Usually when people think of a dog house we think of a structure in a yard where a dog can go to sleep or hang out but in one Saginaw neighborhood, the dog house they’re complaining about is quite different. The ‘dog house’ in question is an actual residence that is inhabited by four dogs, no people, just four dogs and this has been the case for about two years now.

Animal Control says they can’t do anything because the dogs are provided with adequate food and water, can go in and out of the house at will and it is not a cruelty situation.

On the other hand, neighbors say that on the says the stench coming from the house is unbearable.

“Since summer, the door has been left open and the dogs come and go,” said neighbor Jan Hoffman. “It’s a dog house.”

“The house has been empty for two years except for four dogs,” said neighbor Larry Weaver. “There are days when you can’t stand the smell. At night you can hear the dogs fighting with each other.”

And City Hall doesn’t seem to be doing anything to help the situation. Why not? Well, Saginaw County Animal Control’s Mark Wachner says that although it’s not an animal cruelty situation, “It’s a violation most likely for a city code enforcement officer that is going to have to go over there and take a look.”

And here’s the problem; the house is owned by the daughter of Jim Hodges, the city of Saginaw’s chief building inspector. Hodges says they working on rehoming the dogs but I wonder why it’s taken two years for it to come to this point.

Read more… »

A couple of weeks ago I did a story on a gas chamber explosion in a NC animal shelter. In the story I talked about Dr. Ralph Houser, DVM, manufacturer of gas chambers and proponent or this cruel and inhumane method and we can now add to that, trainer dog and animal killer!

One of the biggest proponents for gas chamber use in NC is a veterinarian himself, Dr. Ralph Houser, DVM. Houser is also a manufacturer of the chambers from hell and a member of the state’s Board of the North Carolina Animal Rabies Control Association. Although the AMVA advocates lethal injection as the most humane method of euthanasia, it’s no surprise that Houser is against it. He doesn’t want anyone taking money out of pocket! It is believed by many that he is single handedly responsible for the reluctance of the state’s Board of Agriculture to ban use of this cruel, medieval device.

Well it looks like he also does workshops on the use of the gas chamber and rakes in the bucks that way too! What a sick POS!!

I got this info via email today and I am posting it is its entirety. Please take the time to read then help to get the word out and take action!!

Announcing a euthanasia workshop in Gaston County conducted by R. Houser

This is a profit generating venture for Ralph Houser. He conducts them
regularly in Craven County and Gaston County. The checks are to be payable
to Houser. Attendees come from many different areas. Houser is allowed to
use the Gaston County Animal Control facility and Gaston College - He pays
nothing for their use. Houser and his attendees kill Gaston County animals.
There is a very likely possibility that the mandatory holding period is
violated for some of the “victims.” For example have all the “victims” been
held for 72 hours? Have some been held back from adoption so they have a
sufficient number of “victims” for the attendees to kill over 3 days. How
many animals are killed during his “euthanasia seminar?” That needs to be
determined. Also, Does Houser pay the county for the animals he kills ????
If they were not killed en masse, some of them could be adopted. Who makes
the decision which ones are killed and how many he is allowed to kill?? The
taxpayers of Gaston County are paying for the expenses of Ralph Houser’s
business and furnishing him with animals to kill — some of which are or
were peoples pets.

Ralph Houser got into the “killing” business as a result of an accident that
ended his practice of veterinary medicine. That accident set in motion
animal cruelty and abuse on a statewide basis. It has led to the suffering
and death of hundreds of thousands of animals at the hands of Houser trained
workers in Houser designed gas chambers. He is the architect of the “final
solution” for animals in NC.

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Ok, we’re got one very sick SOB here! Not only does he get kicks out of torturing dogs, he likes to be on film and involve kids too!!

Larry Cummins, 41, of Hasty, AR and a 15 yr old accomplice were arrested after a videotape surfaced showing them torturing at least seven dogs by cattle prod and stomping on them. There were at least four different scenes on the videotape including one of Cummins torturing a small white dog with a cattle prod until it was bleeding from the mouth and another showing them breaking into a neighbor’s house and the 15 year old stomping on a little dog until it screamed in pain.

Larry Cummings and his accomplice call this cattle prod “Mr. Green”. They even tested the prod on a metal fence to make sure its working. The two can then be seen walking into a dog pen, where Cummings is overheard saying “this is where the dogs get hurt”.

Court documents indicate the 15-year-old then apparently videotaped Cummings using that cattle prod to purposefully and repeatedly shock a small white dog. The abuse didn’t end there. The two suspects continued to document themselves shocking a dog so badly, the animal is seen having blood coming from its mouth. The suspects can then be seen chasing and shocking the dog while it’s trying to escape. All of this happened on property owned by the 15-year-old’s family.

Newton County investigators say the two then went into a neighbor’s home. That’s where the 15-year-old apparently stomped on a small black dog in a dog bed causing it to howl in pain in terror. In total, investigators say seven dogs may have been tortured over a two day period. Newton County’s sheriff says it’s one of the more graphic things he’s seen.

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Update 8/5/08 - A Second Arrest - See update Below!

It started last week with 23 dogs found in a farmer’s Grand Island, NE, corn field. Initially a dog was spotted Thursday afternoon near the corner of a cornfield north of Prairie Road by two people who were driving by the field.

When they stopped to investigate, they saw more dogs, which resulted in the Central Nebraska Humane Society and Hall County Sheriff’s Department responding to the scene. Twenty of the dogs were dead, the three found alive succumbed shortly thereafter, two while investigators were still working the scene and the third, a pregnant female on route to a veterinarian hospital.

The dogs; pugs, Yorkies, terriers, terrier mixes, dachshunds and labradoodles, all adult dogs, had no collars or tags but one did have a microchip. Although the microchip wasn’t registered, it still led the investigation in the right direction, straight to Denise Withee.

Denise Withee, 45, of Mapleton, Iowa, is described as someone who buys and sells dogs. She was found at Grand Island Hotel and also found was a litter of 13 malnourished and flea ridden puppies. Withee was arrested and at the time, charged with three counts of animal abandonment, Call IV felonies. Other charges may also be coming. The puppies were seized and taken to the Central Nebraska Humane Society.

And this is not the end of this sad story! Seems Withee also has a track record of animal cruelty in her home town in Iowa too.

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Wadesboro, NC, police found a 4 month old puppy in a abandoned house. The puppy had been so severely beaten with a sledgehammer, a beer bottle and rock that he’s lost and eye, may lose the use of one of his legs and also possibly has a skull fracture. The culprits? Police believe that 4 juveniles and at least one or two adults were involved in this horrific crime.

The abandoned house the puppy was found in is next door to the home of the puppy’s owner but as yet, no one has any idea how the puppy got to the abandoned house on Cherry Street where he was found after a disturbance call. Police do hope to make some arrests Monday.

The puppy is at the Homeward Bound Humane Society in Anson County and is slowly recovering.

What kind of a sick thrill do people get out of beating and abusing a defenseless and innocent animal?? After the thrill of animal abuse wears off, what’s next? Children, strangers… It takes a very sick and twisted person to enjoy inflicting pain on a living creature. These kinds of people have no place in society… period! Their actions will only escalate. It may be ‘only a dog’ this time, but what about next time? Find’em and lock’em up, then just throw away the key!

WSOC

A breeder of dogs for the illegal bloodsport of dogfighting has been sentenced to 15 years in prison! Raymond Eugene Teamer, 42, of Milton, FL, was charged with 35 counts of training or baiting animals for fighting and two counts of processing or selling dogfighting equipment, all third-degree felonies.

In November 2007, after 7 months of investigation, Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s investigators found 30 dogs and puppies along with a cache of medicine and equipment and a 10-page document that detailed how to train and condition dogs for fighting at Teamer’s house.

Many of the dogs were covered in battle scars, one, a five-time champion named Willie, was missing the entire lower portion of his jaw.

Many of the dogs were tethered using heavy chains, one a 22 lb chain. This became one of the key pieces of evidence as prosecutors explained to the jury how these incredibly heavy chains were used to build up the dogs’ strength for fighting.

“It’s a pretty grotesque scene,” John Simon said of the underground sport of dog fighting.

Simon and his co-prosecutor, Bridgette Jensen, showed the jury dozens of grisly photographs of scared dogs, and dead dogs investigators found in the woods near Teamer’s property.

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UPDATE 8/5/08 - Petition - PLEASE Sign!!

See the UPDATE below on the puppy!

As a young woman, Jerrica Agnew, watched from her porch in a Memphis neighborhood, two young men, Vincent Boykin, 20, and Tristan Hataway, 18, doused a puppy with gasoline and set it on fire.

“Vincent he was holding down the dog while Tristan actually set light to the dog and set him on fire.” says Agnew.

The little puppy, a 4 month old shepherd or shepherd mix, struggled, rolling in the grass, trying to put the fire out.

“It was making noise. It rolled around in the grass trying to put itself out. For a minute I thought it was dead.” says Agnew.

Jerrica, 18, and her 16 yr old sister, Jasmine Johnson, rushed over and tried to help the dog, which ran down the street on fire and was rolling in the grass.

“It was yelping and crying,” said Johnson. “They were low-down to do this to that dog.”

Boykin and Tristen were arrested on aggravated animal cruelty and this is not their first time in trouble either. Both have records and Hataway was just released from jail and was bond on charges of aggravated assault and aggravated burglary.

Boykin pleaded guilty to attempted voluntary manslaughter in 2007 for an incident in which he told police he hid in a trash can for hours before shooting a man in the leg.

When reporters when to Hataway’s house, no one was home but they did find a gas can. Next door was the home of Boykin’s mother. She claims her son is innocent and was in the house when the incident took place.

“They knew they weren’t out here. They were not out here. I talked to my other son. My other son said wasn’t nobody out here before and Vincent walked out the house. By him already having a record, police carried him to jail.” says Boykin’s mother.

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Tell Me Why . . .
does no one hold me when I cry?

They say we are a good-natured breed,
cheerful and easy to get along with,
that to be happy there is little we need

A place to have fun and not much more,
good food, a warm spot to sleep, and love
but I won’t get that down on this floor.

I was brought here when I was fairly young –
a gawky, healthy pup and though it’s been a while
I still recall starlight and the bright, warm sun

I remember running on grass and gazing at the sky
I had litter mates once and we would tumble and play
now there are dogs I can’t see, but I hear them cry

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Junior Horton, owner of Horton’s Pups in Hillsville, VA is known for running one of the biggest puppy mills in Virgina and the November 2007 raid, made him notorious and vilified. Charged and convicted on 40 charges: 14 for animal cruelty, 25 for animal neglect and one for failure to obtain a dog license, Horton got what I would call a slap on the wrist sentence.

The judge in the case, General District Court Judge Edward Turner suspended 12 years of jail time for the misdemeanors and suspended much of the fines associated with the criminal charges. For the 14 counts of cruelty, he suspended $2,250 of each of the $2,500 fines. For the 25 counts of neglect, he suspended $450 of each of the $500 fines. He imposed the mandated $25 fine for the charge of failing to obtain a dog license. The total for all fines amounted to $4,750.

Over 700 of the over 1000 dogs seized from Horton were rehomed but Horton can still run his business although with no more than 250 dogs.

Not satisfied, Horton appealed his conviction but thankfully Circuit Court Judge Brett Geisler upheld the lower court’s ruling and imposed the same sentence.

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Lester Farmer, 54, of 6612 Bridgersville Road, Elm City, NC, has been charged with 7 counts of felony animal cruelty, one for each of the dogs that were seized from his home. Farmer bred Shih Tzus but the dogs that authorities rescued bore no resemblance to any Shih Tzus I’ve ever seen!

Hairless, diseased, infected, these poor dogs are in horrible shape and if they do all recover, it will take months.

Wilson County Animal Enforcement officers seized the dogs and transported them to For the Love of Dogs, a non-profit shelter and clinic, at 5146 Quaker Road in Wilson.

“This is one of the worst groups I’ve ever had the opportunity to help,” said Max Fitzgerald, who operates the shelter.

The shelter is trying to nurse the dogs back to health. All have severe mange, likely caused by months of neglect in a poor environment, according to veterinarians.

“These dogs were in some of the worst shape we’ve seen,” Fitzgerald said.

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This is Hammer, a sweet and beautiful Golden Retriever. Unfortunately his life up until now has not been one to envy. All he wanted was love and all he got was neglect and a heavy chain embedded up to an inch deep in his neck!

The photos taken several days ago when Hammer arrived at the vet’s office to treatment, were gruesome. He’d been chained to a tree outside a trailer in Proctorville, Ohio. that was where he lived and that was where he stayed. You’ll see his ‘home’ in the video below.

“I’m so angry and mad. If the owner had just paid attention to the dog once a day for just five minutes, he would have noticed the problem! Said Dr. Steve Mahnken with Best Friends Animal Hospital in Winfield.

Dr. Mahnken doesn’t mix words when expressing his rage over the neglect of this loveable Golden Retreiver–Hammer. The dog arrived at his animal hospital in Winfield three days ago with a heavy chain imbedded in his neck!

“The link was partially buried in his neck and I had to cut it to slip it out. You’re talking a half to one inch. I could stick my finger in up to my first knuckle,” said Dr. Mahnken.

In photos taken before the tedious surgery to remove the chain. You can see the links have become a part of hammer’s neck-a process the vet says takes at least five to six months to happen. Dr. Mahnken says the infection was so advanced, it’s stomach-turning.

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UPDATE 8/1/08 - See Video Below - Lawyer Takes the case, hopes to up charges for Comins.

Although it’s been some time in coming, Chris Comins, the man who maliciously shot Chris Butler’s two Huskies, will be facing animal cruelty charges.

The charges stem from a May 19th incident when Chris Butler was out walking his Huskies, Raley and Hoochie, and the dogs got away from him. Butler has never denied that that dogs should not have been off lead but that does not give someone the right to shoot and shoot and shoot at them, especially when the owner shows up, begging the shooter to stop, begging to spare the dog’s lives.

You can read the full background on the story HERE, as well as see the full video of the incident that was taped by a tourist.

Chris Butler has been in touch with me and sent me some pictures of his beautiful dogs, as you can see above. That was a happier time before they were maimed and injured.

He also left the following comments with the original story;

I am the owner of the dogs. You people need to do your homework on Chris Comins. He should be in prison for pointing a laser sighted gun at a kids head.By the way, you will be disappointed to hear, that Mr. Comins is being charged with animal cruelty. He did what he did because he wanted to do it and he loved every minute of it and now his murderous behavior is going to be held up for the world to see.

And;

Both my dogs are at home and are healing. Chris Comins shot Hoochie after I looked him in the face and begged him to stop.I have been contacted by Chris Comins ex wife and the father of the boy that was threatened. He has been described to me as a alcoholic,violent,abusive, racist gun obsessed monster. ALWAYS on the lookout for a fight. Road rage incidents, airport security, Orlando magics game. Lives as if the laws do not apply to him. I have been contacted by the most unlikely people and I have yet to hear one decent word about him. Read more… »