February 20, 2007
Thomasville-- It took the Thomas County Humane Society six hours and a horse trailer to haul the dogs they found on Sherrod road in north Thomas County. Authorities are still trying to figure out who owns the dogs.
After responding to a tip about dogs being mistreated at the property, Kim Arrington, director of operations at the Humane Society, found a heart wrenching scene. "When you see dogs with no food or no water, it makes you sick and then when you stand up and see how skinny they are you just get nauseated. You just want to tie somebody to a tree and feed them like that," said Arrington.
The Humane Society is now housing twenty-eight dogs, most of them pit bulls, at their shelter. Many are severely underweight. One dog, wasn't so fortunate. When she was found, she'd already been dead several days.
Although no charges were filed, they trying to determine if there is evidence of criminal activity. "Soon as we get the results from the necropsy, we'll go from there as to whether it was neglect and cruelty," Arrington said.
Investigators say they can't be sure what was going on at the property with the animals. But the humane society will fight for permanent custody of most of the dogs. Investigator Jason Shoudel of the Thomas County Sheriff's Department said, "the animals themselves can't speak to us, can't talk to us so its up to us to speak for them when they're not being taken care of properly."
Investigators say right now they're still in the process of identifying the owners of all of the dogs.
The humane society says unfortunately if the dogs are found to have been used in fighting, they'll most likely have to be humanely euthanized.
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