Liaquat Ali jailed for arranging dog fights

An Accrington man, Liaquat Ali, has received a six-month jail sentence for organising dog fights after being investigated by the RSPCA. He has also been banned from keeping dogs for the rest of his life.

His convictions included organising dog fights, causing dogs to fight and keeping premises that were specifically designed for dogs to fight each other. According to the RSPCA, this is the first conviction they’ve achieved under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

Two properties that Liaquat Ali rented were searched by the RSPCA last summer, where in one property they found a starving dog chained in a box, without food and water. The other property was a flat in Accrington, where they found the blood from more than one dog splattered on the walls.

Liaquat Ali also kept footage from the dog fights that he arranged stored on his mobile phone. Further investigations in March this year turned up two dogs, described as ‘pit bull type’ that were bred for fighting. He pleaded guilty to owning the dogs, that are banned under the dangerous dogs act of 1991, requiring a special licence to keep them.

Ian Briggs of the RSPCA stated:

We can only imagine how many dogs have suffered at the hands of Mr Ali and his friends, and the kind of things they’ve had to endure at a premise kept by him for that very purpose.

We’ve never brought a prosecution on these specific allegations before under the new legislation, but the evidence against Mr Ali was overwhelming.

This is a landmark case and we’re very pleased with the magistrate’s ruling.

Liaquat Ali’s lifetime ban on keeping dogs should ensure that no other animals suffer at his hands.

Darren Jamieson