Police rescue 24 abused dogs, recover drugs and weapons at Midlands home, SLED says

An Orangeburg County man is facing numerous charges after a search of his property turned up drugs, weapons and two-dozen ill-treated dogs, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

Christopher Corbitt, 53, was arrested Wednesday after SLED’s dog fighting unit executed a search warrant at his Springfield home and found evidence of dog fighting and drug trafficking, SLED said in a statement.

In addition to finding 24 pit-bull type dogs, SLED agents, assisted by the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office, Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, located more than a pound of methamphetamine, 24 grams of cocaine, a quarter kilo of fentanyl powder, THC vape cartridges, five oxycodone pills, two handguns, four vehicles and $22,421 in cash during the search, SLED said in a statement.

Corbitt, whom court records show has a 2023 cocaine trafficking case pending in Barnwell County, was charged Thursday with animal fighting or baiting, ill treatment of animals and a host of other drug and weapons charges.

The ill treatment of animals charge stems from a July 11 surveillance flight conducted by the Richland County Sheriff’s Department’s aviation unit, which captured footage of a dog on Corbitt’s property that was being housed in a makeshift shelter that consisted of a piece of wood leaning against a fence, an arrest warrant shows. A subsequent surveillance flight, conducted October 2, recorded numerous other inadequately housed dogs that were being restrained with heavy chains, according to the warrant.

The 24 dogs recovered from Corbitt’s home, which had open wounds and scarring consistent with dogfighting, were rescued with the assistance of South Carolina shelters, SLED said in a statement.

This story was originally published October 17, 2025 at 12:14 PM.