The feds seized 13 pit bull-type dogs they say were used in vicious dogfights in both Hanson and Townsend.

Hanson resident John D. Murphy, 50, was arrested Thursday and pleaded not guilty in federal court in Boston the next morning to nine counts of possessing animals for use in an animal fighting venture. Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy released Murphy on $5,000 unsecured bond ahead of a formal detention hearing scheduled to take place at the federal court in Worcester on April 3 at noon.

The U.S. Marshals Service on June 7, 2023, seized eight “pit bull-type” dogs from Murphy’s Hanson home, according to a civil forfeiture document filed in the case. One of the dogs, which the feds described as a “red, underweight male” and possibly suffering from cancer, died during the seizure. Of the remaining dogs, five of them were males and two were female.

Ahead of the seizure, law enforcement conducted aerial surveillance of Murphy’s residence in late March and early April of 2023 where they allegedly observed a “stockaded enclosure as well as what agents believed to be outdoor housing structures for fighting dogs” and during both days of surveillance “observed one or more dogs within or immediately outside of the enclosure.”

“In the United States, dogfighting ventures usually involve pit bull-type dogs, which dogfighters prefer for their compact muscular build, short coat, and the aggression that some display toward other dogs,” the feds wrote in the document, adding that owners tend to “isolate dogs” both to prevent fighting outside the pit and to “discourage normal socialization.”

Valuable and winning dogs, the feds say, are kept “for long periods of time so that (owners) can continue to profit off those dogs in future dogfights or from selling offspring or breeding rights. The more fights a dog wins, the higher the dog’s value.”

The feds also seized five dogs the same day from a residence in Townsend. The owner of that residence is identified in court documents as Steven Morrissey, but a query of federal court dockets does not show him to be charged yet with any crime, though the allegations in the document are similar to those against Murphy.

All of the dogs are being cared for by a Marshals Service contractor, according to the forfeiture doc.

The feds say that owners keep so many dogs because fights are arranged based on animal sex and weight within a pound of each other, so keeping different dogs increases the chances the owner will have a dog that meets the needs of a proposed fight. Dogs will often die or become terribly injured during fights, and owners are known to kill less aggressive dogs to make room on their roster.

These fights, the feds say, were arranged in private Facebook groups, where Murphy allegedly participated under the aliases “John Mac Murchaidha” and “Séamus Sugar.” Such groups, like “Scratch Dog Journal,” are also allegedly used to share results of fights, buy and sell fighting dogs and share tips on training and conditioning of the dogs.

The feds say Murphy’s home was chockablock with dogfighting instruments and materials, according to the indictment delivered by the grand jury on March 28.

Those materials allegedly include intravenous infusion equipment and other veterinary materials like syringes, antibiotics, injectable steroids and corticosteroids, forceps, and a “skin stapler”; as well as training materials including a treadmill, slat mill, carpet mill and a flirt pole, which is a pole with a lure at the end that dogs can chase and is used in this subculture to “increase jaw strength and increase aggression.”

He is also alleged to have kept books and DVDs on dog training and fighting; a digital scale; “break sticks,” which the feds say are used to separate fighting dogs; and “a breeding stand used to immobilize female dogs during breeding.”