Finnish authorities to consider prosecution

TEN FINNISH citizens have been cited as suspects by Finland’s National of Investigation, the country’s central criminal police arm, of involvement in illegal dog fights in Southern Finland. All those who have been interviewed by police are Finnish, and have connections with one another and to other dog fighting circles in Scandinavia and possibly also in Russia.

The individuals, who live in the south of the country, are suspected of animal cruelty offences. Dog-owners and others are among those under suspicion.

The police have investigated between four and six dogfights that have apparently been arranged within a small circle of people around the area. The case will be considered for formal prosecution by the end of October.

One of the dog breeders featured in the programme - which in its Finnish version used pixellated faces and did not broadcast the names of those persons involved in Finland, due to strict Finnish privacy laws - denied the accusations to the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat in the early hours of Friday morning.