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MAy 2004

CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG, N.C.Hurricanes often hit the Carolinas, raining dogs and cats. But they rarely blow so far inland and never rage so long as the storms over animal control policy underway for almost a year now, driven by fatal maulings, dogfighting incidents, and rising awareness that the region has one of the highest rates of shelter killing in the U.S.and the world, since despite recent progress in reducing the numbers, the U.S. stills kills more dogs and cats per 1,000 residents than most other nations.

A federal grand jury on April 27, 2004 indicted pit bull terrier owner Roddie Philip Dumas, 29, of Charlotte, North Carolina, for possessing crack cocaine with intent to sell, using and carrying a firearm during a drug trafficking offense, being a convicted felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, and intimidating and interfering with a U.S. mail carrier, reported Charlotte Observer staff writer Gary L. Wright.

Crystal Sinclair, her mother, told ANIMAL PEOPLE by e-mail that their family had recently been obliged by their landlord to give away a chow who was Makayla's constant companion. She said Makayla had only been briefly out of her sight while she did housework.

"No dogs should be chained. It makes them mean. Now my baby is gone and I live a life of hell," Crystal Sinclair said.

Together, the trio of fatalities included all of the usual elements in such cases, including dog guardians who simultaneously warned that their dogs were dangerous and denied that they were badly behaved.

The three cases also furnished ammunition to either side of the heated national debate over how best to legislate against fatal and life-threatening dog attacks. The dogs in one case may have been trained to be dangerous; in two cases, they were apparently just chained outside for protection by women who lived alone. The dogs in the Dumas and Hill cases were pit bulls; in the Sinclair case they were a breed involved in only one other fatal attack in 20 years.

All three human victims were in custody of single parents. Roddie Dumas Jr. and Nathan Roy Hill may have been neglected, but acquaintances of the Sinclair family agreed that Makayla Sinclair was much loved and closely supervised by both her mother and her grandfather.

Dogfighting

All three dog attacks produced hue-and-cry to try to prevent such incidents by more vigorously prosecuting dogfighters, reinforcing anti-dogfighting legislation, prohibiting prolonged chaining, holding both legal owners and other guardians of dogs legally responsible for all attacks, regulating possession of pit bull terriers, and cracking down on backyard dog breeding.

While dogfighting was not directly involved in the circumstances leading toward any of the recent child fatalities, the risk to the public created by breeders and trainers of fighting dogs was illustrated especially vividly on April 7, 2004 in the Rantowles-Red Top district of Charleston County, South Carolina, when surveyor's assistant Steven Baker, 23, of Lincolnville, approached the edge of an 11-acre property owned by David Tant, 57, of North Charleston, to investigate what he thought was a pack of baying hunting hounds in pursuit of an animal. Baker stepped on a trip-wire and was shot in the chest by 24 birdshot pellets fired from an eight-inch pipe mounted about 60 feet away, Charleston County Sheriff's Department bomb squad commander Stafford Melerine testified.

"Tant now faces some 68 criminal charges ranging from animal fighting and cruelty to assault and battery with intent to kill and possession of destructive devices," wrote Ron Menchaca of the Charleston Post & Courier.

Charleston County Magistrate David Coker on April 21 awarded the sheriff's department custody of 47 pit bulls seized from Tant after the shooting, along with three puppies born to one of the pit bulls afterward. The dogs will not be killed until after Tant has exhausted appeals for their possession.

"Tant testified as a government witness before a federal grand jury in 2001 in exchange for immunity from prosecution for any previous involvement in dog fighting, his attorney Dale Du Tremble said," according to Menchaca.   Tant claimed to have been strictly a breeder since the grand jury hearing. "In addition to the dogs, investigators seized caged treadmills, cattle prods, assorted shotguns and hunting rifles, small explosive devices, and a bear trap," wrote Glenn Smith and Phillip Caston of the Post & Courier. County prosecutor Tom Lynn brought to the hearing about custody of the dogs several chains allegedly used to hold them, said to weigh nearly 30 pounds each.   The Tant case developed less than three weeks after South Carolina attorney general Henry McMaster announced the formation of a state dogfighting task force.   "The attorney general's office will team up with the State Law enforcement Division and several state humane groups to staff and fund the task force," reported Clay Barbour and Glenn Smith of the Post & Courier. Task force members include one full- time law enforcement agency and "an assistant attorney general dedicated to investigating and prosecuting dogfighting cases," Barbour and Smith wrote. Right: Crystal & Makayla Sinclair -->

Charleston attorney Sandra Senn, a board member of the John Ancrum SPCA in Charleston, said she had already raised $45,000 of the estimated $110,000 three-year task force budget.

The need for the task force was demonstrated by a series of February 2004 dogfighting arrests in North Carolina.

Clifton Paul Ellis,20, and Paul Dupree, 40, were charged with two counts each of felony cruelty after 13 emaciated pit bulls and five dead pit bulls were found at an abandoned farmhouse in Wilson County on February 10.

More than 30 pit bulls were seized on February 23 in Edgecombe County, along with "a large cache of cocaine, cash, and stolen weapons including handguns, rifles, and shotguns," Associated Press reported. Arrested on multiple drug charges were Joseph Donnelle Hussey, 18, Roy Junior Tillery, 47, and Troy L. Murphy, 30, all of Rocky Mount, and Melanie Beth Waring, 24, of Nashville.

Have-A-Heart

The killings by dogs, dogfighting, and drug abuse connections underscored many of the longtime contentions of Carolinian animal advocates about the consequences of ina dequate humane law enforcement and underfunded animal care and control services, but none rejoiced.

Pet Helpers Rescue & Adoption Shelter president Carol Linville of Charleston, Joy Davis of Low Country Animal Rescue, the Doc Williams SPCA, Cat Nip Cottage, and Feral Friends were all busy looking after nearly 200 animals they accepted after the April 1 closure of the Have-A-Heart Animal Shelter in Walterboro, South Carolina.

"Have-A-Heart founder Dorothy Aschenbrenner truly cared and wanted to help animals, especially cats," Linville told ANIMAL PEOPLE, "but typical of many one-person rescuers, she did not have the ability to say no when full, nor the financial resources, appropriate space, or help to care for 250-plus pets. Other rescuers referred people to her, thereby increasing the pressure."

Have-A-Heart was closed due to complaints from neighbors about odors, noise, and repeated animal escapes. The animals were seized by the Colleton County animal control department, assisted by Charleston County animal control and the John Ancrum SPCA. Thirty-two cats and 24 dogs were killed, Linville said, chiefly because they could not be handled.

One-person pet rescues like Have-A-Heart exist, Linville pointed out, because most of the region lacks access to low-cost pet sterilization and established no-kill shelters that guarantee healthy animals a home. Because much of the public will not surrender pets they cannot or do not want to keep to a shelter that may kill them, the animals are dumped instead on people like Aschenbrenner who lack the means to build and operate high-volume adoption centers that can compete with pet stores, and lack the contacts to relay animals to northern shelters where younger and smaller dogs, especially, are much more likely to be adopted. Larger shelters also can offer free sterilization of the mothers of litters surrendered to them. Rescuers barely able to feed the animals in their care cannot.

Sex therapists vs. vets

Realizing the need to reduce pet overpopulation by sterilization as a first priority, after converting a second home on their 79- acre property into a rescue shelter, sex therapists Max and Della Fitz-Gerald of Wilson County, North Carolina, built a $200,000 private clinic.

"The Fitz-Geralds did not come to Wilson County to galvanize dog lovers," wrote Martha Quillin of the Raleigh News & Observer. "They were simply returning home. Max, 61, is a Wilson native, and Della, 57, was born in Goldsboro. They left the state years ago to pursue careers in deaf education and lived in Florida and Washington D.C. Eventually they specialized in sex education for the deaf, and later became sex therapists. They established a foundation to support their shelter and clinic, For The Love Of Dogs, Inc., and got it tax-exempt status. But the clinic had only been open a couple of weekends when a photo of a vet working on a dog appeared in the Wilson Daily Times."

North Carolina Veterinary Medical Board executive director Thomas M. Mickey sent a retired Ashville-area police officer, the officer's wife, and a borrowed puppy to the clinic on a sting.

The clinic veterinarian was not there when they arrived.

"They said they were new to town, and were down on their luck," Della Fitz-Gerald told Quillin. "They had this puppy, and couldn't afford to get her vaccinated or dewormed."

Della Fitz-Gerald gave the puppy the de-wormer, Max Fitz-Gerald administered the first vaccination and instructions on follow- up, and both were accused of practicing veterinary medicine without a licence.Ernie Josephs, senior assistant district attorney for Nash, Edgecombe, and Wilson counties, on March 8 dropped the charges. But the clinic was still out of business until and unless the Fitz-Geralds can find a veterinarian to run it for them as a lessor.

No hush in Charlotte

The techniques needed to end dog and cat overpopulation are not unknown in the Carolinas. John Freed pioneered the surrender- a-litter-and-we'll-fix-the-mother-free deal more than 15 years ago at the Greenville Humane Society, with grant support from the North Shore Animal League. Freed and North Shore also pioneered adoption transfer.

Founded by Patti Lewis in 1978, the Humane Society of Charlotte in 1982 opened the first low-cost dog and cat sterilization clinic between New Jersey and Florida, and has since altered more than 110,000 animals.

North Carolina shelters were killing 230 dogs and cats per 1,000 human residents of the state as recently as 1985, according to data gathered in 1985 by Justice for Animals founder Nancy Rich: twice as many as the highest known figure for the U.S. as a whole, reached circa 1970.

In 2003 North Carolina shelters killed 32.4 dogs and cats per 1,000 humans, but the U.S. norm is now 14.8. Charlotte-area shelters killed between 17.5 and 19, according to varying but similar estimates by different investigators.

That did not bring Lewis much praise in a three-part Charlotte Observer investigative series about pet overpopulation that started on June 29, 2003, and has often been followed up.

Entitled "Death at the pound," the Observer series amplified activist criticism of Lewis' recent leadership, especially of a six- week wait for sterilization appointments that has developed because the demand for the service has outgrown the capacity of the humane society to provide it. The humane society added a mobile clinic to increase sterilization capacity several years ago, but has had the budget to use it just once a month.

Lewis eventually announced her intent to retire, touching off a board-level battle royal over selection of her successor.

Mecklenburg Superior Court Judge David Cayer on April 20 issued an emergency restraining order that removed Lewis from direction of the Charlotte Humane Society and put Tyler 2 Construction company president Katie Tyler in charge until further notice. Cayer authorized Tyler to appoint a new board. The four-member board has been split between two Lewis supporters and two Lewis foes, who for months had fought over who should fill the empty tie-breaking seat.

While the Humane Society of Charlotte dispute simmered, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Control captain Tammy Williams on March 3 won preliminary approval from a city council committee for a plan to build a $282,000 sterilization clinic, with a $77,000 annual operating budget, and an additional budget of up to $38,000 per year to use the humane society mobile clinic two days a month. The city would also spend $385,000 to add 40 new dog runs to the community shelter.

Within a week the plan was obscured by a flap over the failure of the animal control department to bill 18,000 residents for their pet license fees in 2003, costing the city an estimated $200,000. The 2003 invoices were finally mailed in February 2004. About 14% of Charlotte-Mecklenburg dogs and 6% of cats are licensed, according to an estimating formula based on American Veterinary Medical Association data on household rates of petkeeping.

In nearby Union County, former city shelter director Susan Marsh is awaiting trial for allegedly embezzling $65,000 in adoption fees during the five years preceding her October 2003 dismissal.

Local storms

Charlotte was scarcely the only North Carolina community whose shelters were embroiled in controversy.

In Concord, the Cabarrus County Sheriff's Office on April 17 charged Tailwaggers Rescue & Retreat employees Gary L. Stroup, 44, of Albemarle, and Jeffrey Dwayne Thomas, 17, of Stanfield, with allegedly beating, kicking, and burying alive a sick puppy.

Kelli Allen, who founded Tailwaggers in March 2003, told Barbara Jones of Media General News Service that the allegation originated with a former employee who was fired for cause, but sheriff's lieutenant David Taylor said the employee was fired only after the case was reported.

Allen also claimed that neighbors and animal control were trying to close Tailwaggers, cited three times in June 2003 for allowing animals to run at large and in April 2004 for creating a public nuisance with excessive barking and offensive odor.

"Since the organization opened," Jones wrote, "animal control officers have been called 11 times about barking dogs, three times about dogs barking, and twice about dog bites. "

In Chapel Hill, the Animal Protection Society of Orange County in March 2004 hired Joe Pulcinella, 53, to succeed former executive director Laura Walters, who resigned in October 2003. A 34-year veteran of shelter work, Pulcinalla previously was shelter manager for the Delaware County SPCA in Pennsylvania.

Despite the transition, the Orange County commissioners opted to dismiss the Animal Protection Society from management of the county shelter, effective on June 30, and to create a county animal control department instead, despite warnings from many directions that so doing will cost far more money than continuing the former arrangement.

The county commissioners believe they can hold costs down by attracting volunteers to do much of the day-to-day work, but animal control departments typically attract much less volunteer support than humane societies, because few volunteers care to risk bonding with animals who may soon be killed.

The Animal Protection Society plans to open its own shelter in nearby Mebane.

Tax pet food?

The most noteworthy effect of the Charlotte Observer "Death at the pound" series may in the long run be the August 2003 appointment of a 28-member special committee to draft anti-pet overpopulation legislation for the North Carolina House of Representatives.

Hearings held throughout the fall and winter became a running battle for influence among animal advocates, animal control agencies, breeders, and pack hunters.

" In most North Carolina communities, animal welfare is a concept rooted in 19th century practices and programs," summarized Observer editorial page editor Tim White. "It goes like this: let them breed, scoop up the strays, cage them in foul, unhealthy kennels, and then kill them.

"Ironically," White continued, "the state has offered help for low-cost spaying and neutering programs for years. Most communities, including ours, ignored it. After a winter of hearings, a House study committee has proposed some advances into the 21st century, key among them a well-financed spay/neuter program.

"The money would come from a small tax on animal food. The plan would add 10¢ to the price of a 20- pound bag of dry food, and 2¢ to every can. In my household, with two largish dogs and one slightly plump cat, that might amount to an extra buck a month, at most. Those pennies would add up to an $8 million-a- year fund that would help animal shelters meet the new law's requirement," consistent with laws already in effect in many states, "that dogs and cats released from shelters must first be sterilized."

North Carolina Coon Hunters Association representative David Gardin alleged that the bill would cost a farmer with two collies $200 a year. White pointed out that this would require feeding the collies 110 pounds of food per day.

The North Carolina Sport-ing Dog Association also opposes the bill, along with the Pet Food Institute, which has historically opposed all efforts to tax pet food.

More surprisingly, the bill is opposed by Humane Society of the U.S. representative Phil Snyder.

"The bill is not perfect, and compromises were made in order to create a bill that will be passed," responded Humane Society of Eastern North Carolina president Peter MacQueen III. "Does a difference of opinion on a few issues warrant withholding support for the bill? Have they polled members of humane societies across the state to see what we want? They are operating in a paternalistic vacuum."

--Merritt Clifton