(Beth Clifton collage)
Two cases 20 years apart involved 418 pit bulls between them
MUSKOGEE, Oklahoma––The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma on March 25, 2025 unsealed a grand jury indictment charging former National Football League player Leshon Eugene Johnson, 58, with “possessing 190 pit bull-type dogs for use in an animal fighting venture, and for selling, transporting, and delivering a dog for use in an animal fighting venture,” according to a U.S. Department of Justice media release.
“Johnson, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, made his initial appearance in court last week,” the Department of Justice release said.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Most pits impounded from one person in a federal case
“Federal authorities seized the 190 dogs from Johnson in October 2024, as authorized under the Animal Welfare Act. This is believed to be the largest number of dogs ever seized from a single person in a federal dog fighting case,” the Department of Justice media release continued.
However, 225 pit bulls were impounded from Leshon Johnson and multiple other defendants in related cases in a series of raids between May 25 and July 9, 2004.
Leshon Johnson pleaded guilty to state animal fighting charges then, but successfully contested additional charges.
Leshon Johnson required purchasers of his pit bulls to sign this declaimer of intent to fight them. (Mal Kant Kennels pdf.)
“Mal Kant Kennels”
“According to court documents,” the Department of Justice media release specified, “Johnson ran a dog fighting operation known as ‘Mal Kant Kennels’ in both Broken Arrow and Haskell, Oklahoma. He previously ran ‘Krazyside Kennels’ also out of Oklahoma, which led to his guilty plea on state animal fighting charges in 2004.
“Johnson selectively bred ‘champion’ and ‘grand champion’ fighting dogs,” the Department of Justice media release detailed, explaining that in dogfighting terminology, a “champion” is a dog who has won three fights to the death; a grand champion has won five such fights.
“Johnson marketed and sold stud rights and offspring from winning fighting dogs to other dog fighters looking to incorporate the Mal Kant Kennels ‘bloodline’ into their own dog fighting operations.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Contributed to the growth of the dog fighting industry”
“His trafficking of fighting dogs to other dog fighters across the country contributed to the growth of the dog fighting industry and allowed Johnson to profit financially,” the Department of Justice media release charged.
“Under federal law,” the Department of Justice media release detailed, “it is illegal to fight dogs in a venture that effects interstate commerce and to possess, train, transport, deliver, sell, purchase, or receive dogs for fighting purposes.
“If convicted, Johnson faces a maximum penalty on each count of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.”
U.S. attorney general Pam Bondi, agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins, & Donald Trump. (Instagram photo)
Manufactured quotes
The Department of Justice media release also supplied manufactured quotes from U.S. attorney general Pam Bondi, FBI director Kash Patel, acting assistant attorney general Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment & Natural Resources Division, and Christopher J. Wilson, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
Pledged Bondi, who has for 20 years cultivated an image as an animal advocate, but whose department has not previously prosecuted a high-profile animal-related case in the two months since her appointment, “The Department of Justice will prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law and will remain committed to protecting innocent animals from those who would do them harm.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Intensified federal efforts against animal fighting?
Seconded Patel, “The FBI will not tolerate criminals who harm innocent animals for their twisted form of entertainment. The FBI views animal cruelty investigations as a precursor to larger, organized crime efforts, similar to trafficking and homicides.”
This might signify intensified federal efforts against cockfighting, increasing often subject to county-and-state-level prosecutions, under sustained investigative pressure from Showing Animals Respect & Kindness and Animal Wellness Action.
Gustafson reminded that, “Dog fighting is illegal, and courts have upheld its prosecution time and again.”
Wilson applauded “the investigative work of the FBI and the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division in detecting and dismantling breeding operations” serving the dogfighting industry.
The actual prosecutors of the case against Leshon Johnson will be Justice Department trial lawyers Sarah Brown and Ethan Eddy, with assistant U.S. attorney Jordan Howanitz.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Dogfighting is a social crime”
Exploded Animal Wellness Action president Wayne Pacelle, who indirectly tangled with Leshon Johnson 20 years earlier, “What the hell was ex-NFL player Leshon Johnson thinking about running a massive dogfighting operation outside of Tulsa?
“Dogfighting is a social crime; others are involved as organizers, referees, and spectators,” Pacelle reminded, citing the case along with recent cockfighting busts in support of his ongoing efforts to pass the federal FIGHT Act, short for the “Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking Act.”
Introduced in May 2023, the FIGHT Act died with the end of legislative business in the 118th Congress, ended in January 2025, but is expected to be reintroduced soon into the current 119th Congress.
Leshon Johnson. (Beth Clifton collage)
“Cruelty-to-animals addict”
Leshon Johnson “was convicted of this same crime in 2005,” Pacelle recalled, “but is apparently a cruelty-to-animals addict. The U.S. should throw the book at him for his sickening crimes,” Pacelle said.
Sixth in the 1993 Heisman Trophy voting after leading the U.S. in rushing at Northern Illinois University, Johnson played professionally for the Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals, and New York Giants, finishing up in the short-lived XFL, whose style of play was modeled on TV wrestling.
Leshon Johnson was first arrested for dogfighting in 2000, but prosecution that time was deferred on condition that he give up his pit bulls and stay away from dogfights.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Three-time loser
Four years later, Leshon Johnson, his girlfriend Shevetta Lee, his brother Luther Johnson Jr., and Luther Johnson Jr.’s girlfriend Camille Gann were allegedly found in possession of 68 of the 225 pit bulls impounded in the raids undertaken between May 25 and July 9, 2004, mostly in Holdenville and Wetumka, Oklahoma.
More than thirty people in all were charged with related offenses, reported Anthony Thornton of The Okalahoman.
All charges against Shevetta Lee were dropped in December 2004. Lee then sought to reclaim 50-odd pit bulls who remained in custody at the Tulsa Animal Shelter, but the pit bulls remained at the shelter as of November 2005, at cost to Tulsa taxpayers of more than $126,000, shelter director Larry Briggs testified.
Camille June Gann, 1952-2017.
Woman took stiffest rap
Briggs and Humane Society of the U.S. representative Ann Chynoweth further testified that the pit bulls were far too dangerous to rehome, but all eventually were rehomed to the Johnsons and Lee.
Luther Johnson meanwhile twice in four months beat racketeering raps.
Leshon Johnson, despite his previous conviction, again received a deferred sentence.
Camille June Gann, convicted of hosting dogfights in her greenhouse, to which LeShon Johnson and Luther Johnson Jr. allegedly brought dogs, in December 2005 was sentenced to serve seven years in prison plus eight years on probation.
Merritt & Beth Clifton with Henry the rooster.
Gann was still on probation at her death in September 2017.
(See also 15 years ago Michael Vick’s pit bulls killed the humane movement.)
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