Dogs neglected, stolen from drop off boxes
Fort White, FL (US)Incident Date: Friday, Feb 1, 2008
County: Columbia
Disposition: Open
Case Images: 1 files available
Suspect(s) Unknown - We need your help!
Recent investigations of dog fighting in Fort White have prompted residents to question whether city-sponsored, animal-drop-off cages are being used by dog fighters to collect "bait." Neighbors around the area have told Fort White Mayor Truett George that suspicious vehicles have taken animals from the four cages near Town Hall. The crates are used to hold stray animals in Fort White until employees of the Lake City Animal Shelter can pick them up.
Each cage sits on a cement slab and is covered by a tin roof. The shelters are wrapped in plastic sheeting in winter to keep animals warm. Fort White pays the Lake City Animal Shelter $65,000 a year for the service. The worry, residents said, is that dog fighters use the strays as bait to train fighting dogs.
George said the crates have been used for nearly 15 years, and it's not the first time he's heard complaints. Though a sign on the shelters urges people not to leave animals in the crates after noon, on weekends or on holidays, George said people don't always comply, and animals are sometimes left without food or water overnight or over weekends. No one has been caught dog-napping yet, but residents close to the shelters have reported seeing suspicious vehicles pull up to the crates late at night to take animals. Sheriff Bill Gootee said he has never arrested anyone taking animals from the shelter.
George said he couldn't think of another worthwhile solution other than the cages for dealing with Fort White's stray animals.
"We could close them, but that gives us an animal problem," he said. "We've sort of gotten used to the boxes and having fewer animals roaming the streets."
Margaret Smith, director of the Lake City Animal Shelter, said she's considered installing locks on the cages, but she hasn't found a practical design. Even if the department found a useful lock, there's a chance someone could just cut it off, she said.
Security cameras might be a good way to deter criminal activity, but that would be up to the town of Fort White to install them, she said. "If everybody was honest and did what we requested, we wouldn't have any trouble," she said. "There's somebody down there that's up to no good."
George said it's not likely the city would have the resources to drastically renovate the shelters. "The town cannot afford to be in the animal rescue business," he said. "We provide these boxes as a service." But it's a service even George said he wouldn't use.
"If I have animals I need to get rid of, I pen them up myself," he said. "I recently borrowed traps from the animal shelter to trap up some feral cats hanging around. I trapped up a half a dozen and had them taken away."
Katie Rooney, president of the North Florida People for Animal Welfare Society, said she could think of lots of solutions to the problem. For example, Rooney said, the shelter's location could be closer to the sheriff's office, which she said would surely deter criminal activity. She said locks were also still worth looking into. Rooney said she has been battling the animal cages since they were first introduced in Fort White. Before she and her husband moved from the town last year to start their own low-cost spay- and- neuter clinic, the two would pick up animals from the Fort White shelters and take them to the Lake City shelter themselves. She said she has lobbied Fort White Town Hall to get rid of the shelter altogether. "The way it's set up and the way it functions, in my opinion, causes more problems for animals than it solves," Rooney said. She said she's almost sure dog fighters are using the cages to their advantage. "If I stepped into a court of law, could I prove it? No," she said.
But Rooney said she's personally seen suspicious characters taking dogs from the cages. "I hardly believe that the animals taken out of those unlocked cages are taken to good, loving homes," she said. "To me, it puts animals in more danger than not." If you have information on this case, please contact:
Lake City Police Dept
(386) 752-4344
References« FL State Animal Cruelty Map
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