Sad story from south suburbs of Chicago

[cassiesmom]

I heard about this on the radio. They're working with the Animal Welfare League to help provide care to the surviving dogs and cat.


From the Chicago tribune:

Dolton police officer delivering a stray dog to an animal hospital made a gruesome discovery over the weekend: Four dead dogs and several sick and emaciated dogs and a cat in the basement..

"There was a fair amount of neglect going on in this facility, absolutely, no doubt about that," Cook County Deputy Chief Michael Anton told reporters Sunday. "You saw the dogs when they came out, they were very close to dying."

The officer made the discovery Sunday afternoon at the Dolton Animal Hospital in the 15000 block of Lincoln Avenue in the south suburb, Anton said. The town pays the hospital to care for strays picked up by the police.

"We found four animals that were deceased, 10 animals that were in various stages of emaciation, one was a cat and there were nine dogs," Anton said.

The animals still alive were taken to a shelter, he said.

Dolton Mayor Riley Rogers said he asked inspectors to visit the building last week after noticing overgrown weeds. "The grass had grown high, there were some conditions that were not that great, so I asked the inspector to come by and issue some citations."

It was not clear whether anyone went inside to inspect the facility. Anton said, as far as he knew, the town had not received any complaints about the care of animals.

"Our main concerns were the animals. Some of them were in pretty bad shape," Anton said. "Right now we just have to figure out what was going on in there."

[Karen]

I hope they figure out who was responsible, and are prosecuting them.

[cassiesmom]

The veterinarian and the practice manager were charged with animal cruelty. The animals were taken to the Animal Welfare League. One dog needs a mastectomy because of a ruptured mammary gland and another might need surgery for a leg infection. They are all under a different veterinarian now.