 Dog neglect - 3 found dead
Exeter, RI (US)Date: Mar 2004
County: Washington
Local Map: available
Disposition: Convicted
Abuser/Suspect: Todd Perkins
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A man who was arrested in 2004 after the police found three dead dogs in his Exeter trailer pleaded no contest in District Court to two counts of mistreating animals.
Judge Frank J. Cenerini gave Todd Perkins a one-year suspended sentence and one year's probation for each of the two misdemeanors. Perkins, 30, was also ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and pay court costs.
Perkins, who gave a Scituate address to the court, had faced a total of six counts of mistreating animals. Along with the three dead dogs and two that survived, the police also found a dead rabbit outside his trailer.
The two counts Perkins pleaded no contest to were for the surviving dogs; the other four counts were dismissed because the evidence the state would have used to prove them was supressed because there was no search warrant, said Michael J. Healey, a spokesman for the attorney general's office.
Bridget and Patches, the two American bulldogs that the police found alive in Perkins's excrement-filled trailer last March, are now available for adoption, Exeter Animal Control Officer Scott Gordon said yesterday.
The dogs were taken to the Exeter Animal Shelter, where they were under quarantine for six months. Perkins in September gave up his ownership of the dogs.
Gordon said Bridget and Patches, who survived by eating one of the carcasses, are now in good health.
"I want to see them go to the right home," Gordon said.
Members of the animal-rights group Defenders of Animals said they are disappointed by the disposition of Perkins's case, which took place March 5.
"We've been following cases in other states, and seen quite a few people serve time for a lot less," said Dennis Tabella, the group's director. "We've seen a trend in Rhode Island of courts imposing weak sentences on animal abuse."
Perkins had faced up to one year in jail for each of the six misdemeanor charges. He had originally been charged with six felony counts of animal abandonment, but those charges were dropped in July by the attorney general's office. An office spokesman said at the time that prosecutors had no choice but to drop the charges because they could not prove that Perkins intended to permanently abandon the animals.
Anyone interested in adopting Bridget or Patches should call the Exeter Animal Shelter at 294-2754. Neighborhood MapFor more information about the Interactive Animal Cruelty Maps, see the map notes.
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