A Lancaster city man on trial for allegedly converting his home into a fight training center for pit bulls and cocks denied the charges in court Wednesday, calling himself a frustrated entrepreneur who dabbled in dog breeding to make extra money.

Ivan Ruiz Rivera, 36, testified before jurors for about five hours Wednesday during the second day of his felony trial on charges of owning or possessing animals for fighting and summary cruelty to animals.

Assistant District Attorney Christine L. Wilson contends Rivera operated the crude training facility for years while using more than a dozen pit bulls to compete in deadly fights for money.

Defense attorney Robert Bacher countered with claims that all of the equipment, dogs and fowl Rivera kept in his home at 535 S. Lime St. were legal and no witnesses have placed him at a dog or cock fight.

Rivera attempted Wednesday to explain to jurors how he came to possess the three pit bulls, 30 chicks, treadmill converted for dogs, animal fighting publications, training logs, video, performance-enhancing drugs and syringes that humane officers confiscated from his home in May 2006.

"I've always liked animals," Ruiz said. "My idea was to breed dogs and make a little money.

"I have a lot of ideas to make money but don't always follow through on them."

Rivera, a single father of three young children, is a $12-an-hour certified nursing assistant and maintenance technician at a Lancaster nursing home.

He said he aspired to earn a living as a veterinarian, chicken restaurant chef and dog breeder but could never make it happen.

The dog-breeding ambition led Rivera to purchase American bulldogs.

The female bulldog gave birth, but several of the puppies were afflicted with parvovirus, a disease that attacks and kills intestinal cells, causing diarrhea. In very young puppies it can infect the heart muscle and lead to sudden death.

"From one day to the next they were dying," Rivera testified. "I tried to do something because it was real bad. The smell of the diarrhea was terrible."

Rivera said he purchased medicines and supplements from local animal supply stores and over the Internet to treat the parvovirus. He injected the animals with supplements such as vitamin B-12 and exercised the dogs on the treadmill.

"I couldn't afford to pay for the dogs to go to the vet so I treated them myself," Rivera said. "I wanted to save them so I would be able to sell them."

After most of the puppies died, Rivera obtained pit bulls with fighting blood lines, including one he said he bought for $50 from a man in the parking lot of a York fast food restaurant.

"I didn't get the dogs to fight," Rivera said. "It just seemed that those were the type that people were most interested in buying."

Rivera said he watched a pit bull fighting training video, read articles on the sport, wrote an eight-week training plan, paid $550 for a used dog treadmill and collected animal fighting publications mostly to satisfy his curiosity.

He said he attended cock fights while visiting relatives in Puerto Rico and took notes on which roosters won but never participated.

Investigators found cock fighting publications and a placard in his home that read "My Sport is the Roosters" in Spanish.

"All these items together might appear that you were engaged in animal fighting," Wilson said. "It could appear that someone is training animals to fight."

Rivera said he purchased 30 chicks from an auction in Manheim. The chicks were kept in a cage near his bed and he planned to raise and sell them for profit.

"I just like baby chicks," Rivera said. "They were cute. I just fed them, looked at them peck, eat and move around the cages."

City police Sgt. Robert Means and Officer Jonathan Caple testified Tuesday they discovered the pit bulls, roosters, drugs and training equipment May 27, 2006, while trying to arrest Rivera on charges he violated a protection-from-abuse order.

Means called Farm Sanctuary of Pennsylvania Officer Keith Mohler and Organization for Responsible Care of Animals Officer Debra Lort to investigate possible animal-cruelty crimes.

When Mohler and Lort arrived later that afternoon, they found Rivera and called police.

Rivera was arrested on the protection-from-abuse order charge, and authorities raided his residence, according to testimony. The pit bulls and rooster chicks were seized that day.

Mohler obtained a search warrant for the training equipment and steroids.

Lort testified Tuesday three pit bulls were behind the house in a dirt yard littered with urine and feces when she and Mohler searched the residence.

She said one of the dogs had numerous scars and another had a fresh bloody wound.

Rivera said Wednesday the pit bull with scars was injured during a fight with a neighbor's dog. The fresh cut on the other pit bull happened earlier that day while the animal was playing with another dog, he said.

If convicted of all charges, Rivera faces a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison and a $15,000 fine. The trial before Judge Joseph C. Madenspacher is the first in county history for felony animal fighting.

E-mail: blovelace@lnpnews.com