KY: Dog Warden Charged with Animal Cruelty

This video depicts a dog in obvious need of veterinary care (long overdue). It was allegedly shot inside the Webster County dog pound in KY. The conditions the surrounding dogs are living in are evident in the clip. After seeing the video and some photographs, the local TV station went to the pound with the KY state police. The dog warden, John Dunn, did not want the camera crew inside the pound and seemed to know who his friends in high places were right away:

Dunn: "You probably need to talk to the judge executive. Or the county attorney."

NEWS 25: "Okay, you can't tell us anything about those wounds on the dog, or the video that we saw?"

Dunn: "I'm not collaborating on none of it."

Good to know. The news crew pressed on:

The outside pens reek of urine and feces...we see it in the cages. Food and water bowls are too high for little dogs. One of the older dogs won't stop whimpering

NEWS 25: "You're saying there's nothing going on in here?"

Dunn: "No. I try to help every dog I can help. I mean I don't know who put this out on the Internet, that's just dirt. They're trying to pull up a lot of problems."

[...]

"People's getting real nosey, than what they should be. Because they don't know what goes on in this facility," Dunn says.

The judge executive never returned our call or acknowledged our request to go inside the pound.

Based on what the KY state police saw inside the pound, one count of animal cruelty - a misdemeanor in KY - was filed against the warden. And it seems he does indeed know who his friends are:

Judge Executive Townsend said that he has no plans to remove John Dunn as dog warden.

And in fact:

One day after NEWS 25 broke the story, we decided to head back to Webster County, to question the Judge Executive about the dog pound. Thursday, Kentucky State Police charged John Dunn, the county's dog warden, with animal cruelty. A day later, the Judge Executive told us it's all a mistake.

Judge Executive Jim Townsend stands by Dunn, calling him the best warden Webster County has ever seen.

The BFFs gave their side of the story to the local news:

"We need a new facility," Webster County Judge Executive Jim Townsend said. "We know that, but we just don't have the finances to do it."

The pound only has eight pens, and many are filled with several dogs.

Also, at the entrance to the facility, there are two large freezers holding dead animals.

"When you come into the door, the first thing you see is a freezer," Dunn said. "That is no good, I know that."

"That is a disturbing thing," Townsend said.

You know what else is disturbing? The Good Ol' Boys Club in the South. Just sayin'.

Compassionate members of the community are pooling resources to try and help the dogs at the pound.

"I know what the caged bird feels"

In this terrible economy, I'm inclined to feel sympathy for anyone who gets evicted from his home and has to move to another city. He's obviously not moving by choice and who knows why he was evicted - maybe he just fell on hard times financially.

In the case of someone who has 7 Pitbulls (a male, a female and a litter of 5 pups), that's going to be a tough situation. I can't think of many landlords who would be eager to accept a tenant who's bringing along a reproducing pair of Pitbulls and their current offspring. In fact, I'd wager many friends and relatives would feel the same way. In a case like this, networking online, reaching out to local rescues and placing ads in area papers to place the dogs might all be options. And if nothing works out, there is always your local shelter. This is what animal shelters are for. But a NJ man by the name of Keifan Thomas had a different idea when he was faced with these circumstances this Winter.

Mr. Thomas packed up the plantation and chained his adult male dog to the fence, stuffed the dam into a small metal cage and let the puppies roam around the trash in the yard. In Winter. In New Jersey. Three weeks later, a neighboring business called animal control who picked up the dogs. The dam was, of course, dead in her cage. The other dogs survived and were adopted at the shelter. That's the good news.

Mr. Thomas pleaded guilty to 4 counts of animal cruelty and received - can you guess? - a suspended jail sentence. On the plus side, he did receive a substantial fine. An AC officer noted that “Mr. Thomas appeared to be sympathetic” - Right. I'm guessing he sympathized with himself for getting caught and for having to pay a fine. It's hard to imagine him having any sympathy for the dogs, which is like the whole point. I assume he'll be getting another dog (or dogs) sometime soon since the article makes no mention of Mr. Thomas being barred from owning pets.

The AC officer said he hopes Mr. Thomas has learned a lesson. I hope so too and I like to think everyone deserves a second chance blah blah blah. It's hard though. Stuffing the dam into a little metal cage in freezing temperatures - that would be cruel if he'd done it for an hour. He did it until that poor dog died. She suffered while her puppies ambled through trash around her cage, probably crying for their mama. I can imagine the male, alert barking until he was hoarse, chained to the fence. It's a real stretch to think of someone who would do that to his own pets being in any way "sympathetic".


Sympathy

I know what the caged bird feels.
Ah me, when the sun is bright on the upland slopes,
when the wind blows soft through the springing grass
and the river floats like a sheet of glass,
when the first bird sings and the first bud ops,
and the faint perfume from its chalice steals.
I know what the caged bird feels.

I know why the caged bird beats his wing
till its blood is red on the cruel bars,
for he must fly back to his perch and cling
when he fain would be on the bow aswing.
And the blood still throbs in the old, old scars
and they pulse again with a keener sting.
I know why he beats his wing.

I know why the caged bird sings.
Ah, me, when its wings are bruised and its bosom sore.
It beats its bars and would be free.
It's not a carol of joy or glee,
but a prayer that it sends from its heart's deep core,
a plea that upward to heaven it flings.
I know why the caged bird sings.

- Paul Laurence Dunbar

Mississippi, Misdemeanors & Miscreants

Alonzo Esco, the MS animal control officer who was fired after it was discovered he was shooting pets and dumping them in a creek instead of taking them to the shelter, will not be getting a slap on the wrist from the judicial system. Because he'll be whistling dixie instead:

Canton Police Chief Vickie McNeill, however, said she will not authorize her investigator to file the paperwork [to bring charges] because no one saw any crimes occurring.

Mr. Esco was the sole animal control officer in Canton for 3 years. It is believed he shot pets and dumped them in multiple sites, including a creek near a shooting range where over 100 carcasses were found. These crimes would only be misdemeanors in MS and as such, require witnesses:

"There are standards regarding a felony, and there are standards regarding a misdemeanor," McNeill said. "By the standards of a misdemeanor, you must actually see the crime in action to file an affidavit.

The message to anyone collecting a paycheck off MS taxpayers to shelter the communities' pets is this: Feel free to not only ignore your duties but to cruelly and illegally kill the pets you are being paid to shelter. Because in MS, we just don't give a flying fuck about our communities' pets.

30 Blows to the Head A-OK for Your Not Fancy Dog

"Sire", a Bulldog puppy in Sioux City, peed on the carpet last June. He peed on the carpet because his owner had fed him several bowls of beer and then didn't take him out to pee. By way of accepting responsibility for his own bad judgment and mistakes, the owner beat the puppy to death in front of his friends:

[The owner, Bobby Loggins] straddled the pup and restrained it with one hand while using the other to repeatedly strike blows to the dog’s head. He then picked Sire up by his ears and tail and took him outside through a back door.

Witnesses said (and later testified) that when Loggins eventually brought the puppy back into the house and placed it on the kitchen floor, that the brown and white pup was bleeding from the mouth and nose, shaking and unable to move.

“To me it looked like the dog was paralyzed,” [Chad] Peterson stated. “He was shaking. It looked like convulsions. He was coughing up blood.”

[...]

Guest Kollin Jones said he’d witnessed Loggins rubbing the dog’s nose into the carpet before pinning it down to inflict additional punches.
[...]
Loggins was charged with animal torture, though Iowa’s current animal cruelty/torture laws allowed no more than aggravated misdemeanor charges being filed in his case, which carried a sentence of up to just two years in prison and a $6,000 fine. On June 18, 2009, Loggins pleaded not guilty to inflicting the 30 blows to Sire’s head that caused the puppy’s death.

Loggins was found guilty by judge Gary Wenell in January who noted the "depravity and sadism" of the crime. The same judge imposed a fine of $650 and sentenced Mr. Loggins to a month in jail, with credit for time served. And this makes sense because, in the judge's words:

"The dog was his own. It was not some valuable fancy show dog belonging to another. It was not a neighbor boy's pet dog. It was an elderly person's companion. We do not have a statewide problem with this kind of a crime."

Let that be a warning to you depraved and sadistic dog torturers in Sioux City - Do not beat someone else's puppy to death - only your own puppy is appropriate for punching in the head until he's dead. If you do beat someone else's puppy to death, you may have to stand before Judge Wenell and believe me, he could potentially have a vaguely disapproving look on his face and cast it in your general direction. And I don't think you want to deal with that. So remember, torture your own puppy to death and we're good.

Another Cat Killer Gets No Jail Time

Remember this guy's name. I think we'll be hearing from him again.

Raymond Bagaybagayan [...] pleaded guilty in Rolling Meadows [IL] branch court to animal torture.

The 22 year old man beat 2 cats so severely last year they had to be euthanized. A third cat "suffered injuries after he sprayed a lime dissolving liquid in its face". The sentence? Probation and community service. As I say, we'll be hearing this name again - probably sooner rather than later.

Ernest Alexander Waives Extradition

The fired Director of the Memphis Animal Shelter will be returned to TN to face felony animal cruelty charges after waiving extradition in NM. Albuquerque police arrested Ernest Alexander last week on a fugitive-from-justice warrant and he has been held without bond since. He is presumably being given food and water and therefore in much better shape than the pets he was paid nearly $100,000 a year by TN taxpayers to protect.

A commenter at the article linked above had this to say:

I have personally stood in the back "general population" kennels with Mr. Alexander as he relayed to me their need for a new facility and his desire to obtain successful adoptions rather than euthanasias. I have no idea how much of that was lip service or not, but I do know that the dog we originally went to get was already put down by the time we got there, and that the dog we did get came to us with pneumonia and ulcers on his gums, weighing 19 lbs. instead of a more appropriate 25-30. I only have a BA in Art History, but I can figure out how to not put a 4 mo. old puppy in with a 4 year old German Shepherd and expect them to share their food. Suffice it to say, Mr. Alexander knew what was going down.

Cruelty is Not a Color

Former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton is campaigning for Congress. It was on his watch that the Memphis Animal Shelter abused and starved pets to death. But he thinks the indictment of 3 former shelter employees on cruelty charges is just dumb. And besides, they only got indicted because they're black:

He referred specifically to Friday’s word that three Memphis Animal Shelter employees, including former shelter director Ernest Alexander, had been indicted on state animal cruelty charges. Alexander, a Herenton appointee, was the first administration casualty when A C Wharton Jr. became mayor in October.“This so called justice system of ours – they are about to send three black people to jail about some dogs,” Herenton said.

And to clarify, when Herenton says "about some dogs", he means dogs that came in to the shelter healthy and waggy and ready for new homes but left as skin and bones in trash bags. And Herenton used taxpayer money to pay the shelter staff to do it. But yeah, the skin color of those involved is totally relevant.

Legal News

Nye Co, NV:

[Animal Control officer Tim] McCarty was able to convince the owners of FLOCK (For the Love of Cats and Kittens) to surrender ownership and custody of the some 700 or more cats to the county which, in turn, placed the animals in the care of a rescue organization, Best Friends Animal Society.
[...]
Nye County then filed charges of animal neglect against FLOCK for failure to provide food, water and veterinary care in violation of Nevada Rev. Statutes §574.100.

That was two years ago. The case comes up for trial this week.

***

Pennsylvania:

Holly Crawford, who inspired outrage in legions of animal lovers when her Pennsylvania home was raided and several pierced animals were seized in late 2008, has been convicted of animal cruelty.

Crawford, a dog groomer by trade, had been marketing so-called "gothic kittens" -- with piercings in their ears and necks -- for sale on the Internet auction site eBay.

Ms. Crawford was found guilty last week of animal cruelty. The prosecutor will seek a prison term of 12 - 18 months. Sentencing is scheduled for March 31.

***

Proposed legislation in NY called Oreo's Law, supported by many animal advocates but opposed by the ASPCA, has a website which includes responses to claims made by ASPCA in their opposition:

Oreo’s Law is based on nearly identical California legislation which has been in effect for over a decade. Despite similar dire predictions [that dangerous dogs will be released into communities] in California, there is no evidence this has occurred.

[...]

To oppose a law with such vast lifesaving potential for all animals entering a shelter based on dire predictions about aggressive dogs which have not materialized despite 11 years of experience in California is unethical and indefensible.

There is also an action page on the site with contact information.

Eight Beheaded Dogs Found in IN Creek

A grisly discovery in a creek in Madison Co, Indiana:

Sheriff Ron Richardson says, "Possibly Greyhounds. There are eight animals in the water. It looks like none have heads. Heads have been removed. We'll know more once we get them out of the water."
[...]
It's unclear how long the dogs were in the water. Blood still appears to be around the carcasses. And there may be more dog carcasses downstream.

I hope they can more definitively ID the breed because that will be useful to the investigation I would think. The Sheriff's Department is asking anyone with information on the case to contact them.

Memphis Animal Shelter Director News

Out with the old, in with the new:

Former Memphis Animal Shelter director Ernest Alexander was arrested on animal-cruelty charges at his Albuquerque apartment Friday night.

He had been reported to be on the lam most of the day following his indictment the previous day.

Police in New Mexico found Alexander at about 6:45 p.m. Central time after the Shelby County Sheriff's Office tracked him to his native state, said sheriff's office spokesman Steve Shular.

Shular said it was unclear whether the former director was in hiding, but he "was not surprised. He knew officers were looking for him, and he confirmed that when he was arrested."

Mr. Alexander will be returned to TN to face charges after extradition proceedings.

The shelter will finally get a new Director in a few weeks:

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton has named Matthew C. Pepper the new administrator of the troubled Memphis Animal Shelter.

Pepper, currently director of Caddo Parish Animal Services in Shreveport, La., will fill the post effective March 1.

[...]

Before Pepper took over Caddo in 2008, that shelter's director, veterinarian and two others were terminated amid accusations of mismanagement.

Government officials and animal-rights supporters at Caddo say Pepper was able to increase adoption rates and reduce euthanasia rates through community outreach programs.

Sounds promising. We'll be watching.

Slap on Wrist for AC Officer Who Pleaded Guilty to Killing Dogs

Hoosick, New York: [Note: one click only for free, after that subscription required]

As animal control officer, [Matthew] Beck should have taken loose or stray dogs that he picked up to a local animal shelter. Instead, Beck killed the dogs, disposed of their remains and then forged state documents and filed false reports to cover up.

And to be specific, he picked up dogs, shot them & tossed their bleeding bodies in a manure pile on his farm.

The good news: He was charged by authorities for his crimes and pleaded guilty. The bad news: Apparently he wasn't cruel enough to warrant any felony charges so he's getting off with two weekends in jail for misdemeanor offenses. So we're straight, I want to clarify that this man was paid to pick up loose dogs and take them to the shelter so they could be reunited with their owners or adopted by new owners if they had none. He was their only chance at life. Instead of doing his job, he shot these pets to death and tossed them in a shitpile. They never had a chance. I think I could have argued for the felony charges.

He ended up getting caught because one of the owners whose dogs he picked up complained to authorities:

The investigation of Beck began after Hoosick resident April Stevens accused him of stealing her dogs, two four-year old Golden Retriever-Rottweiller mixes, Abby and Ginger. Her dogs were never found.

[...]

Stevens said that Beck had told her he had picked up two dogs after a woman reported finding them but that they were of a different breed than hers and that he had returned them to their owner. The woman said that she had found the dogs in her barn where they had apparently sought shelter but that they had no collars or identification. She called the police who in turn called Beck. He picked up the dogs.

Beck’s story fell apart when the woman who had found the dogs saw a flyer with the dog’s pictures that Stevens was circulating in her efforts to find her dogs.

As part of their ongoing investigation, State Police executed a search warrant at Beck’s Eagle Bridge property and found the remains of dogs.

I'm sure Mr. Beck thinks it's totally stupid that he has to give up two weekends for shooting the pets he was paid to protect. Sadly, Ms. Stevens has to give up every weekend - and every weekday - with April and Ginger, who themselves had to give up everything.

Fugitive Alert for Former Memphis Animal Shelter Director

Ernest Alexander, the former Director of the troubled Memphis Animal Shelter has been indicted on six counts of aggravated animal cruelty after shelter dogs starved to death on his watch. He is on the lam and anyone with information as to his whereabouts is asked to contact the Fugitive Squad:

To contact the Shelby County Sheriff’s Fugitive Division, call 901-545-5625.

Brave enough to kill dogs but too scaredycat to face the music.

Also indicted was Tina Quattlebaum, an administrative supervisor at the shelter. She's been collecting weekly paychecks of $780 for the past three months while on suspension. Veterinarian Angela Middleton has been indicted on the same six counts of aggravated cruelty. She's been drawing a weekly paycheck of $1663 during her suspension. Both women turned themselves in and bonded out. The Mayor says he can now fire the suspended employees.

Meanwhile the investigation into the shelter's shady practices continues:

In addition to animal abuse and neglect concerns, authorities have been investigating the shelter's finances and whether euthanasia drugs are missing.

A June 2009 city audit found that the shelter "had no written cash-handling policies and procedures to safeguard cash and checks and ensure continuous accountability for cash and checks."

To the Animal Control Officer Who Said No - Thank You

The ironically named Animal Protection and Safety Shelter in Houston, Alaska had 4 dogs and 4 cats in need of homes, until this week:

Some of the four dogs and four cats had been unclaimed at the facility since November, and the city wasn't prepared to keep them forever, said department head Sgt. Charlie Seidl, who shot them.
"We stretched out as long as we could," Seidl said. [...] "And like I said, we can't hang on to them indefinitely."

Right. You stretched it out as long as you could, maybe you should get a medal.

No one at the Houston city offices seemed prepared to take credit for directing the action. Several involved parties, including Seidl, said Mayor Roger Purcell ordered the animals put down.
[...]
The chain of events recounted by [Evelyn] Rohr [a shelter volunteer] also included an order from the mayor to police to kill the animals after an officer at the shelter -- who could not be reached for comment Tuesday -- refused to do it.

Amidst the horror of this betrayal and brutal killing of helpless shelter pets, I want to say one thing that might otherwise be overlooked. Someone whose job it was to care for the shelter's residents was told to shoot them all. That person said no. He or she might be at risk for losing his or her job over this, I don't know. But I know it's easy to flap our gums and type our blogs about how we would all do the right thing if faced with similar circumstances. It's not so easy to actually stand up and do that thing. In this economy. In a small town. In a remote state. But this person did it. Whoever you are, I say thank you.

Death of Innocents

I can't point to a specific reason why this story bothers me so much but it probably has to do with the Mother pushing the kid off that dark, point-of-no-return cliff called compassion:

As punishment for bad grades, a Georgia mother forced her 12-year-old son to kill his pet hamster with a hammer, police said.

The Mother has been arrested and charged with animal and child cruelty, along with battery. But the thing is, justice can never be served. What justice could there be? Obviously nothing can bring back the hamster but for the kid - well, this can't be undone. He's been violently and cruelly robbed of something intangible which no child should have to live without, and by his protector in this world - his Mother.

This is What Animal Shelters are for

I have no idea why Karen Erby of York Co, SC allowed her puppy to deteriorate to the point where she couldn't walk or even lift her head. Maybe she really was trying to nurse her back to health as she claimed when surrendering the dog to authorities and maybe somehow, despite the dog's deathly physical appearance, she actually believed she was making progress. Or maybe she just did not care very much about how long or how terribly the dog suffered. Or maybe it's some other reason.

Whatever the case, I can understand how someone - not necessarily Ms. Erby, but a dog owner in general - might find herself with a sick dog and no financial means to care for her. If this situation befell me, I would first take the dog to my regular Vet for an evaluation and ask if she'd would be willing to work with me on financial arrangements. Depending on circumstances, I might seek a loan from a family member to help pay for care. But failing all reasonable options, I would not leave a dog in the condition Ms. Erby's pup was in chained in my yard, pour motor oil on her and hope for the best. (Rubbing motor oil on mange does not cure the condition, despite whatever old wives' tales you may have heard.)

This is what animal shelters are for. They are a safety net for pets in the community who need help and have no one able to provide for them. It's tragic that so many people have come to regard shelters, rightly in some cases, as death houses. We need to change the public's perception of shelters but in order to do that, shelters must stop killing pets. Euthanasia is a kindness - a means to end the suffering of a medically hopeless pet. Animal shelters do offer this service but the overwhelming majority of shelter pets who die in this country are not euthanized - they are killed. Again, I have no way of knowing Ms. Erby's motivations but it strikes me as plausible that she, or others faced with a sick pet, might consider that a pet is better off in agony on a backyard chain than going to a shelter. This must change.

We are a no kill nation. Join us.

TN Dog Rescue Sticks to Dognapping Story

(See previous post for background.)

I have come across a couple postings from the owner of the facility the dogs were allegedly stolen from and they appear to be current. In short, the owner maintains the dogs were stolen but the stabbing did not take place and the robbery was not witnessed. If interested, read for yourself here and here. The first link also contains a slideshow of the dogs.

Added: A few more details on the case from a local TN paper.

TN Dognapping Story

I held up on posting about the alleged theft of a dozen rescue dogs from a dog training facility in TN because I couldn't shake the nagging question: Who would want to steal a bunch of rescues?

[T]here were nine Doberman Pinschers taken, one hound mix, one Black Lab, and one Miniature Pinscher. One dog had three legs, and another was blind. The dogs were all rescued, waiting to be adopted.

Not exactly loot you can take to the local pawn shop and turn over for some quick cash. But Twitter has been abuzz with pleas for helping to find these dogs so I've been following the story. Today I read:

Police report that Ashli Thomas, 24, of Newbern Drive, Johnson City has been arrested for filing a false police report.
[...]

According to the Johnson City Police, Thomas admitted she “made the story up because she had left the dogs unattended and had not been caring for the dogs properly.“

The owners of the business, Brad and Tamara Josselyn, along with Thomas, have been charged with eight counts of animal cruelty.

Now understand that this woman fabricated a story which included one of the dognappers stabbing her with a knife. So I'm assuming she had some sort of knife wound to show investigators. After learning that the whole robbery story was false, I can't help but wonder:

1. What actually happened to the dogs and where are they?
2. What could be so bad that someone would stab herself in order to offer a convincing story to the police?

I'll be staying tuned for further developments.

It's Cold: Bring Your Dogs Inside, Part 2

Dogs in the southern US are freezing to death. From Texas:

Beaumont Police say a dog found dumped in a trash can died from the cold or starvation and animal control officers have seized three other dogs that appear to be malnourished and suffering from exposure to the freezing temperatures.

All four dogs are pit bulldogs.

[...]

"Three were chained to fixed objects in the yard. One had a wooden dog house and two others had plastic dog houses. They're alive but appear to be malnourished and suffering from exposure to the cold. One is in a dog house and won't come out. It's so cold it can hardly move."

There is a slideshow at the link of the dogs and their inadequate dog houses and poor conditions.

When Sadistic Freaks Get to be Their Own Boss

An Animal Control officer in Canton, Mississippi has been fired after authorities were led by a citizen tip to the remains of more than 100 dead pets in a creek. Alonzo Esco collected paychecks from the city for 3 years while he allegedly shot pets to death and dumped them:

Esco has not been charged with any crime as authorities consider their options for prosecution, Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest said Thursday.

The most Esco likely would face is multiple counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty, which is punishable by up to six months in jail, Guest said.
[...]
[Canton Alderman Charles] Weems said Esco was the only person in animal control, a division within the Canton Police Department. As an animal control officer, Esco could kill animals, but only if they were maimed or a threat to the community, Weems said.

Let me guess what the defense will be. Or maybe, since it's just a misdemeanor, he won't bother. If the MS justice system doesn't take animal cruelty seriously, why should a murdering AC officer?

Esco also provided animal control duties for Madison County until the county's contract with the city expired at the end of 2008, Board of Supervisors President Tim Johnson said.

Attention Madison County: Check your creeks.

Canton police opened the investigation when a woman filed a complaint after a pet she wanted to adopt never turned up at the Mississippi Animal Rescue League.

Yeah, I bet.

It's Cold: Bring Your Dogs Inside

It's cold: Bring Your Dogs Inside

It's cold: Bring Your Dogs Inside

It's cold: Bring Your Dogs Inside

From Spartanburg:

Authorities accuse a South Carolina man of letting a pit bull and five puppies starve and freeze to death in his backyard.
[...]
Investigators said a combination of starvation and exposure to freezing temperatures killed the animals.

It's cold: Bring Your Dogs Inside

It's cold: Bring Your Dogs Inside

It's cold: Bring Your Dogs Inside

Oh yeah and feed them too. Nursing bitches living outdoors in Winter need much more food than normal. How much more depends upon litter size. But at the very least they need to be fed enough so they don't die.