By DAVID E. MALLOY
The Herald-Dispatch
malloy@hdonline.com
IRONTON — Offers to adopt a 1-year-old female golden
retriever are coming in from across the country after
a Lawrence County animal cruelty case was put on the
Internet several weeks ago.
The case has generated between 150 to 200 letters and
e-mail messages to Lawrence County Prosecutor J.B.
Collier Jr., asking him to pursue the case to the
fullest extent of the law. A pre-trial is set today
in Ironton Municipal Court for a 36-year-old Pedro
man facing a misdemeanor charge of cruelty to
animals.
The case also has generated comments about the
weakness of Ohio's animal cruelty law. The Humane
Society of the United States has called Ohio's law
the weakest of all the states based on penalties for
offenders. The state legislature currently is
considering a tougher law to make some instances of
animal cruelty a felony, a law that 27 other states
have, but not Ohio, Kentucky or West Virginia.
Carla Beasley, county humane society officer, picked
up the dog humane society officials have named Sunny
Sunshine on Aug. 29. A metal chain placed around the
dog's neck was so tight it was cutting several inches
into the animal's skin. She also was suffering from
mange.
"She's better now, but she still has a long way to
go," Beasley said Wednesday. "The wounds and the
mange are healing well."
Her husband, Robert Beasley, treasurer of the
Lawrence County Humane Society, said a friend of the
county society set up a Web page for the society
several weeks ago. The web address is
www.irontonshelter.org.
The case involving Sunny was among two featured on
the local humane society's Web site. The society has
received offers from California, Arkansas and Chicago
to adopt the dog, he said.
He said he had to take a wrench to get the chain from
around the dog's neck. The dog also had open sores
and maggots, he said.
In states like Michigan, Indiana and Pennsylvania,
animal cruelty charges can lead to the filing of
felony charges. In Ohio, the maximum penalty is a
90-day jail sentence, a $750 fine, or both as part of
the 125-year-old law, Beasley said. Contrast that
with Louisiana where a 10-year sentence is possible
or Oregon which has a maximum $100,000 fine, he
said.
"We do need to change the law," he said.
A bill to do just that currently is before the state
legislature in Columbus, said Linda Reider, program
coordinator for the Humane Society of the United
States, Great Lakes region. That office in Bowling
Green, Ohio, covers Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana and
Michigan.
"The law is woefully inadequate in Ohio," she said.
"It needs significant changes. Ohio's law has been
rated the worst in the nation by Ohio Legislative
Services which drafts bills for the legislature."
House Bill 108 would make some aspects of animal
cruelty a felony. Neglect still would remain a
misdemeanor under the bill currently in the criminal
justice committee for hearings, Reider said.
One aspect of the bill gives courts the options of
having defendants undergo psychiatric counseling, she
said. Its passage is by no means assured, she said. A
bill that would weaken the existing law also could be
considered by the legislature, she said.
County Prosecutor J.B. Collier Jr. said he takes this
case seriously. He also isn't happy that Ohio's laws
limit what he can do in the case. "We'll prosecute it
vigorously," he said.
"I'd like to have the ability to consider more
serious charges," Collier said. "There's not much
room to move in these cases. I'd like to have the
ability to have the grand jury consider more serious
charges."
Robert Beasley said these cases need to be taken to
court. He cited a 1996 survey conducted by Ohio State
University which showed that of more than 25,000
complaints of animal cruelty or neglect in Ohio, only
85 charges were filed with state courts.
Local figures mirror those numbers, he said. When
Ohio cases are minor misdemeanors, law enforcement
agencies don't feel it's that important to pursue
most of them, he said. The society tried
unsuccessfully earlier this year to get the Lawrence
County Board of Commissioners to pay for a special
prosecutor to handle animal cruelty cases.
"The Justice Department's booklet published this past
summer to help administrators identify potentially
violent students list animal cruelty as one of the
warning signs," he said.
Jody Crowe, a Huntington resident, said the case
should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
law. "This person should never be allowed to own or
be in possession of pets for any reason," she said in
an e-mail to Collier.
Ginny Weller, a Carlisle, Pa., resident who read
about Sunny on a "Golden Retrievers in Cyberspace"
Web site said she "cannot express to you the amount
of anger, hostility and heartbreak I evoked all at
once while reading Sunny's story and seeing her
picture."
She wrote to Collier "with an unstoppable flow of
tears for Sunny. Someone must finally let the world
know that animal abuse will no longer be taken
lightly. Someone must finally pay the price and be
the example. Animal abuse penalties are taken so
light and the abusers are given a little, tiny fine
and a slap on the hand."
"Abuse is abuse no matter who or what it is to," she
wrote. "When will someone finally push the lawmakers,
judges and all others into realization?"