But it gets even worse, one minute after they rehired him, they put him on paid leave “while they evaluate his employment status.”

Gary Tate, former deputy dog warden at the Stark County Pound in Canton, OH, was dismissed from his position last year after being accused of animal abuse. Seems he had a habit of using a snare pole to drag dogs by their necks, then using the pole’s noose to lift the dogs to second-tier cages, causing the dogs to hang by their necks. Hmmmm…. nice guy.

Now after a lot of legal wrangling, the county was forced to rehire him and also pay him all the back wages after an arbitrator ruled that Tate should not have been fired because the abuse accusations were “insufficient to justify anything more than some minor discipline.”

Wow, maybe that arbitrator should try the end of the pole that the dogs had to suffer being dangled from! Of course Tate says he wasn’t abusing the dogs, just using the pole to keep himself safe from them. Bet there are lots of really vicious dogs there! Funny, the 30+ volunteers that go in there every day never have to use a pole for protection and have no problems with the dogs. Perhaps the volunteers could demonstrate the proper handling of the dogs?

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We got us another big, bad man here! Timothy Ray Loftis, 21, of Bessemer City, NC, stomped a tiny 8 week old Chihuahua puppy to death after it urinated in the house. Oh yeah, he’s a tough guy alright!

Loftis’ girlfriend, Crystal Williams had gotten the puppy for her 1 1/2 year old daughter, they named it Tequilla. It was so tiny it could fit in the palm of a person’s hand

On Thursday, Williams went running to her mother saying that Loftis had killed the tiny puppy. Williams’ mother, Sherry Thomas confronted Loftis.

“I said ‘Timmy, why would you do something like that? You knew she loved that dog,’” Thomas said.

“Its eyeball was hanging from its head,” Thomas said. “That was just really cruel.”

Gaston County Police charged Loftis, 21, of the 600 block of South 12th Street, with felony cruelty to animals Thursday.

“Upon arrival, I spoke to the defendant, who said, ‘Is this about that dog. Yeah, I killed the SOB,’” wrote officer J.T. Lubert in his warrant affidavit.

Loftis did not use the abbreviation in talking with Lubert, according to the arrest warrant.

“While en route to the jail, the defendant stated, ‘Goin to jail, and I didn’t even kill no dog.’”

After this the defendant reportedly stated, “‘Ain’t this some s—. I been to jail three times for assault on a female and now I’m goin for killing a dog,’” according to Lubert’s warrant affidavit.

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Joseph Trujillo was a real big, bad man last November when he took his mother-in-law’s little Chihuahua, Chicolin, into an alley and beat it to death with a shovel then tossed its battered and broken body into a trash dumpster.

Chicolin, a five year old stray Chihuahua that Elaine Ulibarri took in when he wandered into her yard was by all accounts a feisty little dog but was well loved as were all the dogs that Ulibarri had.

“He was a little orphan who wandered into my yard,” she tearfully testified. “I took him in. I really miss that little dog.”

On that fateful November 4th, Trujillo, whose wife said didn’t like the little dog, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, took him out to the ally where a neighbor actually saw him bash the dog on the head four or five time.

At the time of Trujillo’s arrest, Eric Bernal, was going to report the incident anonymously but when Trujillo continued to claim he was being falsely accused, Bernel decided he would testify in court.

“I know he’s lying because I watched him do it,” Eric Bernal said. “I actually saw him carrying the dog to back by the scruff of the neck. The dog was yelping or screaming. It was really disturbing.”

Trujillo’s wife Carla testified that he didn’t like the dog, that once when it defecated in the basement of the house they shard with her mother, he took the dog’s feces and mixed it in with food and fed it to the dogs.

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Stories like this and people like this just make me sick! Rather than to try to find any options or talk to the humane society, William Jenkins, 44, of Fort Myers, FL, decided to brutally bludgeon his dog to death because he “couldn’t afford the surrender fee.”

Jenkins actually took the dog to the Gulf Coast Humane Society in Fort Myers but when asked to wait during the intake, he left. The last anyone saw the dog alive, he was in the front seat of Jenkins’ vehicle.

“He was hanging out of the window like a normal dog - tongue waving in the breeze and ears flapping,” said Aimee LaLonde, a shelter employee.

The next thing witnesses saw was Jenkins taking the dog into the wood, just a couple hundred yards down the road from the shelter, where he would have had a chance. When Jenkins game out of the woods, he was alone. He’d beaten the dog to death and buried its body in a shallow grave.

William Jenkins Brutally Killed Dog

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The story of Jeffrey Ely who hit and killed the little 13 lb miniature pincher, Fester, then sued his owners for $1,100 got not only national but international attention and Ely says it also ruined his reputation.

The quickest way to sum up the outcome of the case is that the judge just threw it out!

Judge Gerald Maher heard the case Friday afternoon. Both parties, Jeffrey Ely, the man who hit and killed the little dog, and Daniel Munthe, one of the owners of Fester, the dog who was killed, representing themselves.

Judge Maher said that neither side could prove the other had been negligent so instead of taking the case under advisement he dismissed it.

“You don’t have a legal cause of action,” Maher said. “You never should have been here.”

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Flexpetz has moved to London and it’s getting a chilly reception, to put it mildly. The US based firm that rents dogs on an hourly, daily, weekly basis is finding that, as in many places is the US, their service is not only unpopular, but getting blasted by animal welfare groups, trainers and the public as well.

Targeting the wealthy with not enough time for a full time pet or those who don’t want the inconvenience or responsibility, they rent dogs out at at a cost of £279 for once a week for a month or the equivalent of over $500! In the US the same service is about $150. The reason cited for the astronomical difference in cost the that pet care costs are much higher in the UK.

Right now they have only one dog available for rent, an 18 month old Pomeranian named Gucci who five people will be able to share. They plan on more in the future.

Pippa Woollard, the Flexpetz facilitator, has declined to say where Gucci came from except to say “he was well cared for and lived with a family that had other dogs on the outskirts of London.” In the US, Flexpetz says their dogs are acquired from shelters.

Concerns have been raised that passing a dog from one home to another could prove distressing to the animal, leaving it with no routine.

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Dogs that spend their lives on chains often become neurotic, aggressive and pathologically protective of the patch of dirt where they spend their lives. Frustrated and unsocialized, chained dogs pose a year-round danger to unsuspecting children who approach these dogs. However, children are especially vulnerable as the weather warms, according to Mothers Against Dog Chaining, an initiative of non-profit Dogs Deserve Better. The groups are dedicated to ending the suffering endured by chained dogs and to educating the public about the dangers chained dogs pose to people.

Mothers Against Dog Chaining is working to raise awareness about the connection between perpetual chaining and aggressiveness during Dog Bite Prevention Week, May 18-24.

Since 2003, when the Mothers Against Dog Chaining began monitoring attacks nationwide that result in serious injury or death, it has traditionally seen an increase every spring when the warmer weather beckons more children outside and chained dogs can be especially frustrated after another lonely, agonizing winter.

Chained Dogs

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Shasta Dawn Parnell, 19, of Medford, OR, has been arrested and jailed on a felony aggravated animal abuse charge after she reportedly threw, squeezed and stomped on a tiny Pomeranian puppy.

After a report of animal abuse, police arrived at Medford Shopping Center, near Biddle Road and Stevens Street to find Parnell squeezing the tiny 3 month old, 2 pound puppy till it couldn’t breathe. She refused the officer’s request to hand him the puppy and threw it about ten feet where it landed on the pavement then fought the officer attempting to arrest her. She’s also charged with resisting arrest.

Witnesses told of how the young woman had been throwing the puppy to the ground, stomping on it and swinging it by its leash.

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Finally after all the hoopla last August with the raid, the dead buried dogs, the malnourished dogs, the drugs and who knows what else, Earl Simmons, also known as DMX was arrested and and booked into jail on seven misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and four felony counts of drug possession, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said.

This comes after an earlier arrest this week on charges of racing on a highway after speed cameras on a Phoenix-area freeway caught him going 114 mph, Arizona Department of Public Safety officers said. He was booked on charges of racing on a highway, reckless driving, two counts of endangerment and three counts of criminal speed and driving on a suspended license.

The 37 year old rapper just can’t get enough of jail it seems. It’s also not the first time he’s faced animal cruelty charges. In 1999 he pleaded guilty to animal cruelty, disorderly conduct and possession of drug paraphernalia after police found pipes for smoking crack cocaine, a pistol and 13 pit bulls at his home in Teaneck, N.J. There’s also been weapons charges, parole violations and fraud charges. This guy loves living on the wrong side of the law.

In the August raid, deputies found twelve malnourished pitbulls, three dead dog buried in the yard as well as drugs and guns on the premises. DMX was not present at the time but a man who was supposed to be a caretaker for the dogs said that there wasn’t enough food and he couldn’t afford to take care of them and feed them. He also said that he was going on vacation. A few days later no one was at the premises at all.

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Jekea R. Vickers, 29, of 608 Bethune Drive in FL figured since she didn’t want the dog anyway, so why bother to care for it and she didn’t

This dog, dubbed Miss Ginny by her rescuers, was found dumped in a small wooden crate. Looking like a skin covered skeleton, surrounded by urine and feces, without water or food, she weighted only 21 lbs, less than half her normal weight.

When she was found, there was no movement, no detectable pulse or blood pressure, no signs of life in this poor dog, until she moved her eyes. This tiny movement prompted a Hillsborough County Animal Services investigator to rush the dog to an emergency vet clinic.

Vickers told police that the dog belonged to her live-in boyfriend who was in jail and that she never wanted the dog anyway. She says she didn’t do anything wrong because she called animal control about two months ago and told them to come and get it.

But that’s not the way things work.

“We are not a delivery service,” Animal Services spokeswoman Marti Ryan said. “She has to come and bring it to us. It’s her property and she knew it.”

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Hannah, a 4 yr old GSD, previously owned by a Tattnall County, GA deputy/K-9 handler, turned into Animal Control facility pregnant, severely emaciated, weighing only 41 lbs, heartworm positive and showing signs of longterm kenneling, among numerous other medical problems, will receive no justice from Tattnall County. DA Tom Durden has decided NOT to press charges.

For the full background, please read the original story HERE.

The Tattnall County Deputy/K-9 handler who owned Hannah (originally named Huanna), Ramsey Arnold, claims he owned Hannah for only three months.

“I got her from another law enforcement officer, K-9 handler, breeder, trainer. It wasn’t connected with the sheriff’s office. I asked the man I got Huanna from if anything was wrong with her. He said ‘no, she was just naturally small’ and that he used her as a breeding dog,” Arnold said.

Arnold said he took good care of her and never had time to do any of the things he was accused of including breed her.

If that’s the case;

• Call after call was made to DA Tom Durden prior to ‘going public’ with this story with requests for information but for some reason no information was forthcoming until now, when a major media outlet gets involved.

• If Deputy Ramsey Arnold had Hannah for three months why was she still severely emaciated? She weighed only 41 pounds when she was turned over to animal control. Protruding ribs is a pretty sure sign of malnourishment. “Long term starvation” was what the vet said who examined her. In the short time that she was fostered and adopted, she was able to easily put on weight and become much more healthy.

• If Deputy Ramsey Arnold had her for even only three months, why had she not been vetted? Any decent responsible vet would have been blind not to see the severe problems Hannah had.

• How could a K-9 handler, someone who should know something about dogs, not know that she was pregnant? A dog’s gestation is approximately 63 days, Deputy Arnold claims he had her for 3 months, if he didn’t breed her, how did she get pregnant to give birth to three stillborn puppies shortly after she arrived at animal control?

• If in fact Hannah was in such deplorable condition when she was given to Deputy Ramsey, there is still someone out there responsible for her condition, for the abuse she suffered. Who is this person, this “law enforcement officer, K-9 handler, breeder, trainer.”

• Perhaps Deputy Arnold is not guilty of the long term problems that Hannah suffered from but she was still starved, not medically cared for and had been bred while in his custody. These facts do not speak of innocence to me!

And now, despite almost 1500 signatures on a PETITION at this time, asking for Justice for Hannah, Tattnall County DA had decided not to press charges against the deputy.

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What kind of a sick and twisted person would do something so cruel and vicious as to duct tape a puppy’s front and hind legs, wrap tape around it’s head and beat it almost to death?

That’s what some farm workers found this morning off the roadway near a hops field close to the intersection of VanSlyke and Middle roads in Canyon County, Idaho.

The puppy, a shepherd mix, approximately 9 months old was alive when found but severely injured and a large amount of blood was found near the neck and head of the dog. Due to the extent of his injuries he was euthanized at Canyon County Animal Shelter.

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