Two dogs die of parvo
Colorado Springs, CO (US)Incident Date: Wednesday, Jul 16, 2008
County: El Paso
Charges: Misdemeanor
Disposition: Alleged
Abuser names unreleased
For weeks, Tamra Davis watched the puppies next door with a knot in her stomach.
She called the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region two months ago after seeing the owner's boyfriend grab one by the neck and throw it across the yard, she said. She called again when the dogs were allowed to roam the neighborhood, and again when they were left inside a tiny, closed garage on a hot summer day.
"I could hear them in there, howling," she said.
Last week, Davis and others on Pika Point in the Antelope Ridge subdivision just east of Colorado Springs realized they hadn't seen their neighbor's brown pit bull mix in days, Davis said. On Wednesday, they spotted the second dog, a white husky, lying motionless under a rear porch - dead, they would learn, of parvovirus, a wasting illness that causes intestinal pain, bloody diarrhea and dehydration.
The dog owner was cited with animal cruelty, a misdemeanor, because she allowed the dog to suffer instead of seeking treatment or having the animal euthanized, said Ann Davenport, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society, which provides animal control for Colorado Springs and El Paso County.
"You can be charged for allowing your animal to die a slow and painful death instead of a humane one," she said.
The woman told an animal control officer that the pit bull died the same way a few days earlier, Davenport said. She did not name the owner, and The Gazette's attempts to reach her on Saturday were not successful.
Davis, who began calling the Humane Society in May, said she wants to know why the agency didn't take action sooner.
"I had to stand by and watch and listen to these poor, helpless animals being abused," Davis said in a letter sent Thursday to Dr. Wes Meltzer, the Humane Society's director.
On the day the husky lay motionless, Davis said, she called the agency's emergency hot line and waited on hold for an hour. She ended up calling 911 on her cell phone and requesting an El Paso County sheriff 's deputy. The deputy had arrived and confirmed the animal was dead before anyone ever answered the emergency line, she said.
Davenport - who said she didn't have all the details about the case - said the Humane Society had been working with the family to arrange appropriate care for the animals.
"We have been actively involved in this case and sent an officer out multiple times," she said.
Home visits usually end with the pet owners agreeing to take better care of their animals, she said.
Between January and June, the Humane Society responded to 10,868 calls for service, many of them reports of abuse, neglect and aggressive behavior, Davenport said. Summers bring the highest call volume.
Davis, a monthly donor to the Humane Society, is asking the agency to take complaints like hers more seriously.
"I've never been a witness to something like this, and I can't get that picture out of my head," she said. "They were both wonderful, friendly dogs who just wanted attention. I don't even know their names." References« CO State Animal Cruelty Map
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