The following is a ‘cold case’ from May 2016 I’ve been asked to renew interest in. This investigation into an animal cruelty situation was the first story I ever covered on cat dumping in North Carolina. Rockingham County police are still looking for the person who dumped pet carriers filled with decomposing cats in the Mayodan/Madison area. Michael and I both covered this horrific case of abuse and I’m listing links to previous articles following this update.
Mayodan is a small community located one hour and sixteen minutes northeast of Salisbury and a bit over two hours northeast of Charlotte. Madison is roughly the same distance. Wilkesboro is an hour and a half southwest and Durham is an hour and a half southeast.
The first batch of carrier/crates were discovered on 4th May 2016 by the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office in the area of U.S. 220 Business just south of Janet Rd. in Mayodan, N.C. Nine crates were found lined with newspapers and several inches of decomposing food. Animal feces were in each carrier, along with decomposing cat carcasses in four of the carriers. Two animal bowls were also found at the site.
Decomposing cat carcasses were also found in several other pet carriers by Madison Public Works around 6 a.m. May 4 on a dead end service road inside Madison city limits. It’s believed the carriers were dumped Tuesday afternoon between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Wednesday morning. Police believe the crimes are related.
It was believed at the time that someone in the rescue community was responsible because of the number of pet carriers involved. The typical cat owner doesn’t have this many crates unless they’re somehow involved in cat rescue. Amazon is known for selling this type of carrier online. At least seven of the crates were new and had the eco-friendly logo on them.
Rockingham County and Madison County conducted a joint identification and followed up on the many tips that came in. To date, no one has been able to identify the pet carriers.
After the Garner, NC dumping of 17 cats done Thanksgiving weekend and the recent arrest of an NC animal advocate found with four deceased cats in her home, finding who dumped the cats last May is more important than ever. Those poor cats deserve justice.
We can’t allow this case to die without finding the person(s) responsible because it sends a message to other abusers that animal cruelty cases in NC aren’t held in very high priority.
Please circulate this article. I’ve posted several of the pet carriers. If you’ve handed off a cat in one of these carriers to a person in rescue, or if you recognize any of the carriers, help these cats find closure.
Anyone with information involving this case is asked to please contact the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office at 336-634-3232, the Madison Police Department at or call Rockingham County Crime Stoppers at 336-349-9683.
More photos from the scene can be found by clicking here.
Elisa
