Eleven puppies poisoned to death
Eden, NC (US)Incident Date: Monday, Mar 30, 2009
County: Rockingham
Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Open
Suspect(s) Unknown - We need your help!
Eleven pit bulls lay lifeless Tuesday in the yard of Jerry Alford's home on College Village Drive in Eden. The mother pit bull was inside the house, struggling to survive. Alford believes that his dogs were poisoned.
"You can see antifreeze on their coats," he said.
He noticed something was wrong with his dogs at about 11 a.m. Monday, when the 3 1/2-month-old dog started throwing up blood. A few hours later, the 10 younger puppies, which are only about 3 1/2 weeks old, started "falling out" dead, Alford said. The oldest puppy died about 9 p.m. Monday.
Alford called it, from a litter of his cousin's dog, a "big teddy bear," and said he slept with him and his wife, Robin, most nights. But that night, the puppy was chained inside the fence in the yard.
The night before Alford's dogs got sick, he and Robin heard the dogs barking, and she heard a noise that sounded like someone was trying to open the gate to the backyard. But Alford dismissed the noises, not thinking the sounds were anything out of the ordinary.
"I know my dogs would usually bark or raise Cain when they would see somebody in this area," Alford said. "They'd bark at the wind blowing a certain way."
Alford was still dumbfounded looking at his puppies' dead bodies Tuesday afternoon. He planned to bury them as soon as the detectives from the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office returned to collect evidence.
"You get so attached to 'em. You don't look at 'em as a dog. You look at 'em as part of the family," Alford said.
Not only were the pit bulls beloved pets, but they were also a temporary source of income to the Alford family. Alford was laid off from his job in the Eden Mall two months ago.
He and his wife have an 18-month-old son and a 2-week-old daughter.
"We were raising pits to sell because I just lost my job, so I was doing this for extra income," said Alford. "I had so much money tied up in these dogs."
Alford said he had sold all of the puppies but one. He said pure-bred pit bulls can sell for $300.
Alford will miss the money, but more than anything he said he hated to see his dogs suffer. He can't imagine how anyone could be so cruel to an animal.
"It's needless, and it's certainly in violation of the law," said Dean Venable, public information officer for the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office. "It we find who's responsible, they'll be prosecuted."
Venable said cruelty to animals is a misdemeanor, but poisoning is a felony.
One of Alford's pit bull puppies was stolen a little more than a week ago. The sheriff's office is investigating. References |
