Georgia man who bred dogs to fight, marketed puppies online and fraudulently obtained PPP funds gets 2 years

A Georgia drug dealer who used pandemic relief money to support his lifestyle while promoting dogfighting will spend two years in federal prison.

Norman Dixson was sentenced Aug. 7 after pleading guilty to sponsoring and exhibiting a dog in an animal fighting operation, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia.

A judge also ordered 35-year-old Dixson to serve three years of supervised release and pay $171,069 in restitution. He cannot possess dogs while under supervision.

Prosecutors said videos and photographs recovered from Dixson's Facebook and iCloud accounts showed he had bred and trained dogs for fighting since at least 2018. He also advertised puppies for dogfighting on Facebook.

The dogs were kept on heavy chains or in overcrowded crates and makeshift pens surrounded by waste, prosecutors said. Dixson also recorded fights in which dogs were seriously injured, along with videos of dead and dying animals.

Federal investigators said Dixson fraudulently received more than $170,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program and unemployment insurance funds during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Dogfighting has no place in civilized society," U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg said. "Depraved individuals who abuse animals for profit should take notice: We will aggressively prosecute these offenses."

The U.S. departments of Labor and Agriculture investigated the case.