A 24-year-old Jacksboro man has been arrested for cruelty to animals. It happened March 14 evening after police say Mauricio Toca Sosa confessed to the cruelty. Police say they initially found Sosa`s Rottweiler puppy wandering around town bleeding with his ears and tail cut off. A local veterinarian and an animal rescue group called "Animal Angels" have been caring for the Rottweiler ever since animal control picked it up last week. Because the Rottweiler is now featured on the Animal Angels website, the group has been flooded with donations and offers of adoption from around the country. Sosa is scheduled to be arraigned in Jack County on March 15. Case UpdatesProsecuting animal cruelty cases like those involving two North Texas puppies is all but impossible under loophole-ridden Texas laws, a problem some tried to fix last year, said Dallas attorney Robert "Skip" Trimble of the Texas Humane Legislation Network.
Authorities - who fear the puppies' mutilation indicate dog fighting - are building a case regarding a Wichita Falls pit bull and a Jacksboro man who is accused of felony animal cruelty in connection with a Jacksboro rottweiler.
"He will get away with it unless they can prove torture," Trimble, treasurer for the nonprofit group, said. "The problem is if they're trying to say he tortured an animal, the district attorney has to show he intentionally did that."
And that's difficult, Trimble said.
For instance, the Jacksboro man could say his intention was to cut the dog's ears off to make him look better and could say, "I didn't know that would hurt him or was torture," or "It only took me 30 seconds to cut them off, so how could that be torture?" Trimble said.
Under animal-cruelty laws, a dog's owner can't be prosecuted for injuring his animal, he said.
A Bell County dog owner ran over his puppy with a lawnmower because he was barking, but authorities couldn't charge the man with animal cruelty because it has to involve torture. The man said he wasn't trying to torture the puppy but to kill him.
Someone who isn't an owner can face charges - if the animal actually belongs to someone else, and he didn't have permission to injure or kill it, he said.
That rules out feral animals that have never been captured, according to the law.
The only possibility under the law in a case like the Jacksboro puppy owner's is an animal-cruelty charge, Trimble said.
But difficulties or no, local authorities are moving forward against those suspected of harming the two puppies, possibly to ready them for dog fighting, according to previous Times Record News reports.
The 271st District attorney, Jana Jones, has said she will present the animal-cruelty case against Mauricio Toca Sosa, 24, to a Jack County grand jury.
Sosa was being held Wednesday without bond at the Jack County Jail, officials said. The Immigration and Naturalization Service placed a hold on Sosa. Animal cruelty is a state jail felony punishable by 180 days to two years confinement and as much as a $10,000 fine.
Jones couldn't be reached Wednesday.
A local health district official said she has spoken with the Wichita County District Attorney's Office.
"I don't think we'll have a problem proving torture because some neighbors heard the animal screaming," Susan Morris, zoonosis coordinator for the Wichita Falls-Wichita County Public Health District, said.
In addition, a city ordinance dictates that only a veterinarian can crop ears or dock tails, she said. Punishment for a violation is a fine set by a judge.
During the last regular session of the Legislature, animal proponents attempted to close loopholes in animal-cruelty laws with House Bill 326, Trimble said.
If the bill had passed, prosecution for cases like Sosa's would be successful, he said. But Rep. Rick Hardcastle, R-Vernon, halted its progress.
Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, Hardcastle wouldn't let the bill come before the committee for a vote, Trimble said.
Hardcastle disagreed about both the proposed law's effectiveness and the ease of prosecuting the two North Texas cases.
"I don't think those prosecutors are going to have any trouble proving torture ...," he said. "When district attorneys come to me and say that we need more to prosecute with, then we'll look at further enhancing the law."
There's "a fine line in the law" between being able to prosecute someone for doing something cruel as in the local cases and being able to prosecute someone for spanking his dog or working cattle and penning them up too long, Hardcastle said.
Prosecuting animal cruelty cases like those involving two North Texas puppies is all but impossible under loophole-ridden Texas laws, a problem some tried to fix last year, said Dallas attorney Robert "Skip" Trimble of the Texas Humane Legislation Network.
Authorities - who fear the puppies' mutilation indicate dog fighting - are building a case regarding a Wichita Falls pit bull and a Jacksboro man who is accused of felony animal cruelty in connection with a Jacksboro rottweiler.
"He will get away with it unless they can prove torture," Trimble, treasurer for the nonprofit group, said. "The problem is if they're trying to say he tortured an animal, the district attorney has to show he intentionally did that."
And that's difficult, Trimble said.
For instance, the Jacksboro man could say his intention was to cut the dog's ears off to make him look better and could say, "I didn't know that would hurt him or was torture," or "It only took me 30 seconds to cut them off, so how could that be torture?" Trimble said.
Under animal-cruelty laws, a dog's owner can't be prosecuted for injuring his animal, he said.
A Bell County dog owner ran over his puppy with a lawnmower because he was barking, but authorities couldn't charge the man with animal cruelty because it has to involve torture. The man said he wasn't trying to torture the puppy but to kill him.
Someone who isn't an owner can face charges - if the animal actually belongs to someone else, and he didn't have permission to injure or kill it, he said.
That rules out feral animals that have never been captured, according to the law.
The only possibility under the law in a case like the Jacksboro puppy owner's is an animal-cruelty charge, Trimble said.
But difficulties or no, local authorities are moving forward against those suspected of harming the two puppies, possibly to ready them for dog fighting, according to previous Times Record News reports.
The 271st District attorney, Jana Jones, has said she will present the animal-cruelty case against Mauricio Toca Sosa, 24, to a Jack County grand jury.
Sosa was being held Wednesday without bond at the Jack County Jail, officials said. The Immigration and Naturalization Service placed a hold on Sosa. Animal cruelty is a state jail felony punishable by 180 days to two years confinement and as much as a $10,000 fine.
A local health district official said she has spoken with the Wichita County District Attorney's Office.
"I don't think we'll have a problem proving torture because some neighbors heard the animal screaming," Susan Morris, zoonosis coordinator for the Wichita Falls-Wichita County Public Health District, said.
In addition, a city ordinance dictates that only a veterinarian can crop ears or dock tails, she said. Punishment for a violation is a fine set by a judge. | Source: Times-Record - April 27, 2006
Update posted on Apr 27, 2006 - 10:23AM |
References | KFDX - March 15, 2006 |
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