Beagle Skinned Alive
Posted on 2007 under Crimes Against Canines, Just Sad :(, News & Updates, Torture, Video |26 Nov
Warning: This story contains graphic photos.
Neal Rodgers of Vinemont, Alabama had two beagles and after hunting the previous weekend he allowed them to run loose in a rural part of Vinemont located on County Road 1428.
Sunday morning, when he went to feed his dogs, an alarming sight greeted him. His three year old beagle, Anne, showed up bleeding.
Initially he thought she may have been hit by a car but it only took a moment to realize the truth, someone had actually skinned her!
“I can’t imagine who would do this. I have had bird dogs for years and never had anything like this happen,” Neal said describing the skinning as the way a hunter would skin a deer.
Anne had her coat removed from the nape of the neck to the base of the tail and down to the nipple line, all of which was done while she was alive.
“It is inhumane and I just can’t imagine anyone doing that to a living creature. I am just flabbergasted. I think whoever did this should be tied up and skinned,” said Janet Rodgers, Neal’s wife.
Their second beagle, Buttercup, was also injured but thankfully escaped with just some minor lacerations around the neck and shoulders.
The Rodgers took both of their dogs to Bruce Lee’s veterinary clinic. Lee said in his more then 21 years as a vet, he’s never seen anything more gruesome.
“By far this is the most extreme case [of animal cruelty] I have ever seen,” Lee said. “I was not prepared for what I had to see. This was a totally awful sight.”
Due to the lack of skin available for grafts, Anne had to be euthanized.
“How can this be OK?” Lee said. “The only reason someone would do this is out of extreme torture. The amount of torture involved is incomprehensible. It is a brutal and hideous crime, and I hope I never have to see anything like it again.”
Janet Rodgers asked anyone with information to call the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office at 734-0342.
Sheriff Tyler Roden said the Sheriff’s Office is investigating the case and said more details will be made available when the investigation concludes. Roden said the act is a Class C Felony charge and carries a fine up to $5,000 and up to 10 years in prison.
To say that this story appalls me does not even begin to describe how I feel. Someone who could do something like this to an innocent and defenseless animal is a serious danger!!
Source - Cullman Times
UPDATE - 11/28/07
Reward Offered in the Case of Anne, the Beagle Skinned Alive
Cullman County officials announced a reward would be offered for any information leading to the arrest in a case of animal cruelty. Police say a beagle was skinned alive and the dog’s owners are outraged.
Since this horrific incident the sheriff’s office has been besieged with call from worried residents and the investigation is ongoing.
Two beagles have been donated to the Rodgers’ family to help them cope with the loss of Anne.
And donations have come in from animal advocacy groups and residents totaling more than $6000 to be used as a reward.
See the video for more details - HERE
Cullman Area Animal Welfare Association President Linda Morgan said the Justice for Annie fund, which was set up Monday with fellow animal lovers Friends of Cullman Animal Shelter (FOCAS), has grown from $200 to more than $6,000 in the last two days. She said she hopes it will lead to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for skinning the three-year-old beagle, Anne.
Cullman County Sheriff Tyler Roden said he was pleased to see residents of Cullman along with PETA, which has issued a $2,500 reward, and the American Humane Society and Friends of Cats and Dogs Foundation, which offered a $1,000 reward, get involved to help capture the perpetrator.
“We are very pleased to receive support from a variety of organizations and residents,” Roden said. “It is encouraging and I hope it will help bring this case to a successful conclusion.”
Roden said the sheriff’s office is actively investigating the case and once autopsy results from the animal are available, the information will be made public.
Roden asked anyone with information about the case to call investigators at 734-0342 or the secret witness tip-line at 734-0210. (Cullman Times)
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by Steve, on November 27 2007 @ 1:24 am
I loaded the page without images because I couldn’t bear to see them. This is horrible.
by George, on November 28 2007 @ 7:13 am
one rumor is that it was a gang of under-aged youths that did this. If indeed minors are involved, the kids should be put on trial as adults and locked away for a LONG LONG time!
by cory, on November 28 2007 @ 2:31 pm
i am pretty good friends with the nephew of the dog’s owner. we are in a psychology class together and this was the topic of conversation today. our teacher claims that the day that the dogs were abducted actually fell on some important day on the satanic calender so the family of the skinned dog (anne) believes that the whole incident was for satanic cult purposes or something of the sort. the nephew told the class that anne’s body will be taken to auburn university for an autopsy so maybe they can determine whether the suspects tranquilized her or knocked her out so they could skin her.
by Sonja Robins, on November 28 2007 @ 9:48 pm
I can only pray that whoever did this awful crime to this dog will be caught. I hope he or she is put under the jail right after you skin them alive from head to toe. That still would not be good enough. If they are not ever caught then I pray that God will take care of them in this life time and let them live a miserable life with nothing but grief and sorrow and then when they die the gates to HELL will open.
by chris, on November 28 2007 @ 11:53 pm
this breaks my heart. my best friend growing up was my beagle. my kids love their beagle… they are the best and love everyone. I was born and raised in Alabama and it makes me even more upset that this happened here.
If these people will do this to a dog… what is next? what will they do at the ‘next level’? Punishment for animal cruelty needs to be more severe… and include extensive mental treatment. (and monitoring)
by Lizy, on November 29 2007 @ 11:43 am
I feel those who practice animal cruelty needs much more harsh punishment than what we are giving them now. This is rediculous! Minors or not, they need to get punished the way they deserve it. These innocent animals do not deserve any of this!
Lizy, Cleveland
by Not_from_around_here, on November 29 2007 @ 2:39 pm
This is a terrible and disgusting tragedy. Whoever is responsible should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Agreed.
I have to point out though, that Alabama animal cruelty laws are quite out-dated. I have also noticed a huge number of people in the area I live in Alabama do not take good care of their animals. People let their dogs roam free, do not spay or neuter, do not use heartworm prophylaxis, do not vaccinate, do not keep food and water out for their dogs…the list is endless and it’s appalling. I’ve never seen such neglect as common place in other places I’ve lived.
I think Alabama in general needs to upgrade and update their animal cruelty laws and needs to take a serious look at how they care for animals in general.
by ann41, on December 3 2007 @ 11:00 am
I still cannot get over this.. I can’t sleep thinking about how this poor dog suffered. I don’t care who did this, old or young that person has to be punished, and if the courts and police won’t than let us animals lover after them… I don’t care the age of this person I’ll make sure they know what that poor dog felt like..I hope they go to HELL….
by Asia, on December 6 2007 @ 10:00 pm
i myself have a beagle and i honestly would be extremely upset if someone did that to him or any dog. That is the utermost cruelest thing someone could ddo,and why would you want to? that’s terrible
by Brittany from KY, on December 9 2007 @ 10:41 am
Just wondering, has anyone ever been charged for this crime? I hope to goodness they have as I just now learned of this horrible incident and I tried to find out if they found the deranged person or people who did this? I have a little beagle too and I can’t imagine someone doing this. It’s just too sad.
by Admin, on December 9 2007 @ 12:17 pm
Brittany, the investigation is still ongoing at this point. The reward has grown to 35K so hopefully if anyone knows anything this will encourage them to speak out.
Deanna
by karen, on December 12 2007 @ 2:44 pm
I hope whoever did this gets caught and sent to prison. Animal abuse should be treated no differently than child abuse or any other kind of abuse. Anyone who can so cruelly skin an animal alive and laugh about it later will have no problems beating their children to death too. I think it is much better to put them away until they are too old to have children than it is slap them on the hand because “it was only a dog” and give them the oppertunity to destroy another life.
by Terry; Leeds,AL, on December 18 2007 @ 8:14 pm
According to Rodgers, examiners from Auburn University said the wounds to Anne’s flesh were jagged when examined under a microscope, and that indicates the skinning was not done by a human. Instead, examiners believe Anne became lodged in an auger, perhaps in a chicken house, or in a drive shaft of a car.
For all the people who are not local to this great state; Cullman is a very rural location where things are still done in the old ways. A lot of farmland is still farmed up that way with antique equipment still running around. Given that a driveshaft does not seem likely under normal circumstances, it should be considered that maybe a PTO (part of a tractor that is used to power implements such as bushhogs) grabbed loose skin. I feel compelled to also point out that unlike what some animal lovers are saying I can not see how Auburns animal department which is truely top-notch would publish a false autopsy removing the blame from human hands and placing it on a machine which can not be prosecuted. No one becomes a vet so that they can be the ones to put dogs down. These are very caring people who dedicate their lives to improving the lives of those who are unable to do so themselves.
by Virginia Greenwood-Warner, on December 20 2007 @ 12:01 pm
This is just incredible but there is something else I should like to point out. Hunting???? Really? Disgusting!!! Secondly the dogs were collected only the next day. Pardon!!! Thirdly, unfortunately not all vets are decent good vets. Unfortunately there are vets who simply “do their jobs”.
Apart from all the obvious above, this is one of the sadest things I’ve ever seen. I would like to know whether or not there was anything the vets could do with this poor Anne or if this incredibly brave girl had to be put down.
by Dylan, on December 30 2007 @ 11:17 am
Hey guys, let’s overreact and assert that the criminal deserves the same punishment as the victim. Oh, wait, eye for an eye isn’t the law anymore and hasn’t been for thousands of years.
Nevertheless, whoever did this is cruel, sadistic, and certainly needs help.
by Charlie, on January 3 2008 @ 4:37 pm
To the person who said an eye for an eye isn’t the law anymore… very ‘high brow’of you.. but actually before you get so ‘intellectual’ it never was for animals.
However… anyone that is cruel and evil enough to hurt an innocent and relatively defenceless creature in this way, needs to be severely punished. The pathetic fake justice that is often available nowadays simply doesn’t cover it. I hope that they reap what they sow in a way that is equally as painful as what they did to this poor animal. I certainly wouldn’t shed a tear for them.
by fatma enver, on January 15 2008 @ 6:23 am
i am not surprised just disgusted. because just for the sake of people like J.LO who love to wear fur animals are skinned alive every day. I am not going to say how can someone do something like this it is inhumane. but it happens,as a huge peta fan and an animal lover it breaks my heart to see animals tortured, skinned alive experimented on and many other things. who gives us the right to treat any living thing this way.
would the monster that did this skin his leg and wear it on is back.
by Non-Bleeding-Heart, Just-Heart Liberal, on February 2 2008 @ 11:17 pm
This obviously was a horrible occurrence, but I must say that maybe this will draw more attention to the autrocities happening in the fur industry in China and other foreign countries.
Videos on the PETA website (and others) show animals being completely skinned alive, even their faces, for their fur and then tossed into a pile, alive, to die of starvation or dehydration. We can only hope that this poor dog’s torture will being light to the minute-to-minute occurrences in the fur industry.
by ashley, on February 29 2008 @ 6:38 pm
i know it is sad that something like this happened, but believe it or not, animals in fur farm are skinned alive every day (there are many videos on the internet showing it… if you dont believe me go to peta.com and do research) and there are not ANY laws that protect them from that. I have seen it many times in videos even though it is hard to watch… and I wish people who did this to animals come back as animals when the die and are skinned alive!!
by shayna, on July 25 2008 @ 7:07 pm
i myself have a beagle along with many other dogs and i would hate to see someone do that how could anyone do that i hope whoever did that is caught and put in jail i hate animal cruelty and i wish it would stop i love animals