Category: Grrr

Terrence Cody Gets 9-Month Jail Sentence in Animal Cruelty Case

Former Baltimore Ravens defensive tackle Terrence Cody, who was found guilty in November of five counts of animal neglect but acquitted of felony animal cruelty charges that he “intentionally tortured” and “cruelly killed” Taz, his Presa Canarios Mastiff, was sentenced today to nine months in the Baltimore County Detention Center.

Cody was facing more than two years in jail, but apparently Judge Judith C. Ensor decided to be kinder to him than Cody was to his dog.

“He was a guy that portrayed himself as knowledgeable about animals — he knew about animals, he’s trained animals, he owned animals,” Assistant State’s Attorney Adam Lippe told WJZ today, “but he turned on this one dog.”

Back in November, before Ensor charged Cody with the five counts of animal neglect, she said was aware that not every “morally reprehensible” action is against the law, the Baltimore Sun reported.

Caroline Griffin, former chairperson of the Baltimore Anti-Animal Abuse Commission, told WBFF this week she didn’t understand why Ensor dropped the felony animal cruelty charges Cody had been facing.

“I think the public believes and a jury very likely would have found this to be a felony,” she said. “I think people are scratching their heads as to why he was convicted only of several misdemeanors.”

According to the disturbing details in a February 2015 indictment, Cody and his girlfriend, Kourtney J. Kelley, inflicted unnecessary suffering or pain on Taz. They did not provide their dog with nutritious food or proper drink in sufficiency quantity, did not provide proper space for their dog, and did not provide necessary veterinary care.

Taz weighed only 50 pounds when he died in January. The average weight for a Presa Canarios Mastiff is about 100 pounds.

“The evidence in this case was that he directed all his attention or lack of attention to this one animal,” Lippe told WBFF. “He deliberately picked on one of his dogs. The other dogs were fat and happy. Taz he decided to kill.”

Cody was dropped from the Ravens after the February indictment was made public.

Last month, Kelley was sentenced to 60 days in jail for animal cruelty.

Cody was also sentenced today to probation for the illegal possession of an alligator and possession of drug paraphernalia. He cannot own or possess an animal during his 18 months of supervised probation (after which, apparently, he’s free to buy and starve another dog). Cody must also undergo mental health treatment.

Photo via Twitter

Snowmobiler Intentionally Strikes Iditarod Sleds, Killing One Dog

During the cruel and grueling Iditarod race held in Alaska every March, sled dogs are forced to run 1,100 miles in about 10 days. Since the first race in 1973, more than 140 dogs have died along the course. At least one dog has died in most of the races.

Tragically, this year is no different. But instead of dying from the usual awful causes like being strangled in towlines or internal hemorrhaging after being gouged by a sled, a 3-year-old dog named Nash was killed early this morning by someone on a snowmobile who intentionally drove into two sleds in the race. Several dogs were injured.

“Someone tried to kill me with a snowmachine,” musher Aliy Zirkle told a race judge.

“Zirkle had her dog sled hit on the side by a snow machine and the snow machine turned around multiple times and came back at her before driving off,” according to an Alaska State Troopers dispatch. One of her dogs was bruised.

“Another musher, Jeff King, was hit from behind by what appears to be the same snow machine,” the dispatch reports. “One of of his dogs was killed in the incident and five of his dogs were injured.”

This afternoon, 26-year-old Arnold Demoski of Nulato, Ak., was arrested and charged with assault, reckless endangerment, reckless driving and criminal mischief. He may face additional charges, including driving under the influence.

“I don’t care if people know if I was drinking and driving,” he told the Alaska Dispatch News. “I’m really glad (Zirkle) and (King) are OK and I really feel sorry for Nash. … They say I continuously attacked them, but I turned around because I was concerned.”

The village of Nulato is holding a fundraiser tonight to raise money for Zirkle and King’s kennels.

This was at least the second time in the race’s 43-year history that a dog has been killed by a snowmobile. In 2008, one dog was killed and another injured when a snowmobile struck the team late at night.

Earlier this week, 13 dogs broke loose from their sled and ran away, probably fed up with being forced to race. They were later found — fortunately unhurt — and had to continue the race.

As I wrote for Care2.com, it’s time to end the Iditarod, or as some animal welfare advocates refer to it, the “Ihurtadog.” The Iditarod is supposed to celebrate Alaskan history and culture — not animal cruelty. A humane alternative needs to replace this race.

Rest in peace, Nash.

Photo via Twitter

PetSmart Employees Apparently OK with Customer Carrying Dog by Collar

Earlier this week, a customer at a PetSmart store in Greenville, N.C., carried his puppy around by its collar, sometimes giving the dangling dog a good shake.

Perhaps taking the saying, “The customer is always right,” way too far, not a single PetSmart employee confronted the man about the abusive way he was carrying his dog.

A photo of the man holding the dog by its collar at the checkout stand is going viral. “He put the dog on the conveyor belt to have the harness rang up,” the caption says.

The photo, taken late Tuesday afternoon, was posted the next day on Facebook by Tammy Mitchell Whaley. An employee told her friend she was afraid to say anything to the man because she feared losing her job if she did so. Whaley called the store manager, who told her he didn’t know why no one reported the incident.

“This is suppose to be a place of business that cares and supports animals?” Whaley wrote.

On Thursday, Sheriff Neil Elks posted the photo on the Pitt County Sheriff Facebook page.

“Thank you for caring about our community and the people and creatures that live here,” he wrote.

“We have gotten other messages from you, the concerned public, and want you to know that this behavior is disturbing to us, as well. Because the location is in Greenville city limits, the sheriff has directed the witness to contact Greenville Animal Control.”

PetSmart has not commented on the photo. If you want to voice your concern, the corporate office can be reached by phone at 888-839-9638 or by filling out this form.

More disturbingly, Elks wrote that his department has “seen several alarming cases recently of animal abuse.”

Photo via Facebook

Oklahoma Shelter (Legally) Euthanizes Dogs with a Pistol

“We probably should have handled this with the vets involved, you know, instead of taking actions the way we had done,” Leonard Washington, mayor of Bristow, Okla., told Mashable today.

Just two days ago, the much less contrite mayor told The Daily Beast, “I don’t know why it’s a controversy … why such outrage now?”

In both cases, he’s referring to the shooting deaths of dogs in the Bristow Animal Shelter by its one animal control officer, George Moore. Over the past two weeks, Moore has taken three dogs to a pit behind the shelter, pushed them in and then shot them in the head. And these weren’t the only dogs at the shelter who have died in this cruel manner.

“This is something that’s been a practice for 40 years,” Washington told The Daily Beast. “I don’t know why it’s a controversy … why such outrage now?”

Why? Well, for one thing, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals recommends that killing an animal by shooting it should only be done in extreme circumstances, such as if the animal is attacking people, or is in extreme pain and a veterinarian is not available. In those cases, the shooting “should only be performed by highly skilled personnel trained in the use of firearms,” the AVMA states.

Moore has had no such training. The dogs had not been attacking people or in pain.

While Oklahoma law allows municipalities with fewer than 10,000 people to use “any humane method” to euthanize animals (Bristow’s population is about 4,000), it doesn’t define what those humane methods are. Therefore, Moore was not actually doing something illegal.

“We need to eliminate the practice of shooting these dogs in the head. It’s barbaric. It’s not up to the times. People are outraged,” local activist Beth Roberts told The Daily Beast.

Because the shelter is located on the property of a water treatment facility, it is not accessible to the public. Roberts only found out about the shootings after a shelter volunteer wrote about them in a private Facebook group. A city employee provided Roberts with more disturbing details, telling her he “was always the one to dig the holes and cover up the bodies when needed,” she told The Daily Beast.

Moore used a small, .22-caliber pistol to kill the dogs. Many of them were Pit Bulls, which he allegedly dislikes and would keep in the shelter for only a day or two before dragging them to the pit. The pistol is “not something that ends their life quickly,” Roberts added.

Washington blamed the shootings on the large number of strays entering the small shelter. “We’re trying to make sure we don’t have an overabundance of dogs in our dog pound because we can only have 10 at one time, so that’s a problem,” he told Mashable.

But Roberts and other local residents told The Daily Beast they’ve been trying for years to help get the dogs adopted, only to be turned away. One woman was banned from the shelter after she complained to the mayor that the dogs were being deprived of food and water.

The Oklahoma Alliance for Animals has created an online petition asking the Bristow Animal Shelter to only use a veterinarian for euthanizing animals, and to open the shelter to the public. It has more than 9,000 signatures as of Friday afternoon.

For now, euthanizations have been suspended at the shelter “so we can make sure that we do the process the way it’s supposed to be,” Washington told Mashable. Residents can adopt pets free of charge to clear more space in the shelter.

Photo credit: chrismetcalfTV

 

6 Dogs Run Loose on L.A. Freeway After Car Chase (They’re OK)

FEB. 25, 2016 UPDATE: Tiffini Tobe, the driver of the car and apparent owner of the dogs, died earlier this month after she jumped from a moving bus, NBC4 reports.

City of Long Beach Animal Care Services is looking for rescue groups to take Tobe’s dogs, which are still at the shelter. (KCAL reports that one dog has been adopted.) The three adult dogs “are loving females who seem to enjoy human interaction and likely get along with most other dogs, considering they all came in together,” according to the services’ Facebook page. If interested, call 562-570-7387 or email animalcare@longbeach.gov.

It seems like police pursuits occur almost on a weekly basis here in Los Angeles. I don’t get why drivers don’t just stop and pull over, since it’s inevitable they’ll run out of gas or just give up. And what I really don’t get is why anyone would do something so dangerous with family members as passengers — particularly four-legged family members.

But it happens. In February 2015, a man who led police on a chase through the San Fernando Valley, with his small dog beside him in his truck, shot himself to death after an hour-long standoff. The terrified dog ran from the truck and was eventually caught by animal control officers.

In September, a man shot a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer after a high-speed chase in Riverside County. A Husky puppy who was found in the shooter’s SUV was rescued by animal control and named Chip in honor of the wounded officer, who survived the shooting. More than 75 potential adopters wrote essays explaining why they would be the perfect pet parents for Chip. The winner was Mike Ventura, a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Yet another incident happened again last night. After CHP officers approached a car parked on the side of the 710 Freeway, the driver, Tiffini Tobe, took off, leading officers on a slow-speed chase. It ended in Long Beach when officers used the PIT (precision immobilization technique) maneuver to make her car spin around and stop.

When Tobe got out of her car, so did three of six dogs, who appeared to be Pit Bull mixes. After approaching and being pushed away by Tobe, who was lying face down on the freeway, the dogs started running around, their tails wagging. They were joined by the other three dogs who’d been left in the car with the window open.

Fortunately, the police officers had stopped traffic on both sides of the freeway. Also fortunately, officers from City of Long Beach Animal Care Services were able to corral all six dogs. (Kudos to those police officers, considering that some cops would probably have pulled out their guns and shot the dogs as they ran toward them.)

“This gives a whole new meaning to the term PIT maneuver,” ABC7 cleverly wrote on its Facebook page.

The dogs were taken to the Long Beach city animal shelter. Hopefully they’ll all find forever homes with more responsible pet parents.

Driver Previously Charged with Animal Abuse

It turns out that Tobe, the driver of the car and owner of the six dogs, was charged last year with animal abuse, the Los Angeles Times reported Jan. 21.

In June, Tobe was charged with a misdemeanor (!) count of failing to provide veterinary treatment after it was discovered that one of her dogs had chewed the skin off a rear foot, exposing the bone, and was not seen by a veterinarian for six months. The 4-year-old Pit Bull was suffering from hypertrophic osteopathy and had to be euthanized.

Tobe was ordered at the time not to have any pets.

When she failed to show up for a hearing earlier this month, a warrant was issued for her arrest. After Monday night’s car chase, Tobe was charged with a felony count of reckless driving and misdemeanor counts of DUI, resisting an officer and driving without a license. Today she pleaded not guilty to all charges. She is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 28 for a pretrial hearing.

Her six Pit Bulls corralled after the car chase, including three puppies, their mother and two other dogs, had “no obvious signs of significant injury or illness,” Ted Stevens, manager of Long Beach Animal Care Services, where the dogs remain in custody, told NBC Los Angeles. “So far they’ve shown no aggression. They appear bright, alert, responsive, friendly.”

The dogs may eventually be available for adoption or released to a local rescue. “I think any dog that ends up away from their home and family is a bit stressed,” Stevens said. “We’ll do our best to keep stress to a minimum.”

 

Photo via YouTube

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