A pit bull confiscated from the home of a Marion man suspected of dog fighting was seriously hurt when it was dragged behind a Humane Society truck on the way to the Grant County animal shelter last week. Don Mathias, an animal control officer with the Grant County Humane Society, has been reprimanded and may be put on paid administrative leave for failing to seek medical treatment for the dog after he discovered that he had dragged the animal along a street for some distance Feb. 16, according to Kim May, president of the Humane Society board of directors. �The dog opened the door up on my truck and jumped out,� Mathias said. �I stopped and assessed the damages on the dog and then put it back in the truck.� May said Mathias had told her he dragged the animal about 10 feet. After he stopped the van, Mathias said he looked at the animal�s wounds and put the dog back into his truck to finish the ride to the shelter.
�After I arrived at the shelter, I cleaned up the wounds on (the dog�s) legs and gave him a sedative to ease the pain,� Mathias said. �� He was walking around � in the shelter. The dog, in my opinion, could have waited to go to the vet the next morning.� Mathias said the dog�s conditioned worsened after he left the animal that night. �It�s just a horrible situation,� May said of the matter. She said she�d asked police to investigate the matter to make sure the Humane Society was not in the wrong. Earlier, she�d said it was Mathias� choice whether or not to call a veterinarian. �It�s a judgment call. We told him, regarding not calling someone, it was a bad judgment call,� she said. The next day after shelter employees reported to work, the animal was taken to Kem Road Animal Hospital. �The vet said the dog should be put down,� May said about the injuries. But the animal is still alive and being treated at Kem Road Animal Hospital. May said its condition was improving.
The pit bull that was dragged, despite surviving the ordeal, still likely has a short time to live. Dogs confiscated in connection with dog fighting are euthanized, since they are not eligible for adoption. May said the shelter waits 10 days before killing the animals to make sure that the police case is solid. If the dog survives until early next week, it could be euthanized then. May said there was concern about reprisals against the shelter because of the animal confiscations and the injuries sustained by the pit bull that was dragged, but police are unsure whether any more of a threat exists now than before. �I can�t tell you whether this person would be any more of a concern than anyone else that they take an animal away from,� said Marion Deputy Police Chief Cliff Sessoms. Neighborhood MapFor more information about the Interactive Animal Cruelty Maps, see the map notes.
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