actively training the dogs and entering them in dogfights but she could not provide the dates of the fights and where they took place. She then showed the Officers a photo on her phone of one of the dogs that MCBRIDE had fought who had been killed during a dogfight somewhere in Ohio. She added that MCBRIDE “normally takes the dogs to Michigan, Ohio and Atlanta for fights.”
Officer Werling asked the woman how she knew MCBRIDE was training the dogs to fight so she took all the Officers to the garage and showed them the training equipment.
Officers found a red harness hanging from a bicycle along with a metal spring with a rope and a hide attached. The woman then pointed to a metal chain hanging from the ceiling and stated that the chain in the ceiling is where MCBRIDE attached the metal spring with the rope and hide. She further said that MCBRIDE has a pole with a white T-Shirt on it that he uses with Katos. “do not wave a white t-shirt in front of Katos or he will attack and not let go”, she said.
The same day, Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control removed all eight dogs.
Officer Werling returned to the home the following day and asked the woman whether she had ever seen anything such as trophies, medication/feeding charts, lineage charts, etc. that MCBRIDE may have for the dogs. The woman answered that there were some “dog books” and advised Officer Werling that MCBRIDE self-medicates the dogs and that all the medication were in the refrigerator.
Officer Werling found a slew of medications, including prescription antibiotic injections only meant to be used for cattle and swine; “Muscle-up” supplements for horses; dewormer for goats; injectable penicillin and corticosteroids; prescription antibiotics, and several other kinds of medication like testosterone used as an anabolic steroid.
On February 20, 2024, Dr. Andrew Riebe, DVM completed an examination on all eight dogs and he concluded that all the skin injuries, lesions, wounds, and scars on the furvictims were “most consistent with a history of organized dog fighting.”
On February 21, 2024, MCBRIDE contacted Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control about the dogs.
He said that he was breeding dogs, that the items he had were for training, and that with multiple dogs in the home, altercations naturally happen. MCBRIDE also said that the dogs get aggressive when breeding. When MCBRIDE was asked about the injuries on the dogs, he claimed they “were from the dogs trying to remove themselves from their kennels” and added that when neighbors throw bones over the fence, the dogs “get territorial over food and that leads to altercations.”
On March 5, 2024, Daisy, Eve, Katos, Queen, Princess, Ray, and Ruthless were sadly euthanized.
According to the Affidavit, after the furvictims’ examination it was determined that they “could not be placed due to aggression resulting from coming from a dog fighting case and were heavily scarred.”
Debo was placed into the Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control Adoption Program where he was adopted into his forever home.
As stated in the Affidavit, it also emerged that on September 23, 2022, Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control responded to MCBRIDE’s home “after receiving a video of a dog fight with the Defendant in the video with a black dog and an injured brown dog. While doing a welfare check on the dogs in the home, FWACC was able to obtain photos of Katos at the time of that investigation and Katos did not have the bite wounds/scars that he did on February 18, 2024.”
On April 10, 2024, a warrant was issued for MCBRIDE’s arrest and he was taken into custody on April 30, 2024, on six felony counts of purchasing or possessing an animal for fighting and possession of animal fighting paraphernalia.
Disclaimer: This story is sourced from the Probable Cause Affidavit provided to Voice For Us.
Please note that details may be removed or new information added should updates become available.
In the case of charges being dropped, dismissed, or the case being purged, this article will be rectified accordingly, if official documentation is provided to Voice For Us.
MCBRIDE’s mugshot provided to Voice For Us by the Allen County Sheriff's Office
