Companion Animal Cruelty News

Here are but a few instances of animal cruelty reported concerning animal companions. It should be noted that some of these stories are reported before the individuals involved have undergone legal proceedings. In essence, they are innocent until proven guilty.

I have taken care to include whole quotes as I find them. Accordingly, if you pay attention you may find a sentence that if removed would have made the statement far more demeaning to certain people. Because I believe in keeping things in relative context though, I have avoided this entirely. Therefore, these statements are as issued.
(14 Quotations)

• ABC - "A man has been charged with animal cruelty for allegedly biting his Jack Russell terrier as punishment, and police say he used a 200-pound bull mastiff in an attempt to keep back officers who arrived to arrest him. 'He said that biting the dog was good punishment and that's how you train them, that dogs bite so that's what they understand,' Sgt. Keith Kameg said. 'When an officer went to check on (Lady), she was cowering in the back of her crate as if the officer was going to hurt her.' Police reported Lady's left front paw was bloody from a bite. Jack Russell terriers normally weight 10 to 16 pounds. 'If you are inflicting injury or breaking skin, or the dog is responding to pain, you are not doing any good,' said Pepe Peruyero, a former police officer who operates a dog training school in nearby High Springs. [38]"

• Almanac - "Peninsula Humane Society officers, working on a tip from a person who visited Mr. Hollywood's home on Colby Street, discovered 228 mice, 68 rats, five hamsters, two snakes and a cat, humane society spokesman Scott Delucchi said at the time. Seventy of the rats and mice were dead. 'It was like a horror show walking in the house,' said Mr. Delucchi. 'They (the officers) cinched their pant legs at the bottom so the rats wouldn't run up them.' Many of the animals were in such bad condition that they had to be euthanized, but the humane society was able to find homes for others. [40]"

• BBC News - "The farm received a warning before Christmas but when inspectors returned they found conditions had worsened. . . . 'This is negligence on a massive scale and these people don't particularly care about the animals, they are just profit to them.' ISPCA director of operations Alastair Keen said the puppies were living in 10 to 12 inches of mud and rolling around in their own urine and faeces. They had no access to shelter or clean water and many had mange and more serious conditions. [30]"

• Bridgeton News (New Jersey) - "We received information from the local animal control officer and the school (they attended) that the girls were bragging about what they had done,' Greco said. 'The girls, who are stepsisters who live separately, reportedly had taken two 8-month-old kittens who had been offered for adoption by their owner,' she said. 'They took the kittens to a nearby wooded area, where one of the kittens escaped. The other one was stomped, had a red tank top tied around its neck, and was buried in the dirt with its head sticking out,' Greco said. Most of the animal's bones were broken, she said. 'Another person found the dead kitten and removed it from the dirt and reburied it. We exhumed the kitten and did a necropsy (an autopsy) on the body, and determined that it had suffocated from the dirt packed around it after the girls buried it,' she said. [42]"

• Daily Orange - "Allen, a 20-year-old Syracuse University sophomore in The College of Arts and Sciences, was charged Oct. 28 with a felony count of aggravated cruelty to an animal and a misdemeanor charge of torturing or injuring an animal. Angry because his 8-week-old puppy, Piper, was not yet housebroken, Allen is accused of swinging her around by her leash, slamming her into the sidewalk and dragging her across concrete. The beagle/Labrador retriever mix suffered a severely fractured hind leg and bloody paws. According to reports, Allen 'became frustrated when the dog would not come when he instructed her to do so. [41]"

• Dickson Herald - "An Arizona couple has agreed to surrender several dogs for adoption after they were charged with animal cruelty when more than two dozen dogs and two horses they were allegedly transporting to Ohio were left in rental trucks and a small horse trailer for three days without getting any exercise during the ice storm that hit the area just before Christmas. . . . The dogs were in portable kennels inside the rental trucks and two horses were in a small trailer where officials said they were standing in several feet of manure. Officials also found some cats and a bird in the couple’s hotel room. [34]"

• The Horse - "Twenty-four horses have been confiscated from a Lexington, Ky., farm by the Lexington Humane Society (LHS) after one dead horse was found in a pasture. Four of the horses were in acute condition from starvation and were transported to Hagyard Equine Medical Institute (HEMI). [37]"

• KATC - "A Hub City man was jailed Wednesday, charged with ten counts of animal cruelty. Responding to complaints about a house on the 200 block of Benoit Falgout Drive, Lafayette Animal Control Officers found six dead dogs, still tethered to chains in the yard. Four other dogs, emaciated and apparently near death, were also chained up in the yard. [33]"

• KATU (Portland, Oregon) - "A Portland veterinarian who helped set up more than 20 low-cost animal clinics in he Northwest is facing accusations of animal cruelty and abuse. Doctor Daniel Koller has been summoned before the state Veterinary Medical Examining Board to answer the charges in January. His license was revoked twice in California but he says the charges against him here are groundless and blames a disgruntled former employee. Portland lawyer Susan Burns filed a 79-page complaint against Koller in July on behalf of one of his former employees and on behalf of an animal welfare advocate. The complaint includes statements from Koller clients who accuse him of kicking, beating and throwing dogs and cats. The complaint says he allowed unlicensed technicians to euthanize animals for problems as minor as fleas. [35]"

• Kold News (Tucson, Arizona) - "A Cave Creek couple are facing possible multiple charges of animal cruelty. Yavapai and Maricopa County sheriff's deputies, along with state livestock agents, served search warrants yesterday at the Cave Creek home of James M. Curry and his wife, Jodi Marie Curry-Liesberg. The search stemmed from an investigation into something called "hog dogging." That's an event in which wild boars are released into an arena and then dogs are used to chase and attack them. The Yavapai County sheriff's office says authorities yesterday seized 32 Russian boars, along with 12 American bull terriers and five puppies. [43]"

• Komo News - "Police arrested Joyce Hunstad for investigation of animal cruelty after her pets were found abandoned and dead in her condo. The animals were discovered after neighbors noticed a horrible stench and couldn't hear them anymore. . . . fears were confirmed when Bellevue Police officers in protective suits emerged with bags of dead animals. A total of seven cats and a small dog were found dead in a condo amid feces, fleas, and garbage. The animals apparently died from heat and lack of food and water. [36]"

• Monitor (Mc Allen, Texas) - "The seven dogs, 43 turtles, 19 chickens, 14 ducks, two hamsters, two parrots and an iguana were interned at the humane society after their former owners, Javier and Irma Resendez, were charged with animal cruelty. An Edinburg police officer found a number of dead and malnourished animals at the Resendezes’ home in December 2002. Ninety animals, including some that have since died, were brought to the humane society and stayed there while charges were pending against the Resendezes. [32]"

• WALB (Albany, Georgia) - "Upon that request the deputy and I came to the property and located several animals that were not being not taken care of as well as they should be,' said Martha Ann Coe, director of Animal Control. Officers found rows of kennels in unsanitary conditions, filthy animals and even dog skeletons. 'There was no evidence of food or water,' Coe said. 'There was no shelter for four that were in the backyard. We did find one on that back door step that was barely breathing.' That was a Chihuahua. He died before they got him to the vet. The cause was starvation and hypothermia. Perhaps the most surprising part of the case is that the man charged is Steve Morgan, owner of Puddle Jumpers, an Albany pet grooming business. [31]"

• Washington Post - "A 37-year-old Manassas woman with a history of improperly caring for her dogs has been arrested after police found two malnourished pit bulls in her filthy back yard, one of them so famished that it was eating the dead body of a third pit bull. Karen Morris, of the 9200 block of Taney Road, was arrested at her home Saturday and charged with several offenses, including three counts of animal cruelty, a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of a $2,500 fine and 12 months in jail, said Sgt. Tim Neumann, a Manassas City police spokesman. . . . Strawderman (chief animal control officer for Manassas) said agricultural lime had been applied at the yard's edges to mask the odor of feces. . . . According to court records, Morris has been charged several times in the past 10 years with animal-related crimes, including repeated instances of allowing her dogs to run at large, of which she was found guilty. She was also charged with failing to vaccinate them against rabies and failing to provide them with adequate care, both of which she was cleared of. [39]"