An Even MORE Horrible Story! (sent by Leslie)
This makes me so sick, and angry. Why are there so many cases of animal neglect and cruelty than ever? :mad: :mad: :mad: And it takes over a YEAR of complaints before anything is done? I'd love to know how many dogs perished during that year? There needs to be more investigators dealing with these cases...seems to me a whole lot of animals are suffering due to understaffing. GRRR!!!!
http://www.bakersfield.com/local/sto...-5206651c.html (local
daily
newspaper in Bakersfield)
County picks up abandoned dogs in Mojave
Criminal prosecution of couple likely; supervisor to investigate
agencies' role
By DAVID HUNN, Californian staff writer
e-mail: dhunn @ bakersfield.com
Posted: Wednesday December 22nd, 2004, 11:25 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday December 22nd, 2004, 11:34 PM
MOJAVE -- One by one, the officers pulled the snarling, whining dogs
through the dirt and excrement into truck cages.
Kern County Animal Control found 19 dogs still alive at 8200 Joshua
Lane
Wednesday, deep in the desert east of here.
Seven were dead: One carcass in the dirt, chewed through. A skull on an
outdoor couch. Two mangled bodies in the owner's living quarters. Two
puppies stacked in a trash heap.
And one dead dog inside the home, wrapped in a blanket, dropped in the
bathtub.
At the end, Animal Control services chief Denise Haynes vowed that
Donald
and Linda Bone would not get their dogs back, those still alive.
She will push for criminal prosecution, she said.
County supervisor Don Maben wants more. He committed Wednesday to
investigating the role county agencies, including Animal Control,
played in
the mistreatment and death of the dogs.
"It shouldn't have lasted as long as it lasted," Maben said.
Neighbors have been calling about the Bones for more than a year.
Officers
recorded at least seven complaints. Yet the Bones were cited for
nothing
more than license and vaccination, fees never paid, county staff said.
Friday, the Bones were evicted from the double-wide they rented in this
stretch of desert east of Highway 14.
Monday, the dogs were still there. Animal Control posted a notice to
the
Bones. They had 48 hours to get them.
But Wednesday, the desert was quiet, the dogs still there.
The vibrating thrum of tires on the dirt road broke the calm. Four
Animal
Control trucks spun into the lot, one after the other. They rumbled
behind
the makeshift fencing that barely holds the dogs in, and, with hardly a
word, officers began pulling out gear.
Dogs sat up. Ears perked.
One officer walked straight to the fence. He yanked open the chain-link
gate. The dogs started barking.
He kicked in plywood patching fence holes.
The dogs charged, and the officers rushed in, leashed poles out, ready,
flushing the dogs toward a garage that once had housed the Bones.
They quickly collared one, a Shar-Pei mix. It hissed, yelped and
dragged
its hind legs through the dirt as the officer pulled it out of the
yard.
Struggle after struggle, the officers cornered them all, mostly mixes
of
pit bull andShar-Pei.Their ribs often showed through. Sometimes their
spines.
Two hours later, they'd caught the last.
All of the dogs were to be transported to Bakersfield shelters and
reviewed
by a veterinarian Wednesday night, Haynes said.
The case is now a criminal investigation, she said. When all is
complete,
Animal Control will turn it over to the district attorney for
prosecution.
The Bones could be charged with felony counts of neglect or cruelty to
animals, Haynes said, on top of thousands in Animal Control fees.
"His time has run out," Haynes said. "He's gonna be billed."
Next Wednesday, she said, Animal Control could start adopting the
dogs. If
they are not adoptable, she said, they will be killed.
Rescue groups could help, too, Haynes said. They often have more space
and
time to rehabilitate injured and anti-social dogs.
Maben is not satisfied.
At least two dogs died since Friday, when Animal Control first came
out to
the house for this incident.
Haynes said her officers were just following protocol to make sure
their
investigation would be foolproof.
Maben said he wants to see if anything can be done better next time.
"We have a responsibility to control things and not let them go on and
on,"
he said.
He said his investigation should be concluded by the first weeks of
January, its results available to the public.
thanks to those of you who took the time to call or fax the shelter
and the DA's office on this... they have now changed their tune and
say they WILL prosecute the ogres who abandoned/neglected/abused these
poor dogs. sm
*****Permission to Crosspost*****
The neighbors of 8200 Joshua Lane are just relieved to see it end.
"I feel great," said Dexter DiSomma, who lives next door to the home,
and
filed some of the first complaints.
"I'm gonna take a shower, go to bed, and I'm gonna zonk out," he said.
"'Cause I haven't been sleeping well lately."
