Petition: He Pleaded Guilty to Animal Cruelty in 2024. In 2026 Police Took 58 More Dogs From His Properties.

The detail that should make South Carolina uncomfortable is not the 58 dogs. It is that one of the three men arrested had been here before. In June 2023, Jemar Dwight Chestnut was served with 29 counts of ill treatment of animals and 36 counts of harboring animals for fighting after investigators reported finding 36 American pit bull terriers and dogfighting evidence at a property near Wampee. He pleaded guilty and served jail time for misdemeanour ill treatment of animals in January 2024. On July 17, 2026, Horry County Police and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division executed search warrants at properties on Rainbow Drive, Sunny Heights Road and Bay Lane near Longs, acting on an anonymous community tip. They removed 58 dogs, 19 from the first two properties and 39 from Bay Lane. Chestnut, 44, now faces 33 counts of felony ill treatment of animals, 26 counts of animal fighting or baiting, and a firearms count, and is held on $160,000 bond. Jachym Evans, 20, and Themontres Livingston, 24, each face criminal conspiracy. Please sign the petition demanding a lifetime ban on animal ownership for anyone convicted.

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Jess Wnuk, executive director of the Grand Strand Humane Society, said the thing that actually needs saying about this case: South Carolina has no law preventing people convicted of animal cruelty from owning animals again. That is the entire gap. Investigators had been watching these properties since April, and warrants describe dirty water bowls, no food, dogs covered in faeces, inadequate housing, heavy chains, and pit bulls with visible scarring consistent with fighting. One dog was recorded tethered on a ten-foot chain in forecast 85-degree heat with no shelter, on swampy ground. Several were emaciated with ribs showing through the skin. All three men are charged and none convicted, and each is presumed innocent. But the pattern in the public record is what a lifetime ownership ban is designed to interrupt: a 2023 case, a misdemeanour plea, jail time, and dozens of dogs seized again three years later. Dogfighting is a felony in all 50 states and can carry up to five years in federal prison, yet the state-level consequence that would keep animals out of the same hands simply does not exist here. The 58 dogs are with a North Carolina rescue organisation receiving veterinary treatment and behavioural assessment, and police say more arrests may follow. One Green Planet has covered the recovery of dogs taken from these operations in 10 amazing stories of dogs rescued from fighting rings, and the charges are reported by WPDE. This began with one anonymous tip.

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