No one met the court deadline of 5 p.m. for claiming ownership of any of the dogs removed from NFL quarterback Michael Vick's property this spring.

However, a Baltimore man said his four stolen dogs may be among the 52 animals still held in animal shelters around eastern Virginia.

Robert Beno said by telephone from Baltimore that he left voice-mail messages late in the afternoon at the U.S. District Court clerk's office and the U.S. attorney's office, both in Richmond. He said he learned about the deadline only yesterday and made those calls before 5 p.m.

Beno said in September that someone made off with four puppies from a litter of his pet mixed-breed pit bull. He has been working with local police and federal agencies trying to find his dogs ever since.

Beno said the law-enforcement officials told him the puppies may have been stolen by a dogfighter or someone intending to sell them to a dogfighter.

All the dogs on the Vick property at 1915 Moonlight Road in Surry County were removed April 25, the day authorities executed a search warrant and found evidence the place was a dogfighting kennel and training complex.

Vick and three of his associates have since been indicted on a conspiracy dogfighting charge. The associates have pleaded guilty, and Vick is scheduled to do so Monday.

The U.S. attorney's office filed a civil complaint, separate from the criminal charge, asking the court to make the United States the owner of the dogs. They are in the custody of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Authorities said they hope to arrange a better fate for the Vick dogs than that of many pit bulls seized from dogfighters -- being humanely put to death in an animal shelter. Instead, authorities hope many of the dogs from Vick's property can live out their lives at animal refuges set up to handle dogs who have been brutally abused.

According to a memorandum filed yesterday in the civil complaint, two of the seized dogs died in a shelter. That brings the number of dogs to 52 -- 26 males and 26 females.
Contact Tom Campbell at (804) 649-6416 or tcampbell@timesdispatch.com.