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Twelve dogs found starving, neglected
Cottondale, AL (US)Incident Date: Monday, Nov 9, 2009
County: Tuscaloosa
Charges: Misdemeanor
Disposition: Alleged
Case Images: 1 files available
Alleged: Ruben Hedgemon, Jr.
Case Updates: 2 update(s) available
A Tuscaloosa County man was arrested and charged with cruelty to animals Friday morning after sheriff’s deputies found 12 emaciated and injured dogs at his home in Cottondale.
Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s deputies investigating a child abuse case at the home of Ruben Hedgemon Jr., 33, of 3701 Clements Road, in Lot No. 4 of the trailer park on Monday saw the 12 American pit bulls and pit bull mixes tethered by heavy chains in the yard, Sheriff Ted Sexton said. Some of the dogs showed evidence of dog fighting and all had been starved, he said. Others had injuries and infections. A dog’s skull was also found on the property.
One 27-pound dog was tethered to a 33-pound heavy-gauge steel chain, 38-pound dog was tethered to a 31-pound chain and a dog weighing 39 pounds was tethered to a 21-pound chain.
Two of the confiscated dogs attended a news conference at the Sheriff’s Office’s hangar at the Tuscaloosa Municipal Airport Friday morning. They appeared friendly, were wagging their tails and receiving attention from deputies. About 15 minutes into the news conference they briefly growled and barked at one another.
A hearing will be held in Tuscaloosa District Court if Hedgemon does not relinquish control of the dogs. All of them were taken to Tuscaloosa Metro Animal Shelter after deputies served a search warrant at the home Thursday.
It’s not clear yet whether the dogs will be available for adoption.
“The healthiest one is not very healthy,” said veterinarian Jimmy Canant, who accompanied deputies who confiscated the dogs. “Some just need nursing care, some need more aggressive medical therapy. They can be adopted if they are nursed back to health. It will take a person with a special understanding of this type of dog to adopt them.”
One of the dogs at the conference had a chronic wound on his leg that had worsened because it had not been treated, Canant said. The same dog had scars on his face that were likely caused by a dog fight, he said.
The animals also suffered from intestinal parasites.
“Every one of them was ravenously hungry,” Canant said.
A grand jury will hear evidence of the child abuse allegations and decide whether Hedgemon will be charged in that case, Sexton said. Hedgemon is a convicted sex offender who was released from prison in 2001 on a first-degree rape charge, according to the state’s sex offender registry. The child abuse investigation does not include sexual-abuse allegations, Sexton said.
Cruelty to a dog or cat in the second degree is a Class A misdemeanor in Alabama.
The law states that a person commits the crime “if he or she, in a cruel manner, overloads, overdrives, deprives of necessary sustenance or shelter, unnecessarily or cruelly beats, injures, mutilates or causes the same to be done.”
If he is found guilty, Hedgemon could spend up to a year in prison and pay a fine of up to $6,000.
He remained in the Tuscaloosa County Jail Friday with bail set at $12,000.
Case UpdatesA man accused of starving and abusing several dogs at his Cottondale home last year is also facing charges of child abuse.
Ruben Hedgemon, 33, was charged late Wednesday night with felony child abuse and misdemeanor third-degree domestic violence/assault. A grand jury indicted him on Feb. 11. He was arrested Wednesday and taken to the Tuscaloosa County Jail with bail set at $50,000. No further details on the child abuse and domestic violence charges were available Thursday.
Hedgemon already faces 12 pending charges of animal cruelty in District Court. Deputies investigating the child abuse allegations in December noticed several dogs tethered to heavy steel chains in his yard on Clements Road. A veterinarian said that they had probably not been fed for two weeks. Seven of the 12 dogs had to be euthanized. | Source: Tuscaloosanews.com - Mar 4, 2010
Update posted on Mar 8, 2010 - 3:35PM |
Seven of 12 pit bulls and pit bull mixes confiscated by Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's deputies earlier this month have been euthanized, but the remaining five are improving and can be adopted in the coming weeks.
Deputies found the emaciated and injured dogs at a trailer in Cottondale on Nov. 11. They were at the home to investigate a child abuse claim when they noticed the dogs tethered to heavy steel chains in the yard. A veterinarian said that some of them had probably not been fed for two weeks.
Ruben Hedgemon, 33, the owner of the dogs, was charged with 12 counts of second-degree animal abuse and released from jail on a $12,000 bond the same day. He is scheduled to enter a plea in Tuscaloosa County District Court on Dec. 16. A grand jury will review the child abuse allegations that the deputies were originally investigating at his home and decide whether he will face charges. If convicted of the misdemeanor cruelty charges, he could face up to a year in jail and a $6,000 fine for each charge.
Sheriff Ted Sexton said that the dogs showed evidence of dog fighting.
Seven of the dogs were put to sleep because they showed aggression toward other dogs, said Tuscaloosa Metro Animal Shelter director Judy Hill.
The remaining five are adoptable, she said. They are between six weeks and two years old and four of the five are mixed-breed. The full-blooded black and white named Sweetie Pie is being fostered by a member of a rescue group until she is adopted.
A rescue group volunteer was taking Sweetie Pie out for a walk when another of the dogs attacked her. A shelter worker had opened that dog's cage to clean.
'The dog got out and made a beeline for her. She was so submissive she didn't fight back.' Hill said. 'That's the problem with animals like that. They're not socialized and become dog-aggressive.'
The dogs have had shots and have been gaining weight, Hill said. They have been de-wormed, but one has heartworms. She hopes that they will be adopted in the next few weeks.
The adoption process for pit bulls and pit bull mixes is more complicated than a regular adoption. Shelter workers do behavior screenings on the dogs and there is more strict adoption criteria. Hill said that people often want to adopt pit bulls but do not want them to be spayed or neutered, or say that they want to use them as a watch dog.
'We want to protect these dogs, especially if they come in as a stray and we don't know their background,' Hill said. 'We have to weed out people who want to adopt them for the wrong reasons. They're intended to be companions and we want to make sure they're going to a home where people understand the breed.'
Fighting dogs are rarely aggressive toward humans, according to the American Humane Society. A lot of the dogs recovered from dog fighting operations had been used as ‘bait' dogs, or punching bags to train the dogs that actually fight, according to the society. They lack the ability, stamina and drive to fight.
Some of the pit bulls seized from NFL player Michael Vick's home are now working as therapy dogs.
Leo was one of the dogs seized from Vick's kennel in Virginia in 2007 who was injured, scarred and chained to buried car axles. Around five weeks after he was rescued, he was working at a cancer center in California and was described by hospital staff as gentle, according to news reports.
Hill said that the shelter often receives dogs that have apparently been used for fighting.
But arrests for dog fighting and animal abuse are uncommon.
'There are not a lot of either one,' said Tuscaloosa County District Attorney Tommy Smith. 'We have more cruelty than fighting cases. There has to be sufficient evidence we can produce. Certainly that can be circumstantial depending on all of the surrounding facts.'
Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Andy Norris said that it is sometimes obvious that dogs have been fighting, or trained to fight, but there won't be enough evidence to pursue a dog fighting charge.
'As with any other crime, you must have good, solid evidence to initiate an investigation,' he said. | Source: The Tuscaloosa News - Dec 6, 2009
Update posted on Dec 6, 2009 - 4:42PM |
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