US government seeks ownership of over 40 pit bulls tied to Florida's Broward dogfighting ring

Shira Moolten, South Florida Sun Sentinel on Dec 5, 2025

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The U.S. government is seeking ownership of over 40 pit bulls following its take-down of a Broward dogfighting ring, using a civil forfeiture process that is typically applied to property like cars, contraband or cash.

The pit bulls have been in the care of the U.S. Marshal’s service since January, when FBI agents raided the Deerfield Beach home of prominent Broward dogfighter Alex Benefield. They found 36 pit bulls locked in cages in his backyard, many of them scarred and injured, according to a federal complaint. A month later, while still in U.S. Marshal’s custody, one of the dogs that was pregnant during the raid gave birth to 12 puppies.

On Thursday, prosecutors filed a complaint requesting that Benefield officially forfeit all of the dogs to the U.S. government.

The complaint comes as Benefield, 54, awaits sentencing in his criminal case next week. In September, he pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing, training and receipt of a dog for use in an animal fighting venture as part of an agreement with prosecutors. He also agreed to allow the government to take his dogs.

Anyone else with a legal claim to the dogs is allowed 35 days to file a response to the forfeiture complaint.

The application of civil forfeiture to animals is unusual. Until recently, dogs seized during raids of fighting operations were euthanized because they could not be adopted until the criminal case concluded, according to the FBI. Over the last decade, the U.S. government began using civil forfeiture laws to take ownership of dogs with the goal of getting them adopted instead.

In South Florida, the seizure of dogs remains a rare occurrence compared to cash, firearms, boats, jewelry and other assets typically seized by the government during criminal investigations. A search of South Florida federal forfeiture cases under the same statute applied to Benefield’s case over the last five years primarily returns seizures of money and firearms. None mention dogs or other animals.

Benefield’s situation is also unique in that he could have conceivably fought to keep his dogs, unlike someone convicted of smuggling firearms or trafficking drugs.

“Somebody in Benefield’s situation could say ‘Hey, I want my dogs back, they’re my dogs, why are you taking them,'” his attorney, Richard Della Fera, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Friday. “You can’t say to the government, ‘Hey, I want my cocaine back.'”

Benefield has worked for the Broward School District since 2016, most recently as an automotive instructor at Boyd H. Anderson High School, a position he was able to keep despite his arrest. Over that same time period, he rose to the top of Broward’s dogfighting underworld, where he was known as “one of the top dog fighting trainers and dog fighters in South Florida,” prosecutors said in the complaint.

In 2023, an FBI source and former dog fighter began secretly recording conversations with Benefield. In one recorded conversation, Benefield showed the confidential FBI source a video of one of his dogs killing and eating another dog in his backyard.

“That’s the fifth one he killed,” Benefield told the source. “He done killed five.”

Benefield’s sentencing is set for Tuesday. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on each count, but is asking the judge to spare him prison time and issue a lighter sentence of supervision.

“I am deeply ashamed that I participated in something that caused suffering to an innocent animal and I would never hurt an animal intentionally,” he wrote in a letter filed Thursday. “Looking back I recognize that my actions reflected poor judgement and lack of respect for the law, for the wellbeing of animals and for the standards of the community. I regret these decisions every day after working so hard to get out the streets and steer my kids the right way.”

The same day FBI agents arrested Benefield in January, they also arrested a second prominent dogfighter, Tramaine Marvin Randall of Pompano Beach. Randall pleaded guilty to one count of possession or training of a dog for use in an animal fighting venture and was sentenced in July to one year of probation.

Agents had also raided Randall’s home and seized 11 dogs, which he also agreed to forfeit to the U.S. government, according to his plea agreement.

As part of his sentence, Randall was ordered to complete 100 community service hours at an animal rescue facility, according to court records. His attorney is currently seeking to modify this requirement, however, saying he attempted to volunteer at animal rescue facilities in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, but all of them turned him away.