Dogfighter runs for office in North Carolina, backed by cockfighting money

Killer Klowns Kennels [KKK] pit bull Mr. Bojangles & Stoney Greene.  (Beth Clifton collage)

“My issue,”  says local who says he does not care about dogfighting or cockfighting,  “is that Stoney Greene is stupid”

WILKESBORO, North Carolina––Several good old boys on the Wilkes County,  North Carolina community website GoWilkes.com on March 3,  2024,  two days from the North Carolina primary election,  engaged in a heated discussion about candidate Stoney Greene,  46.

Greene,  current chair of the Wilkes County Board of Commissioners,  is running in a four-man race as a Republican candidate for the District 94 seat in the North Carolina state legislature.

First came a series of comments about Greene’s alleged economic and marital status.

Stoney Greene,  candidate.
(Facebook photo)

“Too much time in the pit”

“I thought Stoney Greene quit drinking?” someone said.

Replied “Foxnose,”  “Too much time in the pit.  The gasses are beginning to fog your brain.”

“Sewerpit” responded,  “Well Foxnose,  I have no bones to pick with Stoney Green, whether he drinks,  fights dogs and chickens,  or beats his women.  My issue is,  he is stupid.”

That may have summarized the credentials most likely to get someone elected in much of Wilkes County,  an Appalachian locale best known as home of Tom Dula [Dooley],  hanged in 1868 for allegedly murdering his pregnant fiancé Laura Foster,  and of rumrunner turned stock car racer Junior Johnson (1931-2019).

Soon thereafter someone posted a media release issued earlier on March 3,  2024,  headlined “Animal Wellness Action Calls Out N.C. House Candidate Long Associated with the Barbaric and Criminal Practice of Dogfighting.”

Added a subhead,  “Animal welfare group urges voters in House District 94 to vote for anyone but long-time dogfighting enthusiast Stoney Greene in the March 5 primary.”

The District 94 seat has been held by a succession of Republicans since 2013.

Killer Klown Kennels

Explained Animal Wellness Action,  “Greene,  according to informants and to key primary source documents,  operated kennels featured in known dogfighting websites where he allegedly sold and bred pit-bull type dogs (e.g. Killer Klown Kennels and Stone Hard Kennel).”

“One of the two numbers on Killer Klown Kennels popped up from one of Stoney’s former wives — Lynda Greene,”  Animal Wellness Action president Wayne Pacelle told ANIMALS 24-7.

ANIMALS 24-7 could not immediately confirm Stoney Greene’s alleged involvement in Killer Klown Kennels,  which as of mid-2004 advertised pit bulls in Sporting Dog News and Bull A Ton magazines.

(Beth Clifton collage)

Initials spell out “KKK”

ANIMALS 24-7 did notice,  however,  that the Killer Klown Kennels initials spell out “KKK.”

The Ku Klux Klan long ran dogfighting,  cockfighting,  moonshining,  & rum-running as protection rackets,  along with gambling and prostitution in the rural South.

A “secret sign” among businesses participating in Klan-controlled rackets was the inclusion of the letter “K” in the business name,  slogan,  or advertising,  typically in an unusual place.

The Animal Wellness Action media release went on to mention that Greene “was arrested in 2002 for dogfighting in Dover Township,  New Jersey,  along with more than 40 others,”  as reported by Asbury Park Press on June 27, 2002.

Judge Stoney Greene,  American Dog Breeders Association  shown in center,

“Let me introduce Stoney Greene”

Animal Wellness Action also noted Greene’s alleged “connection to two most infamous dogfighters––Ed Faron (from Wilkes County) and Tom Garner.”

A social media posting from the “American Dog Breeders Association Klub CZ,”  dated May 10,  2016,  announced that “Mr. Stoney Greene will be in the Czech republic!  Let me introduce him a little bit for you!

“My Grandfather owned several American Pit Bull Terriers when I was a child.  I grew to love the APBT at a very young age.  Over 20 years ago I began this great adventure with the American Pit Bull Terrier on my own.  I have been blessed to live in the mountains of NC,  US where the history of the American Pit Bull Terrier has always been very rich.

(Beth Clifton collage)

Dogfighting & cockfighting

“Living in this area has allowed me to obtain a great deal of knowledge from some very influential men who have played a large part in the dogs we all own and enjoy today!  Men such as the Mountain Man who was a personal friend to my grandfather as I.  Ed Faron and Tom Garner have also been very influential in my knowledge.”

Animal Wellness Action also pointed out that “Jeff Hudspeth,  of Cedar Creek Game Fowl Farm and a known cockfighter from Wilkes County,  is a major donor to Stoney Greene’s campaign.”

Jeff Hudspeth was among the top-billed participants at the January 2012 “World Slasher Cup” tournament in the Philippines,  where cockfighting is legal.

Ed Faron, Wildside Kennels.
(Beth Clifton collage)

Ed Faron

Edward Anthony Faron was in June 1989 convicted of dog fighting in Alamance County,  North Carolina,  and was sentenced to serve a year in jail.

Faron went on to found Wildside Kennels at his home in 1996.

On December 10,  2008,  the Wilkes County Sheriff’s Office impounded 127 pit bulls from Wildside Kennels,  took possession of the pit bulls when Faron failed to meet a court-ordered deadline to pay the county $52,925 for the pit bulls’ care,  and––also by court order––euthanized all 127 pit bulls in February 2009,  as unsafe to rehome.

The Humane Society of the U.S. and the American SPCA on December 11,  2008 both claimed credit for investigations leading to the bust.

Pit bull lobbyist Ledy Vankavage.
(Best Friends Animal Society photo)

Faron’s friends

The Best Friends Animal Society meanwhile led a campaign to save Faron’s pit bulls.

Faron,  however,  doomed the Best Friends Animal Society’s efforts by pleading guilty in February 2009 to 14 felony dogfighting counts.

Faron was sentenced to serve eight to 10 months in prison,  followed by time on probation.

Faron is author of an out-of-print 1995 book entitled The Complete Game Dog, sold online for upward $500 a copy.

A copy autographed by the “To Mac: Best wishes from Wildside Kennels. Ed Faron 3/1/09,”  was reportedly found in possession of Oregon dogfighting suspect Victoria Louise McKenna.

(Beth Clifton collage)

“Godfather of dogfighting”

McKenna,  then 29,  on June 9,  2010 in Corvalis,  Oregon,  plea-bargained an 18-month prison sentence for trafficking in marijuana.

Her companion,  Cody Allan Hufeld,  then 32, was sentenced to serve 41 months in prison after pleading “no contest” to 15 felony counts of dogfighting.

Hufield and McKenna were arrested “after a marijuana investigation led police to find 15 scarred and injured pit bulls,  three dead dogs,  dogfighting periodicals,  and evidence of correspondence with ‘godfather of dogfighting’ Ed Faron,”  wrote Corvallis Gazette-Times reporter Rachel Beck.

Pit bull breeder Tom Garner.
(Facebook photo)

Tom Garner

Thomas Mitchell Garner,  70,  Raleigh News & Observer staff writer Jim Nesbitt mentioned in 2007,  has been breeding pit bulls since 1978.   Tom Garner in December 1994 was convicted of dog-fighting in Greene County,  North Carolina.

An April 12,  2000 raid by the sheriff’s office in Roanoke County,  Virginia, found 73 pit bulls chained to trees and old car axles on property owned by Tom Garner,  and another 19 pit bulls on neighboring land belonging to alleged dogfighting trainer Kyle Arthur Pearce.

Evidence found during the Pearce bust led U.S. federal agents to the home of his former housemate,  Philip William Reynolds,  publisher of the underground American Gamedog Times magazine plus an accompanying web site.

Five pit bulls and alleged dogfighting paraphernalia were seized from Reynolds.

Stoney Greene: what did he learn from Tom Garner?
(Facebook photo)

Garner walked

“During the initial raid,”  wrote Matt Chittum of the Roanoke Times,  “Garner showed up at the site where the dogs were chained while police were investigating.  Garner claimed ownership of most of the dogs,”  Chittum continued,   “and said he raised them to be sold as pets.  An affidavit filed with the search warrant that authorized the raid,  however,  said Garner is known to the USDA as  a breeder of pit bull dogs sold to dogfighters.

“Veterinary records found during the investigation indicate Pearce had several dogs treated for injuries consistent with those inflicted in organized dogfighting,  the search warrant says.  Garner paid those bills,  according to the warrant.”

Yet Garner was only charged with not licensing the pit bulls on his property.  Two pit bulls were held as evidence.  The rest remained on chains.

Garner kept 71 of the pit bulls,  after paying $2,026 in fines.

Stoney Greene.  (Facebook photo)

Outing Stoney Greene pushes federal FIGHT Act

Animal Wellness Action president Wayne Pacelle took the opportunity of outing Stoney Greene to remind one and all that,  “Congress is now considering the FIGHT Act,  H.R. 2742 and S. 1529,  to crack down on dogfighting and cockfighting in a more determined way.

“With more bipartisan support than any other animal welfare bill in this Congress,”  Pacelle said,  “the FIGHT Act has nearly 500 endorsing agencies and organizations,  including 200 law enforcement agencies.”

The FIGHT Act,  Pacelle explained,  “would strengthen existing federal law against dogfighting and cockfighting by allowing a private right of action against dogfighters and cockfighting,  ban on-line gambling on animal fights,  allow for criminal forfeiture of equipment and properties used in the commission of these crimes,  and enhance prohibitions on shipping fighting roosters through the U.S. mail.”

Victor Varela.  (Facebook photo)

Cockfighter tried to blackmail mayor

Stoney Greene is not the first Wilkes County political candidate to be allegedly involved in animal fighting,  even in relatively recent years.

Victor Varela,  for 13 years the mayor of the Wilkes County town of Ronda,  in 2013 sued former Wilkes county commissioner Kevin Reece,  an admitted cockfighter,  for alleging that Varela was “part of an international cockfighting ring” and for allegedly hiring a local teenager to plant marijuana in Varela’s home.

A local jury in June 2014 awarded Victor Varela and his wife Teri $25,000 in compensatory damages.

Explained Wilkes Journal-Patriot writer Frances Hayes,  “Reece hoped to blackmail Varela into resigning as mayor and to stop pushing for a rooster ordinance.  Reece raises roosters and has said he exports roosters internationally for cockfighting.  Raising roosters is not illegal,  but cockfighting is in North Carolina.”

(Beth Clifton collage)

Reason to vote against any pit bull breeder

Regardless of a candidate’s involvement in animal fighting,  North Carolina voters in general and Wilkes County voters in particular might have a more immediate and personal reason for not wanting to elect a known pit bull breeder to public office.

Thirteen North Carolinians have been killed by pit bulls and one by a Rottweiler since 2017.

Beth & Merritt Clifton

One of those victims,  rural Wilkes County resident Mildred Catherine Vaughan,  89,  was killed by three pit bulls,  identified as a female with two half-grown puppies,  while walking to her mailbox on August 21,  2021.

Five years earlier,  on August 18,  2016,  two pit bulls nearly killed another Wilkes County resident,  Sharilyn Owens of North Wilkesboro.

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