SLED rescues 24 pit bulls, charges Orangeburg County man in dog fighting case

ORANGEBURG COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division charged an Orangeburg County man in an investigation into suspected animal fighting involving two dozen dogs.

Christopher Corbitt, 53, is charged with animal fighting or baiting and ill treatment of animals, according to SLED spokesperson Renée Wunderlich.

A booking photo of Corbitt was not immediately available.

SLED agents rescued 24 pit bull-type dogs that had various scarring and open wounds consistent with dogfighting from what agents called inhumane living conditions that included being restrained with heavy logging chains, Wunderlich says.

Court affidavits state SLED received surveillance video from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department’s Aviation Unit showed a dog with a makeshift shelter consisting of a piece of wood leaning against a fence. Numerous other dogs were seen months later with “inadequate housing and restrained with heavy chains from another surveillance flight,” the document states.

With help from the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, SLED seized nearly 1.2 ounces of meth, 24 grams of cocaine, a quarter kilo of fentanyl powder, THC vape cartridges, five oxycodone pills, two handguns, four vehicles, an electronic currency counting machine and $22,421 in cash, Wunderlich said.

Corbitt was booked into the Orangeburg County Detention Center.