Sebastian County : Judge directs county to take dogs left alone
Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2007
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/198676/
BLOOMER — A judge Wednesday ordered Sebastian County to take control of 114 dogs found earlier this week in an abandoned kennel and to destroy 31 of them because they are too sick to be adopted.
District Judge Wayland Parker also ordered any of the other dogs that test positive for heartworm are to be euthanized.
Parker made the ruling after a brief hearing in Greenwood District Court on a petition by the Sebastian County prosecuting attorney’s office.
The dogs were found in an abandoned kennel at 4708 Bloomer Road. Bloomer is a small community along Arkansas 22 between Lavaca and Charleston in Sebastian County.
The petition was presented to Parker after county animal control officer Richard Rivera was alerted to the abandoned dogs and found them Monday starving and without water in the sweltering heat.
The kennel belongs to Terry and Andrea Whitsell. Sebastian County sheriff ’s deputy Sgt. Janell Daggett testified before Parker that Andrea Whitsell contacted her Tuesday and told her she and her husband were evicted from the property around July 4 and that the property reverted to the former owners, Bill Berry and his sister Linda Irvin.
Berry and Irvin could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Daggett said Whitsell told her that after she and her husband moved out, she heard the dogs were not receiving care. She said she went to the property periodically to feed and water them.
She also tried to contact Ber- ry and Irvin by phone, by going to their homes and by sending a certified letter to notify them that no one was on hand to care for the dogs, Daggett said.
Daggett said Whitsell told her Aug. 7 was the last time she went to the property to feed the dogs. She also said Whitsell told her she would be back in the area next week to meet with her about the kennel.
Daggett said she would present her findings to the prosecutor who would decide what charges, if any, to file.
Parker’s order directed the county to seize the dogs and turn them over to the Sebastian County Humane Society to be adopted or destroyed. The order said the dogs that could not be adopted within 10 days of his order were to be euthanized.
The Humane Society office in Fort Smith was marshaling its resources to take in the dogs after Parker signed the order. Office volunteer Jackie Spence said efforts would be made to begin removing the dogs as soon as possible from the kennel. She didn’t know how long the effort would take.
Space for 50 dogs was being made ready at the Humane Society office on Kelley Highway, interim executive director Becky Linton said. She said the remaining dogs would be placed with rescue groups or foster homes.
Spence said 63 people or groups had called the office by Wednesday wanting to adopt dogs or offering to be a foster home for them.
Rivera said people from as far east as North Carolina and as far west as Utah have called offering donations of food or money for the dogs.
One couple from a feed store in Fayetteville brought in a supply of dog food Wednesday afternoon after hearing about the Bloomer kennel dogs.
Spence said the dogs would have to be examined and treated by the Humane Society’s veterinarian, Kyle Ledford, for heartworm and other parasites, skin diseases and other health problems before they could be put up for adoption.
They also will need grooming and socialization, because some of the dogs may be traumatized or are not accustomed to being around people, Spence said.
The order prepared by the prosecutor’s office listed many of the dogs to be euthanized and the reasons for the decision. The most common reason listed was “hair loss because the dog’s health is too deteriorated to be adopted.”
The order also contained observations by Rivera on conditions at the kennel. Among them were a cocker spaniel suffering from an infected eyeball that appeared ready to burst, three nursing dogs that ate their pups and a white terrier with what appeared to be a tumor on its stomach.
Most of the other dogs appeared malnourished, underweight and dehydrated. Humane Society volunteers spent hours Monday and Tuesday cleaning the cages at the kennel and feeding and watering the dogs.