The online blunder that led a BBC team to unmask Europe-wide dog fighting network

A black dog wearing a red collar is in a cage looking directly at the camera with its eyes wide open. It has a white scar shining through its black fur under its left eye and in the middle of its forehead.

Ruby, a fighting dog, was left with visible scarring on her face

Patrick Fee & Guy Grandjean
BBC Spotlight

Dog fighting is as secretive as it is barbaric.

The people behind the illegal bloodsport carefully conceal their identities, fearful of arrest and prosecution.

However, one dog fighter's IT mix-up led an undercover BBC investigation to unmask some of those involved in "one of Europe's largest dog fighting networks".

The BBC has tracked fighting kennels to unlikely places in the UK – from a busy housing estate to the grounds of a stately home.

A simple mis-click from one member of a top-secret online dog fighting forum exposed the brutal reality of today's dog fighting.

The leak revealed graphic match reports documenting fight after fight, injured animal after injured animal.

A vast haul of intelligence was quickly harvested by the animal welfare charities, the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) and the Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (USPCA).

That was the first glimpse of a highly secretive international dog fighting syndicate - one which the BBC has spent the past six months investigating and exposing.

"I can't really put into words actually, it was just golden," said Russ Middleton, a former police officer turned Head of Intelligence for LACS.

A black dog and sandy coloured dog are locked together in a fight. A low wooden wall is visible in the background alongside a person's feet. The dogs are fighting on a black mat.

Dogs are forced to fight in specially made pits

The law across the UK bans not only fighting, but also owning fighting dogs, training them to fight, trading animals and even filming fights without good reason.

"There was a whole range of different dogfighters in there, all collaborating, chatting, sharing videos. It gave us a real insight to the global perspective of dogfighting."

Mr Middleton described the network as "one of the biggest in Europe".

Following a trail of evidence hidden in pictures, posts and videos online, the BBC has been able to expose an organised network of illegal dog fighters - one that stretches from the UK, across Europe and beyond.

A man looks at the camera smiling. He has dark hair which is turning grey at the sides. The man is wearing a black polo shirt with a pawprint emblem on the chest. Below it reads "League against cruel sports". The background of the image is a blurred room, with a lamp and fireplace.

Russ Middleton is Head of Intelligence at the League Against Cruel Sports

"It's happening in every town and city in the UK"

Dog fighting is much more common than people think, according to experienced vet David Martin who was an expert witness in previous dog fighting cases.

"It is going on in probably every major town and city in the UK.

"It is enormous amounts of abuse and cruelty at every stage," said Mr Martin.

The League Against Cruel Sports received more than 600 reports of dog fighting since 2024, with those reports increasing by more than 50% in the past two years.

However, it says the number of dog fights taking place in the UK is impossible to quantify - the secrecy of the fights means far more are taking place than get reported.

For campaigners like Russ, any dog fight is one too many.

Dog Fighting: Exposed

Infiltrating a secretive online network forcing dogs to fight and die.

Watch on iPlayer

Watch now on iPlayer or on BBC One Northern Ireland on Tuesday 30 September at 22.40

The BBC investigation found several UK-based dog fighting kennels, hiding in unlikely places.

In one case, the owner of a dog who had recently killed its opponent in the pit, had a kennel nestled in a busy housing estate in County Armagh populated by families and their pets.

"They want to keep their dogs out of sight, they don't want to be identified by the authorities as someone who has got dogs that are banned," Mr Martin said.

"They would have to be extremely careful if they were going to take their dogs out to the environment to make sure that their dogs didn't come across other dogs, otherwise there would be bloodshed."

A composite image shows a dog running on a treadmill in a garden. Behind it is a larger image of the garden, with arrows pointing to the matching features, such as a large stone wall, metal cages and a grey shed.

Pictures and videos posted online helped identify Boneyard kennels in the grounds of Shane's Castle

Another kennel was found hidden in the grounds of one of Northern Ireland's most famous stately homes, Shane's Castle Estate.

The estate's grounds were used by Boneyard Kennels, to house and train fighting dogs.

The USPCA and LACS have identified Boneyard Kennels as one of the UK's most significant dog fighters.

Shane's Castle Estates told BBC News NI that it is opposed to dog fighting and was shocked to hear that a dog fighter was operating within its grounds.

It said, if it had known, this would have been stopped.

A man in a black coat and wooly hat is crouched down in a gym training room with a pitbull type dog. He has a dark stubble which is turning grey. The dog is a tanned colour and is staring intently to the left of the camera. Behind them is a large gym banner. Facebook

The investigation traced about 40 dogs to David Patterson's Boneyard Kennels

The BBC identified the man behind Boneyard Kennels as David Patterson, a mixed-martial arts coach from County Antrim.

We traced about 40 fighting pit bulls to Boneyard Kennels – matching several of the dogs' pre-fight training videos to a walled garden deep inside the Shane's Castle estate.

David Patterson denied participating in dog fighting and said he is not a member of any international dog fighting network.

He said he often looks after dogs for other people and is interested in human and animal fitness.

A man is standing in a fighting gym with no top on. He has short sandy hair and is looking straight at the camera. The man has several tattoos on his left arm. Behind him are the ropes of a boxing gym and a blue wall. Facebook

Craig Kitson told the BBC he was not actively participating in dog fighting

The BBC also saw evidence suggesting that Craig Kitson, an associate of Patterson's, was also a member of the dog fighting network - operating under the alias Spongebob.

The name Spongebob was listed as a referee in several dog fighting match reports, and as a handler of Boneyard Kennels' dogs.

Craig Kitson previously made headlines for a graphic video he was in holding his deceased dog.

Its muzzle taped, Mr Kitson bit the dog's ear, suggesting this was punishment for the dog having bitten his child.

Craig Kitson told the BBC he was not actively participating in dog fighting and that he is not the person identified as Spongebob.

He expressed deep contrition over the video in which he bit the dog's corpse, stating he had not been responsible for its death.

Three men are pictured meeting in a car park, beside a large yellow sign for a restaurant. A small black dog on a red lead is jumping up on the man on the left. A man in grey tracksuit bottoms, a navy top and a baseball cap is in the middle, also with a hand on the dog. The third man is bald and is standing with his back to the camera, mostly hidden from view by a car.

Undercover BBC Journalist Patrick Fee (centre) meets Zoltan Borbe (right) in Amsterdam

Posing as a dog fighter, the BBC was able to infiltrate online platforms and win the trust of members of the wider European network.

After several months, one member of the syndicate was willing to meet in Amsterdam to sell the team a fighting dog.

Zoltan Borbe, known by the alias NFK Kennels, was secretly filmed boasting about his fighting dogs.

"I have one grand champion female that maybe I sign here for the seventh match," he said - unaware he was speaking to a BBC journalist.

A grand champion is a term used for a dog which has won at least five fights.

A man is looking to the right of the camera in a grainy image taken from an undercover camera. He is bald with large black eyebrows. Behind the man is a yellow sign for a restaurant and a blue parking sign, indicating he is in a car park.

Zoltan Borbe spoke to the undercover BBC team in Amsterdam

Borbe sent videos of the black pit bull he was selling, a two-year-old named Ruby, to display what is known as its gameness - the determination of a dog to fight in the pit.

Zoltan Borbe later denied involvement in dog fighting, telling the BBC he made up the story to sell dogs.

Dog rehabilitation

Ruby, a medium sized black dog, is placed on a table in a clinical looking room. A woman in a dark Tshirt holds the dogs head at they look at each other. She has blonde hair. Another woman dressed in a white tunic is holding a thermometer behind the dog and is talking to the woman in the dark tshirt.

Ruby was taken to a specialist centre in Amsterdam for care and assessment

The secrecy surrounding dog fighting means that few animals are rescued - those who are often risk being euthanised. In the UK, pit bulls are a banned breed.

Ruby has been placed at a centre in the Netherlands that works to try to rehabilitate high-risk dogs through training programmes.

"It's just a lot of observation," said Hella Van Den Beemt, the centre's lead therapist.

"To be fair towards the dog, you always have to go in with an open heart and just give the dog every room that it needs and you will bond with the dog.

"They always have a chance, but there are a lot of factors that we have to consider in that.

"If it's really strongly embedded in a character, then we have to calculate the risk."

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