Charges: Doping dogs and growing dope

By CASEY CORA, Times Staff Writer
Published September 28, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Raymond Doerfler is accused of using steroids on dogs.

TAMPA - After leaving the bloody scene of a fight between loose dogs on Tuesday, investigators with the Hillsborough County Animal Services returned the next day to Raymond Doerfler's home with a warrant.

Among their findings: overgrown pit bulls, steroids and a marijuana grow house hidden inside a trailer, said Animal Services spokeswoman Marti Ryan.

Doerfler, 45, runs a Web site touting dogs that are "bred for heavy substance, bone, mass, and XL head size."

Ryan said Doerfler denied any involvement in dogfighting, but added "clearly, these animals were an investment."

Animal Services was called to Doerfler's property, 8116 River Shore Drive, on Tuesday after getting word of a fight between two dogs that escaped from an elaborate kennel system. Ryan said a 1-year-old pit bull, Sky, died in an animal services van on the way to a shelter.

When investigators returned on Wednesday, they recovered seven more dogs. One of them, a pit bull named Mocha, 4, has visible wounds, damage to her ears and couldn't stop shaking her head.

"He loved the investment more than he probably loved his dogs," Ryan said.

Ryan stopped short of confirming the dogs had been injected with the steroids, but said the dogs are "super-sized, muscular creatures of unnatural girth."

Doerfler faces charges of sale without a veterinary certificate; three counts of confinement of animals without food and water; two counts of felony cruelty to animals; possession of a controlled substance for anabolic steroids; possession of cannabis with intent to sell; manufacture of cannabis; possession of cannabis; and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

He was released from jail Thursday after posting $20,000 bail.

[Last modified September 28, 2007, 00:22:10]