Failure to vaccinate 18 dogs
Fayetteville, NC (US)Incident Date: Thursday, Feb 9, 2006
County: Cumberland
Disposition: Alleged
Case Images: 2 files available
Alleged: Edward Parker
A swarm of emergency vehicles, including four Animal Control trucks, descended onto a house in Bonnie Doone on the morning of Feb 9. Lawmen had a warrant for Edward Parker's unvaccinated dogs - all 18 of them.
Most were being kept in the back yard, which Parker, who is 80, had turned into what he called a "pen" to breed and give away puppies.
"You are going to take my dogs," Parker said, adding an expletive.
Four Animal Control officers each carried a pole with a cable noose on one end as they chased and cornered the frightened and yelping dogs.
"Let's get the runners first," shouted Charles Steinman, the county's animal cruelty investigator.
Too late. One by one, three of the dogs slipped over a 5-foot-tall fence, aided by boards resting against the fence. Anticipating the escape, animal-control officers had set up cage traps with dog food in neighbors' yards.
"They are finding any way out that they can," Steinman said.
Four people darted around and lunged at a scurrying golden-brown chow before capturing it with one of the poles. The animal snarled and barked, dragging its hind legs while being led to an Animal Control truck.
"Come on, let's walk," Steinman said.
Sue Nicholson, director of the Cumberland County Animal Control Department, said neighbors had complained 10 times in the past three months about the barking, unvaccinated dogs. Officials had previously urged Parker to vaccinate the animals and have them licensed through the Tax Office, but he refused, she said.
"As touchy as the situation is, we want to make sure the neighbors in the neighborhood are safe," Nicholson said.
The warrant said that in the past four years, Animal Control has confiscated from Parker "large numbers of dogs" that at times ran loose and posed a public hazard.
The back yard where the dogs lived smelled and had a dirt surface littered with mats and flat pieces of wood. Piles of wood, old buckets and ladders lined the wire fence.
In the front yard, where he rents the 59-year-old house for $175 a month off Bragg Boulevard, Parker had set up a tent with a gray tarp. Inside the tent were a bench swing, a makeshift coffee table with two ashtrays and a wood-burning stove.
Parker, who wore a red jacket with dirt smudged on the front, said he couldn't afford to vaccinate his dogs for rabies, a procedure that costs about $15. He said the animals stay in his yard.
"He loves his dogs," McLeod said. "They are well-fed. That's his whole life."
Parker finds junk walking through the neighborhood and takes it back home, McLeod said. "That keeps him going," he said.
McLeod said the house where the dogs were kept caught fire in October from a wood heater. The power has been turned off, and McLeod is repainting the inside and letting Parker live in another house across the street until the work is finished.
A city inspector on Feb 9 posted a violation on the front door where the dogs lived, giving the property owner 10 days to clean the overgrown weeds and brush.
Neighbors say they give Parker food when they cook outside. They say he is a nice man, even though the dogs are loud, particularly at night.
"That's a headache," said Pam Moland, who is 35 and lives across the street. "When one barks, they all bark."
The city does not limit the number of dogs at a residence, although the county restricts each home to three adult dogs in most residential zoning districts outside of Fayetteville.
When officials left the house around lunch time Thursday with 14 dogs of different breeds, three dogs that had escaped the back yard were still loose. Nicholson said animal-control officers would try to catch them.
She said the captured dogs will get vaccinated and be put up for adoption.
Dogs and cats under 4 months old don't have to be vaccinated yet.
Christine Gallagher, an animal-control officer, pulled a 10-week-old puppy - a black Labrador mix - from the truck. She walked across the street and gave the puppy to Parker.
"You've got to get him vaccinated in a month," she told him.
Parker clutched the animal. "All right, lady," he said with an expletive and went inside. References« NC State Animal Cruelty Map
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