Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

CRIME:

Hanged dog incident raises awareness of cruelty

The apparent gruesome hanging of a dog from a tree at Lone Mountain Park Sept. 21 has raised awareness of a long standing problem in Southern Nevada: animal cruelty.

Clark County Animal Control hasn't confirmed that the dog found under a tree, a cord wrapped around its neck, was hanged. But in the aftermath of the incident, experts agree that animal cruelty does happen in Las Vegas, whether it be in the form of neglect or because pets and other animals are intentionally hurt.

"A lot of the real sadistic, criminal types of people can wreak untold havoc on animals," said Doug Duke, executive director of the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "Only one or two kids can do horrific things. With animal cruelty, the sick and twisted and dangerous cases — you tend to see more of that with a pattern."

But the most common animal cruelty problem isn't the "sick and twisted" cases, it's neglect and abandonment. The NVSPC is a nonprofit, no-kill animal shelter that takes animals by appointment only. With the mortgage crises, Duke said the shelter gets more calls every week.

"We see so much neglect, that's the most common thing on a regular basis," Duke said. "Animals are left behind in back yards or are found in crates in Dumpsters. The justification for some incidences is that people are so caught up in their own problems, but that's no excuse for the abuse and neglect."

Duke said he can't understand why someone can't pick up the phone and call the society or the Lied Animal Foundation, which runs the pound for Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Clark County, instead of leaving the animal to starve.

Although officials at Clark County Animal Control and the Lied Animal Foundation agree that abandonment is a form of animal cruelty, the two are not categorized together. For example, if an animal is found tied to a tree in a backyard with no food or water, the animal is categorized as abandoned if no owner can be found responsible. But if there is an owner, the case is considered to be animal cruelty. Animal cruelty is defined as a person intentionally harming the animal.

Some good news is that fewer abandoned animals have been turned in to the Lied Animal Foundation so far this year. For the first nine months of 2007, 510 animals were turned in to the foundation as abandoned, and for the first nine months of 2008, 381 animals were turned in as abandoned. And the number of animals impounded to the Lied Animal Foundation as a result of animal cruelty investigations has gone down slightly, but is a number that stays pretty steady from year to year, said Jim Seitz, co-director of operations.

In the first nine months of 2007, 197 animals were impounded while in the first nine months of 2008, 188 animals were impounded during cruelty investigations.

The numbers, however, are difficult to analyze.

David March, a supervisor at Clark County Animal Control, said that the number of abandoned animals turned in to the shelter is fairly stable because of sterilization efforts.

"There are fewer unwanted animals," he said. "In numbers, it makes a difference because there are not as many litters turned in, and it's offset by the increasing number of people having to turn in an animal because of the mortgage crisis."

Besides the sterilization efforts of Clark County Animal Control, private agencies like Heaven Can Wait Sanctuaries offer low-cost sterilization.

Despite the declining or stable numbers reported by Lied and Clark County Animal Control, some pet rescue organizations, like the Bullie Buddies of Las Vegas, have seen a dramatic increase in the number of animals needing rescue.

Lisa Kirk, president of Bullie Buddies of Las Vegas, said she gets about 10 to 15 calls a day from people who need to find a home for a pit bull. Many calls are from Realtors or landlords who find the dogs abandoned and starving.

"We always got a lot of calls because pit bulls are difficult to place. But in the last six to eight months, I've seen a large increase in the number of abandoned dogs and ones that need homes," Kirk said.

Kirk can't find homes for all the dogs that she gets calls about, having to away turn many dogs.

To help with the abandonment issue in the valley, Duke said the best thing to do is to get animals spayed or neutered, keep pets on the premises and consider adopting or being a foster owner of an animal.

"They're not second-rate animals. They're innocent. They were failed by people," he said.

Jenny Davis can be reached at 990-8921 or [email protected].

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