"If horse racing is the sport of kings, then dogfighting is the sport of thugs, crooks and monsters," Attorney General Henry McMaster said Thursday in announcing a public-private venture aimed at one of South Carolina's hidden problems.

The attorney general's office will team up with the State Law Enforcement Division and several state humanitarian groups to staff and fund a task force, which initially will include one SLED agent and an assistant attorney general dedicated to investigating and prosecuting dogfighting cases.

The task force will work with local law enforcement to investigate crimes.

"In our current time of budgetary restraint, we don't have the money to start many new programs," McMaster said. "So we put together a group to pay for it."

Sandra Senn, a Charleston attorney and board member of the John Ancrum Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, is in charge of raising private funds for the task force.

Senn said she has a goal of raising $110,000 to fund the program for the first three years, $45,000 of which already has been raised. Senn said another $10,000 is needed to get the program started.

Any money confiscated in dog-fighting-related crimes will be used to continue the program.

"Humanitarian groups recognize that with law enforcement budgets being cut, we need to step forward to fill the gap," Senn said.

Dogfighting is illegal in all 50 states. Participating in dogfighting in South Carolina is a felony, punishable by five years in prison or a $5,000 fine. It's also against the law to attend a dogfight.

Law enforcement officials say there has been an increase in dogfights, which they say usually involve people who traffic in weapons and drugs.

Officials say the fights range from spur-of-the-moment street corner battles to highly organized matches at which thousands of dollars may change hands as people bet on their favorite dogs. The dogs used in the fights are sometimes given steroids and are always trained to kill. Their life expectancy is short.

Even the survivors often meet an untimely end in animal shelters because they are too aggressive to adopt, officials say.

South Carolina ranks in the top five states where animal fighting occurs, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Rural areas are often hot spots, but according to law enforcement, even urban areas such as Charleston are home to the practice.

"It's definitely a problem in the Lowcountry," said Charleston County Sheriff's Capt. Dana Valentine. "All you have to do is look at all of the arrests that have occurred in the last year and all of the dogs that have been seized and the injuries they have suffered by being forced into this type of activity."

In September, sheriff's deputies arrested four people and seized a wounded pit bull after breaking up a match in McClellanville. In July, a Charleston man was charged with harboring three pit bulls for fighting. A month earlier, animal cruelty investigators seized four scarred pit bulls from a North Charleston home with a blood-covered room that appeared to have been used for training or fighting matches.

"A lot of times these things go unnoticed by the public because they take place in secluded, rural areas where most people never travel," Valentine said. "It's a sad ending for these animals because a lot of times they are forced to fight to the death."

In July, Charleston County authorities and animal advocates launched a campaign to end dogfighting in the Lowcountry.

Reward money was offered to get people to help authorities catch and convict those involved. The SPCA also sponsored a public service announcement in which Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon urged people to report dogfights.

Alan Berger, executive director of the SPCA, said the campaign has generated calls from the public, but dogfighting remains a "catastrophic" problem in the Lowcountry and throughout South Carolina.

SPCA board members worked with McMaster to establish the task force and enlist support from other animal shelters in South Carolina, Berger said.

"This is a significant problem throughout the state ... You see it everywhere," he said. "It really is so prevalent, and it will require a task force and a really heavy effort statewide to ... stop this horrific practice."

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