By now, the sight of the mangled dog, “Lucky,” has become familiar to both readers of North Alabama newspapers and viewers of local newscasts.

For one group of Athens Middle School students the sight is especially disturbing. Sherry McEwen’s seventh grade Gifted and Talented Civics class has gone on the stump to get local animal cruelty laws strengthened to make sure those who engage in dog fighting are punished.

They have developed a PowerPoint presentation titled: Project P.E.A.C.E., which stands for “People Eliminating Animal Cruelty Everywhere.”

Athens Middle School teacher Linda McClary, who contacted The News Courier about presentations the group made to the Athens City Council and Limestone County Commission, said the students’ goal is more than seeing the guilty punished. They want to educate people about the horrors of this blood sport.

“They want to educate the young so they know that it is not right to get into this,” said McClary on Monday after the County Commission meeting. The students visited several elementary school classes on Monday to make their presentation.

For those unfamiliar with the story of Lucky, the young mixed-breed dog was found by a passerby in a Decatur trash receptacle in February. When discovered, he was squirming his way out of a black plastic garbage bag with his snout duct-taped shut.

Decatur authorities theorized the dog, whose mangled right front leg had to be amputated by veterinarian Steve Osborne, was used as bait to train pit bulls to fight.

Osborne, who treated the animal at his clinic for free, started a reward fund to find Lucky’s abuser and the fund grew to some $16,000, and the reward led to a tip.

Lucky’s former owner, Samuel Bernard Sanders, 26, turned himself in to authorities in mid-March after a Morgan County grand jury indicted him on felony animal cruelty and misdemeanor perjury charges. He was released on $26,500 bond.

Associated Press reports quote Decatur Police as saying that Sanders admitted to leaving Lucky—whom he had named Rocky—in the trash bin, but denied dog-fighting. Sanders told police that he taped Lucky’s snout to keep him quiet, stuffed him in a garbage bag and dumped him in the bin after his other dog, a pit bull, mauled him.

Police said that Sanders’ method of disposing of Lucky was cruel, but they have no hard evidence that he was using him for a bait dog.

McClary said increasing awareness among children too young to realize the gravity of dog fighting is especially important. She said that an unnamed student told her he had witnessed dog fighting. “He described in detail how they dug the pit where the dogs fight,” she said.

McClary also said that the student told her that the bare spot seen on Lucky’s forehead could have been caused from an acid burn and not a bite.

“He said they pour battery acid on the dogs to part them,” she said.

Enforcement Officer Ron Ultz, who for many years has served as Athens animal control officer, told of finding an empty house in the city that was obviously used for dog-fighting.

“It was an abandoned house down at the end of the street with brush grown up all around it,” said Ultz. “They had taken the doors down and stood them on their sides around the living room walls with carpeting in the middle to make a pit.”

The students in Project P.E.A.C.E. found in their research that state statutes make it a Class C felony to both engage in dog-fighting and to be a spectator at such an event. The students, however, want to see local Athens’ ordinances strengthened from a misdemeanor to a felony for being a spectator.

Police Chief Wayne Harper said such laws would have to be enacted by the state Legislature, but that current state law also covers those discovered conducting dog-fights or being spectators within a municipality.

“We would charge them under state law,” said Harper. “As a matter of fact, most of the cases that we make are under state law and not city ordinances. Most traffic cases are under state law and are not in conflict with city ordinances.”

McClary said that those residents who would like to help further the Project P.E.A.C.E. efforts may send contributions to Athens Middle School, 601 S. Clinton St., Athens, Ala., 35611.