Animal Cruelty at it's worse for Wayne County, NC

Asking questions should never put you in fear or make you feel as retaliation will shortly follow.  It’s our right and responsibility to ask questions on any issue that seems to raise our eyebrows and the sooner we ask the better in most cases.

Although this case is from 2009, I feel we can learn from it to help prevent such events taking place in the future or if nothing else maybe with our right to ask a  question, we can reduce the amount of suffering that other animals may fall victim to versus turning a blind eye.

I look to this case and question on where this man was able to get so many animals, 26 dogs made it out alive on this man’s property but yet an undetermined amount of animals fell victim of his crimes while he mutilated, decapitated and dissected other animals. What pain did they live thru prior to their death?

In 2009 we saw a huge turn to social media for Shelter Animals, people would post a picture of an animal on death row, other people would hit the share button, a Chip In would shortly go up to save the animal and before you knew it someone from many States away announces with just a profile picture and a name that no one knows announces,  they will take the animal if you can get the animal to them. And then we are off, post after post some of the same people would say, I will take that animal, please get it to me.

This all sounds wonderful if you take it for face value, but if you dig deeper you will find many of those unknown profiles on social media are not who you think they are, they are not the name they have listed nor are they living in the location that is listed on their info, yet you have now just shipped them a live animal for them to do with what they please. My point here is none of us should be shipping live animals to people we have not meet in person, never ship an animal to someone without a verified Vet check, and a home visit is a must. Don’t think for a minute that all those profiles jumping to help these Shelter Animals are here for the right reasons. Hidden behind many of those anonymous profiles are animal abusers, class b dealers, hoarders and crush video makers.

I’m not stating that this man in this one case acquired all of these animals due to social media or Craig’s Lists, but I am stating that anytime you send a live animal off to another party that it’s high time you slow down and check on who the receiving party really is. Don’t allow some website to fool you, as we have seen these days, anyone can put anything they want on the internet, doesn’t mean it’s factual.

Check with local Animal Control Officers in the town they live in, contact their current Veterinarian, Dept. of Agriculture, and other State or County Offices. Never should any of us just send these Shelter Animals to a profile on social media as they could land in the hands of a man like this.

Slow down, verify facts for yourself, don’t allow others to direct you on their versions of the truth. Take responsibility for the animals that you have a hand in getting to another party. It tears at the heart but sometimes there is worse than being humanly euthanized in a shelter and it’s called reckless rescue efforts where you send a helpless animal into the hands of someone like this man. I can’t image the pain that some of these animals endured prior to finally dying, the same kind of pain that animals in hoarding situations face, or what’s even worse are those animals that endure the torture of being held in a live testing facility by the hands of the manufactures that still test their products on live animals. It’s 2013, we know better now and we can do better for all living creatures from today forward.

So before you decide to surrender your family pet to a County Shelter, ask yourself what horror am I about to place this animal in? In case you didn’t know, a County Animal Shelter is just that, it’s not an adoption center by any means.

In North Carolina we are listed as a “High Kill” State, we euthanize 287,000 animals each year (on the books that is) while more than 11 Counties still haven’t reported their numbers to be account for. So if you loosely add those missing 11 Counties numbers it raises the State of North Carolina yearly euthanized animals to over 345,000.00 animals a year that are disposed of by one form or another of euthanasia.

Shame on all of us or allowing this to continue to take place this day and time.

 

Please see local news story link here:

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4251302/

A Fremont man, whom authorities charged earlier this month with three counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty, now faces a fourth charge because four dead owls were found on his property.

Lawton McKenzie, 28, of Old Black Creek Road, was arrested Jan. 6 after animal control officers seized dismembered animals, a machete, knives, bowls of blood and what appeared to be a decapitated puppy's head in a bag. Investigators also removed 26 living animals from the home.

Owls are protected under state law.

A Wayne County judge ruled Thursday that McKenzie must also pay the county for the upkeep of animals seized from his home last month.

The county filed a civil complaint against him last week and also requested he post sufficient funds with the Wayne County Clerk of Superior Court to ensure the care of the animals for an additional 30 days.

McKenzie has five working days to post the $8,640 necessary for the upkeep of the animals or he automatically forfeits them.

McKenzie has denied the animal cruelty charges, saying he was studying taxidermy and that he began picking up animal carcasses for that purpose.