Robbers Deploy Vicious Dogs as Weapons of Choice : Washington: Police say holdups and other crimes involving pit bulls and Rottweilers are on the rise.

WASHINGTON —  Dogs such as Rottweilers and pit bulls, often mistreated to encourage aggressive behavior, are becoming a weapon of choice for robbers as well as youths seeking to establish neighborhood reputations as macho men.

Although statistics are inconclusive, police and animal-control officials can recount incident after incident in Washington and the surrounding area in which dogs have been used instead of guns or knives to intimidate victims.

In September, a 32-year-old man was attacked by a dog and robbed outside a Capitol Heights, Md., restaurant after two men with a pit bull walked up to him and demanded cash. He surrendered his money, but the dog attacked him anyway.

When police recently raided an apartment at a housing complex in the District of Columbia neighborhood of Columbia Heights, they encountered a pit bull guarding a stash of drugs and weapons.

“We are seeing more of these dogs, and we have to be prepared for it,” said police Capt. Greg Thomas. Police officers have to consider dangerous dogs as one more weapon they might encounter on the street, he said.

In Prince William County, Va., last August, police officers responding to a burglary were greeted by a Rottweiler charging out the front door. After an officer repeatedly asked the owner to call off the dog, he shot it in the snout, wounding it, police spokeswoman Kim Chinn said. The dog’s owner turned out to be the estranged husband of the woman who called police; he was later arrested on suspicion of stealing the woman’s car.

Humane Society officials say Rottweilers and pit bulls are increasingly popular among young people who enjoy the respect associated with owning a mean or aggressive animal.

Younger owners usually don’t hesitate to show their peers what their dogs can do, said Rosemary Vozobule, director of the Humane Society of Washington’s law enforcement program, which works with police to bring charges against pet owners for cruelty to animals and allowing their dogs to fight.

“There is a certain machismo associated with owning the dogs,” Vozobule said. “Of course, the meaner your dog, the more respect you get in the neighborhood.”

Tim Nicholson, an animal-control officer with the District of Columbia shelter, said he has seen pit bulls and Rottweilers--large dogs that can weigh up to 120 pounds--that have been starved, fed gunpowder, placed on treadmills and weighted down with heavy chains around their necks to build up muscle strength.

Gunpowder gives an animal a constant stomachache, making it sicker and meaner, and the treadmill regimen builds stamina to fight, he said. In addition, the animals are trained to leap and lock their jaws around an object.

Carol Proctor and a friend were walking by the playground of a former elementary school in northwest Washington when they exchanged smart remarks with a group of seven teen-agers loitering near the basketball court. To the women’s shock, the youths sicked two pit bulls on them.

Proctor, who works at the district’s Department of Employment Services, scrambled to get away by climbing on top of a picnic bench, but the dog bit her several times on the shoulder and legs.

“They did it to show what the dogs could do,” said Proctor, 36. “They told me they wished they had a [video camera] to take a picture.”

Vozobule said her agency receives about three calls a day about pit bulls fighting, running loose, chasing people or posing a threat to the community. She said the number of pit-bull disturbances in Washington is on the rise.

Young dog owners also are turning their pit bulls loose on smaller animals to train the dogs to attack and kill, Nicholson said.

Edward Brooks De Celle of Washington said he was powerless to prevent three teen-agers from turning two pit bulls loose on his neighbor’s cat. As he saw the incident and began running from his back yard toward the neighbor’s home, screaming at the youths to stop, the two dogs attacked the cat, which had been asleep on the back doorstep. Jake, a 4-year-old feline, bled to death after being bitten repeatedly by the dogs, said Nicholson, who responded to the call.

“It was chilling to watch children do this,” De Celle said. “They were completely without any type of feeling.”