When Columbus County Animal Control responded to a report of abandoned dogs just outside of Whiteville on New Britton Highway Saturday morning, what they found was almost beyond belief.
It’s believed the people living in the Eastern North Carolina home moved out over the last few days and left behind at least three dogs and four cats.
Due to the amount of filth and debris in the home officers are unsure of the exact amount of animals in the home. Officers were able to hear more creatures moving in the mounds of trash, but are unsure if there is wildlife there or more domesticate animals located within the home. Some of the cats were seen but could not be caught.
Animal Control Director Joey Prince stated
“We have no idea how many more may be in there. We have taken what we could see and have set traps for the rest. The smell in there is unbelievable. I highly commend my staff for entering such a place to save these pitiful animals”
Feces, urine and insect infestation inside the home was so bad the officers had to wear personal protective equipment before entering the home.
Visually, the cats appear to be in marginal to very poor shape and the adult dog appear saved today to be healthy enough to survive, but the puppies are touch and go at this point. All animals retrieved are covered in fleas and ticks, and animal control staff are working to correct that issue. The puppies are worm infested and have other intestinal parasites.
Charges are pending in this case, and the investigation and trapping will continue throughout the weekend and into next week.
According to North Carolina law Article 47. Cruelty to Animals § 14-360 construction of section
(a) If any person shall intentionally overdrive, overload, wound, injure, torment, kill, or deprive of necessary sustenance, or cause or procure to be overdriven, overloaded, wounded, injured, tormented, killed, or deprived of necessary sustenance, any animal, every such offender shall for every such offense be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
All animals seized are in the care of Columbus County Animal Control in Whiteville. This article will be updated should more information become available. Follow Elisa on Facebook.
Photos (courtesy of Joey Prince) were taken after the animals were cleaned up.
Elisa
Occasionally we get reports of this sort of thing in the UK, both the utter squalor in which some people choose to live and/or the keeping and/or abandonment of animals in that squalor. It’s always hard to know whether the people are just ignorant idle slobs, or people with mental health issues who just can’t cope.
North Carolina again ?
We probably can’t get a mandatory S/N law but there is nothing stopping states, counties, cities and towns from enacting fees for intact animals when found.
At some point expect AC to be given the authority to at least come to your door and ask if your pet has the correct tags and license for the area concerned.
No threats of confiscation just increasing fines for not complying. Oh and yeah if they’re going to dump their pet because they get a voucher for a free S/N and a 5 dollar county license they were going to anyway. If you want to keep an intact pet you should have extra penalties if it is found at large and pay about 500 dollars a year to keep it intact. Passing on the real cost of a puppy or kitten would offset that fee easily. My FB feed is a nightmare. I could turn it off but when I see those baby kittens so sick with never one good day in their short little lives or the senior cats dumped I can’t. Towns and cities pick on people who do TNR and feed the cats but do nothing to the owners who shamelessly let them breed and roam or dump them on the streets. Animal abusers have lawyers to try and evoke sympathy for their demented clients while the taxpayers and private charity and individuals try and make a dent in the population of unwanted pets.
And the cases keep getting put off and put off when they should be settled the first time at court. This is just costing taxpayers more money, not to mention what’s happening to the animals.
No one wants intrusion into their personal lives or the right to own a pet but when these conditions most of which have been festering for months if not years are acted on it’s the animals who pay first with their lives and health and then the taxpayers and organizations who raise money. And it’s double hard for a rescue dealing with the normal flow of unwanted animals. In almost all of these situations the cats are breeding.
If someone is so insane they can’t be held responsible for creating these messes they shouldn’t be allowed to walk the streets either. I’ve seen enough of those hoarder shows to get the idea family, neighbors and friends are aware of what’s going on. Often for years.
Well said Elisa Black-Taylor and M E King!!!
This is absolute cruelty to the highest degree. I hope the animals that are left in the house are rescued quickly and given a chance to survive. Above all the subhumans who abandoned these animals need to be found and prosecuted. Reading this article brought me to tears.
It did me, too! I hope and pray they are able to get the others out. There has to be more in there! I cannot believe HUMANS could even live in that filth!!! I would go in and search if I thought I could stomach it. But if I found things like that of which was in Barbara Hart’s house, I would lose it!! I hope these babies will all pull through!!
These “filthy scum of the earth” need to be locked up for a long time!!!
That is how I wind up with my ‘Susie’,the owner up and abandoned her with no food/water and the litter box was over filled,I hate humans who do this shite,the photo is ‘Susie’
Abandonment and hoarding are on the rise. We MUST gain the support of mandatory spay neuter and further defining the statues and laws regarding companion animals.
EXACTLY!!!!