Animal abuse: People, government don't care enough, activists say

 Sunday, April 4, 1999

By CLAY BARBOUR

Wilmington Morning Star

WILMINGTON, N.C. -- In early March, the Carolina Basset Hound Rescue Program saved a sad-eyed dog named Quincy.

The fawn-colored hound was emaciated, dehydrated, and had heartworm, whip worms and other parasites. At 27 pounds, he weighed half the normal weight of a basset hound. His toenails were so long they curled under, pressing into his paws.

"The first time I saw him I thought he was a dachshund," said rescue group member Helen Hendricks of Brunswick County. "He wouldn't have made it another couple of days."

Quincy's owner gave the dog to Ms. Hendricks to avoid legal trouble for animal neglect. He never paid a fine or saw the inside of a courtroom.

The case follows the arrest of a Pender County woman charged with more than 40 counts of animal neglect. Sheriff's deputies and animal control officers removed a small zoo from her Hampstead mobile home in February. Her case is still pending.

The two cases highlight what some animal rights activists see as examples of public and governmental indifference to the rights of animals.

"Legally, they are not living beings, they are property," said Kim Roberts, spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States, or HSUS, based in Washington, D.C. "In the eyes of the law, it's no different than hitting your toaster."

The law

Laws against animal cruelty differ widely across the country. Only 22 states, among them North Carolina, offer felony charges for the crime.

In states such as Oregon, which boasts the strictest laws protecting animals, a person can receive as much as seven years in jail for animal neglect. In other states, such as Georgia, the crime never warrants a felony charge and it is almost unheard of to receive jail time.

In states such as Missouri, Montana and Indiana, animal cruelty is not a felony unless a person has been convicted of it at least once before.

Oregon has the maximum fine for conviction at $100,000. The maximum jail time that one can receive is 10 years, in Louisiana; provided, of course, the crimes ever make it to court.

In a 1997 Humane Society survey, only 15 percent of 401 reported animal abuse cases ever made it that far. Of those, only about 20 percent of those convicted were punished, and only 8 percent received jail time.

"The crimes are often kept hidden from the public and we can't prosecute what we don't know," said James Faison, an assistant district attorney for Pender County. "It takes someone in the community willing to file a complaint and then come forward to testify, and that doesn't happen a lot."

The Reynolds case is the first animal cruelty case Mr. Faison has tried in his 10 years practicing law.

Mr. Faison has, however, tried many domestic violence cases — a crime that often goes hand in hand with animal abuse.

A study conducted in Great Britain in the 1980s found that at more than 80 percent of homes where animal abuse had been reported, there was also a record of domestic violence.

A similar study conducted by the Buffalo, N.Y., police department and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Erie County, N.Y., in 1998 found that one-third of residences with animal abuse complaints also had domestic violence complaints.

North Carolina last fall enacted a law elevating animal abuse to a felony in cases where the abuse is severe and animals die as a result of the treatment.

The Reynolds case was the first in Pender County tried under the new law. In fact, the law is so new Mr. Faison didn't know he could bolster the charges against Ms. Reynolds until just before first court date in early March.

Another reason the crime is hard to punish is that it usually requires a witness. Studies show many people are not willing to come forward in an animal-abuse case.

According to the Humane Society survey, 16 percent of Americans say they have witnessed animal neglect and abuse, but almost 60 percent of those say they did not report the incident.

"We are sort of where we were with domestic violence and child abuse a few years back," Ms. Roberts said. "We have no real idea of how much of it is going on. It's so underreported."

Pender County Animal Control, which employs three animal control officers, received about 7,500 calls of all kinds last year. Only two people were taken to court and no one was jailed.

Federal and state law enforcement agencies don't track the crime. The uniform crime reports of the SBI and FBI do not list animal cruelty or neglect, and few counties or cities bother to track such crimes independently.

"In fact, most of the time it falls into a group of property crimes," Ms. Roberts said.

"And until we get that changed, we'll never know exactly what's going on."

Attitudes

On March 9 Tony Boykin stood outside the Pender County courthouse in Burgaw, smoking a cigarette and watching the media circus spring up around him.

"Look at 'em," he said, after a long drag from his menthol cigarette. "They wouldn't make this big a fuss if someone was accused of killing 40 people."

Mr. Boykin was waiting for a friend in traffic court when photographers for two area news stations and the newspaper showed up.

They were at the courthouse for Ms. Reynolds' case.

The case led to public outcry over the severity of neglect. But to some people such as Mr. Boykin, the hubbub was too much.

"Nobody's saying you should be cruel to an animal, but for God's sake, they aren't people," he said.

To many animal activists, such opinions as those held by Mr. Boykin are why little has been done about animal cruelty and neglect.

"There is still this underlying belief that animals really don't have rights; that it's somehow not that important they be treated with dignity," said Daphna Nachminovitch, a researcher in the Norfolk, Va., office of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "Until we change that perception, it's going to be tough to cut down on these cases."

Hidden problem

On a remote three-acre stretch of land behind the Brunswick County Airport sits Southport Oak Island Animal Rescue.

It's home to about 200 hard-luck animals, most of them victims of animal cruelty or neglect.

There's Noel, the gentle pit bull that was used as a puppy factory and then left for dead; and Francesca and Marianne, two Labrador-mix puppies left by a trash bin in rural Brunswick County; and a host of other dogs and cats abandoned or left for dead.

For years Director Jeannine Friday has operated the animal home as an independent shelter. With the help of volunteers, Ms. Friday takes in animals from all over the region, nurses them back to health and adopts them out.

It's a job that gives her a great deal of satisfaction. It also gives her a bird's-eye view of abuse and neglect.

"I'm rarely surprised anymore," she said while leaning over Noel's pen and stroking her head. "I still don't understand how people can do things like this, but it doesn't surprise me."

Ms. Friday said that although such cases as the one in Hampstead are rare, neglect and simple indifference are far more common than people may think.

Pender County Health Director Jack Griffith agrees.

Even failing to neuter an animal can be a form of neglect or abuse, he believes, because without such checks the animal population can grow out of control, resulting in abandoned animals.

"Our animal control officers ride around this county and pick up strays all the time," he said. "I think the fact that people don't spay or neuter their pets is just plain cruel."

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