90 Animals Found Packed In U-haul - Arkansas
www2.arkansasonline.com/news/2007/sep/16/90-animals-found-packed-u-haul-pair-charged/
90 animals found packed in U-Haul; pair charged
By Stacy Hudson
This article was published Sunday, September 16, 2007
An Arkadelphia couple faces 172 animal-cruelty charges after Little Rock Animal Services employees discovered more than 90 dogs, cats and birds in the back of a U-Haul truck Friday night.
Volunteers with the agency and the Humane Society of Pulaski County worked from 5 p.m. Friday until about 2 a.m. Saturday evaluating the conditions of “70-something dogs, 11 birds and four cats” outside the U-Haul store at 4809 W. 65th St., said Tracy Roark, animal services manager.
The animals had been in the truck, which had broken down, for at least two days, authorities said. Most of them were purebred, small dogs such as Chihuahuas, Pekingese, poodles and terriers.
“They were in pretty bad shape,” Roark said. “We’ve not seen anything in the city like this.”
Copyright © 2007, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
All rights reserved.
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90 animals found packed in U-Haul ; pair charged
BY STACY HUDSON
Posted on Monday, September 17, 2007
An Arkadelphia couple faces 172 animal-cruelty charges after Little Rock Animal Services employees discovered more than 90 dogs, cats and birds in the back of a U-Haul truck Friday night.
Volunteers with the agency and the Humane Society of Pulaski County worked from 5 p. m. Friday until about 2 a. m. Saturday evaluating the conditions of “70-something dogs, 11 birds and four cats” outside the U-Haul store at 4809 W. 65 th St., said Tracy Roark, animal services manager.
The animals had been in the truck, which had broken down, for at least two days, authorities said. Most of them were small purebred dogs such as Chihuahuas, Pekingese, poodles and terriers.
“They were in pretty bad shape,” Roark said. “We’ve not seen anything in the city like this.”
Johnny Franklin Maynard, 42, and Sharon Ann Maynard, 54, both of 2460 Hasley Road in Arkadelphia, were to appear in Little Rock District Court today.
A Little Rock city ordinance allows for a fine of up to $ 500 for each violation, Roark said.
The Maynards were each charged with 92 counts of neglect and 80 counts of failure to provide medical aid.
“Cruelty includes physical abuse and abuse by neglect, which is failure to provide adequate shelter, food, water and medical care,” according to Little Rock’s Web site.
Six volunteers helped rescue the animals, which were in wire cages lined up in rows and stacked inside the unventilated truck, said Kay Jordan, executive director of the county Humane Society.
“The birds... there were a few in birdcages sitting around outside on the ground, and then there were some birds in little pet taxis” in a vehicle being towed by the U-Haul truck, Jordan said. “All the rest of ’em were piled up — it was either four or five layers... on each side of the inside of the truck. Then there were pet taxis that we figured... had some cats and dogs in them that they had set in the middle between the tiers of cages.”
Some of the cages had to be cut open to get the animals out, and the stench of the truck was “toxic,” Jordan said.
“There was urine and feces coming out of the back of the truck,” she said.
Desiree Bender, state director of the Humane Society of the United States, said she suspected the animals came from a puppy mill and were being sold to pet stores.
“Arkansas is one of the top nine puppy-mill states in the United States,” Bender said.
A phone number listed for the Maynards’ home in Arkadelphia went unanswered Saturday night.
Bender said she feared the animals had been kept in the cages for a while.
“Inside this U-Haul truck was the equivalent of a garage that had dogs in it for months and years,” she said. “These dogs, we had to yank them, pull them totally out of those crates. We had a hard time getting a lot of them out because they wouldn’t come out.”
As of Saturday night, all the animals were being cared for by the city and the Humane Society.
Animal-welfare advocates in Arkansas have been working to establish stiffer penalties for cruelty to animals.
Two bills that would have made animal cruelty a felony on either the first or second offense failed in the Legislature earlier this year.
The crime is currently a misdemeanor.
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Updated: Animals Found Abandoned In U-Haul
Kathleen Berger, Reporter
Monika Rued, Online Content Supervisor
Created: 9/16/2007 3:34:10 PM
Updated: 9/18/2007 12:19:29 PM
Police are searching for an Arkadelphia couple, accused of animal cruelty after more than 90 dogs, cats and birds were found abandoned in a U-Haul in Little Rock on Sunday.
Johnny Maynard, 42, and Sharon Maynard, 54, failed to appear in court Monday morning on 172 animal cruelty charges.
The animals are all safe and sound at the Little Rock Animal Shelter. Most of dogs are small purebred dogs, bred for profit.
Ren Hughes works with breeders to sell their puppies and we spoke with her about the process.
"I don't take people that keep their puppies in cages, that can damage their feet,” she explains. “I don't take any kind of puppies that have not had a lot of handling, love and attention."
Hughes says she's careful not to deal with people who show signs of causing any harm and that she's never dealt with dogs in this shape.
"They were pretty matted up, pretty covered in feces and had urine burns on their stomach,” Tracy Roark with Little Rock Animal Services says, “those type of situations.”
There's a warrant out for the Maynards’ arrest since they missed their court appearance. That’s not a big surprise after what animal control says the Maynards told them. They said they would continue their drive, leaving Arkansas.
If they did, a warrant in connection with these misdemeanor crimes means they won't be caught and won't be brought back. However, Roark says the city is looking into issuing a fugitive warrant, which would cross state lines.
The Maynards did not return our phone calls.
Adoptions will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at:
Little Rock Animal Village and Education Center
4500 Kramer Street
Little Rock, AR 72204
Office: (501) 376-3067
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Little Rock Animal Services
