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Abused animals find refuge, hope at shelter

By David Goodwin
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With the rambunctious lives most dogs lead, specific criteria for an animal cruelty charge isn’t easy to define. But most people know animal cruelty when they see it.

As some municipal workers were talking in the breezeway of Eclectic Town Hall two weeks ago, a bluetick coonhound wandered up with severe injuries on his back. An asphalt contractor who visited town hall that day became so ill he had to leave, Mayor Alan Nummy said.

When Nummy saw the dog, his first call was to Elmore County Humane Society Director Rea Cord. His second call was to Assistant Chief Chris Miles, the lead investigator for Eclectic’s police department.

“Somebody’s going to jail,” Miles said as soon as he saw the dog’s injuries.

Virgil, as he was named by volunteers at the Humane Society shelter in Wetumpka, had burns of varying depths all the way down his back, from the top of his head to the base of his tail. They had scabbed over, meaning the dog’s owner hadn’t sought treatment for the grisly wounds.

Veterinarians from Tuskegee University examined Virgil to certify that his wounds constituted animal cruelty.

“It looked like something had been poured down his back, and possibly lit, because it was so deep,” Cord said, as Virgil happily munched doggy treats, his wounds carefully stitched and bandaged.

The veterinarian stitched together around half the wounds on the upper part of Virgil’s back. But closer to his tail, the skin was tighter, so only bandages and time will heal them.

“At this point, it’s filling in quite well,” she said, as Virgil’s sensitive nose sought out each new smell in the room. “He looks 10 times better than he did, but he’ll likely never grow fur there, and there will always be scars.”

Virgil’s former owner was probably not responsible for his injuries, Miles said, but his lack of veterinary care constituted neglect. Her penalty, he said, will likely be the loss of her coonhound. Miles said he’s still searching for the person who burned Virgil.

When police or sheriff’s deputies finds an animal they feel suffered criminal abuse, the Humane Society is the injured animal’s refuge.

At least two animals who were involved in cruelty and neglect cases are temporary shelter residents. Cole is a pitbull that police found on a chain.

“He probably lived on that chain,” Cord said. “Because his skin was raw all the way around his collar. Under his neck, the collar dug in down to his jugular vein.”

The short, thick dog is excitable and friendly, Cord said, but his weight could knock someone over as he made friends.

Cole, too, has “healed beautifully,” Cord said, and he’s ready to be adopted. Though he’s not a big dog, he’s solid and excitable, so Cord said she’d have to find just the right situation for him: Somewhere he can run and play, but a house without small children or other dogs.

Most pitbulls, she said, aren’t vicious toward people, unless they’ve been trained that way. Cord said she didn’t believe Cole was “being fought,” but he has the dominant tendency often seen in pitbulls.

Some scarring on his hide might signal fighting, whether organized or just natural dogfighting. But if he was, “he shows that not all of those dogs that fight are unsalvageable.”

As president of the Alabama Humane Federation, Cord joined Attorney General Troy King last week for an announcement that a $5,000 reward would be offered for information that leads to the arrest, prosecution and conviction of anyone involved in animal fighting.

Cord said she also hopes the state will pass legislation next year to strengthen the ban on all types of animal fighting. While Alabama has one of the toughest dog-fighting laws, its rooster-fighting regulations are among the weakest.

The answer, she said, is to prohibit bloodsports involving animals of all kinds, and to prosecute everyone involved in the fighting exhibitions, whether they’re owners, spectators or gamblers.

Since Virgil escaped his abusive circumstances in Eclectic, he’s become somewhat of a celebrity, Cord said. He was on local TV station WSFA, where a University of Tennessee alum saw him and noted his similarity to Smokey, the Volunteers’ mascot.

The Montgomery couple, Beth and Stan Trott, donated a Tennessee blanket that Virgil now sleeps on, Cord said. They’ve told other Tennessee faithful of Virgil’s plight, she said, and Volunteers from across the Southeast have offered to help offset the cost of the coonhound’s rehabilitation.

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