Source: TelegraphUK, Nov 19, 2009
A Lithuanian man who threw a dog off a bridge has been hunted down by animal lovers who watched a video of the crime that the man posted online.
Police in the Lithuanian town of Kaunas arrested 22-year-old Svajunas Beniukas on animal cruelty charges after internet users helped police identify him and the bridge from which the small brown dog was thrown.
The video shows a man holding the dog, called Pipiras, Lithuanian for pepper, and laughing as his friend records the event on his mobile phone.
Checking that the coast is clear, he makes a joke about dogs flying and then drops the animal off the bridge.
Crashing onto a farm track below, Pipiras yelps in pain, and lies twitching on the ground.
But despite falling over 20 feet and sustaining multiple fractures and internal injuries, vets said the dog would survive.
“He’s lived with me for four to five years,” Petras Dunskaitis, the dog’s 70-year-old owner told a Lithuanian newspaper. “He didn’t deserve such a fate.”
Originally posted on a Lithuanian website, outrage at the treatment of the dog snowballed as the 40 seconds of footage spread across the globe, even making it to Facebook through the efforts of a 3,000-strong group calling itself the “Lithuanian Dog Support Group”.
Lithuanian police said a key breakthrough was tracing the local website, www.15min.it, where the footage originally appeared. The website’s users identified the man as Beniukas.
Local media reported that Beniukas may have sought revenge on the dog after it was suspected of killing some of his mother’s chickens.
He has been charged wtih animal cruelty and faces up to a year in jail.
Nathan App was sentenced in Montgomery County Court in Pennsylvania to five years of probation and 60 hours of community service after trying to drown a woman’s dachshund in a backyard swimming pool.
Under a plea agreement, App, 20, of Douglass Township, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of cruelty to animals.
“His conduct was disgusting. It was a small, helpless dog. He was basically torturing the dog by repeatedly dunking the dog in water and dragging it by its leash in the water,” Assistant District Attorney Abby Silverman said of the July incident.
Judge William R. Carpenter, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, also ordered App to undergo a psychological evaluation, and prohibited App from owning any animals, according to an article in the Delaware County Daily Times.
App apparently has a history with the dog’s owner — a previous court order had prohibited him from having any contact with her. Apparently, her dog was another matter.
The dog’s owner, who rushed the dog to a veterinarian for treatment after the incident, told police she was alerted to the attempted drowning by her neighbors who had witnessed the cruelty.
Two neighbors reported they observed App pull the dog by a leash into the pool area and then throw the dog into the water, according to the arrest affidavit. One witness claimed App tossed the dog into the air and watched the dog land in the pool, then repeatedly dunked the dog under the water.
Neighbors yelled at App and he pulled the dog out of the water, police said.
The dachshund survived.
Here’s a look inside the cavernous warehouse in St. Louis that has served as the emergency shelter for the hundreds of dogs seized in this summer’s massive five-state dog-fighting raid — the largest in U.S. history.
The Humane Society of Missouri, at one point, was sheltering more than 400 dogs, and 100 newly born puppies, at the emergency shelter, the first public access to which was granted last week to the Associated Press.
More than 120 of the seized pit bulls have been placed in foster homes, but about that many still remain in the temporary shelter. Another 160 dogs were put down because of injuries, illness or behavior.
“They are not a vicious animal. They are the victims of abuse,” said Debbie Hill, vice president of operations for the Humane Society of Missouri. “That face and their eyes tell the story. They only want to be in someone’s home, on a couch, or sleeping at someone’s feet, maybe chew up a rug or two for entertainment. They’re learning for the first time how to be a dog.”
Animal behaviorist Pamela Reid, who was part of the team that evaluated the dogs, said a surprising two-thirds tested well for nonaggression and adoptability. She’s fostering one puppy, although one of her favorite dogs had to be euthanized because he showed aggression toward men.
Source: TimesUnion.com, Nov 13, 2009
A Saratoga County man hunting on his property found something he was not looking for Sunday: A dog bound in duct tape and discarded in a trash bag.
The beagle, named Daisy, had been missing for two weeks. She is now recovering at home.
Her rescuer, Ed Dandaraw, 64, was hunting in a swampy area on his property when he spotted a small black bundle that he said at first looked like a bear cub.
Upon closer inspection, he thought it was just a black garbage bag — until it shifted and he saw two of the dog’s brown legs sticking out.
“When I pulled open the bag, she hardly moved,” said Dandaraw, who said the dog’s skin beneath the tape was hairless and appeared to be rotting. “I don’t think she had much time left.”
The dog’s entire head was wrapped in the tape as was the midsection of her body. Her two front paws were taped together, so that she couldn’t escape, Dandaraw said.
Saratoga County Undersheriff Michael Woodcock confirmed the dog had been found, but would not provide any details.
“(Whoever did this) was a very sick, deranged person,” Dandaraw said. “They left the nostrils open so she could breathe in the bag.”
He took the dog to an emergency veterinary clinic and using information from a microchip under her skin, Daisy was identified and returned to her owners.
The owners, who do not wish to be named, live about 5 miles away from where she was found. Dandaraw said the owner had been going around the town of about 1800 residents searching for Daisy.
Dandaraw said he spoke to the owners Wednesday night and they told him that Daisy, who lost about 20 pounds, is recovering well, though she can only eat very small meals and consequently is being fed six to seven times a day.
It was the first time in three years that Dandaraw walked into the swamps on the back of his property, a life-saving coincidence, he said. Now he wants justice brought to those responsible.
“I did my job in saving that dog,” Dandaraw said, “and now whoever can help to find out who can do this needs to stand up.”
Reach Humberto Martinez at 454-5057 or hmartinez@timesunion.com.
Source: Associated Press, Nov 12, 2009
A mother of seven is accused of running a house of horrors for pets at her suburban Long Island home, forcing her children to help torture them and burying at least 20 dogs in her backyard — animals neighbors now fear were beloved pets that mysteriously disappeared over the years.
Sharon McDonough pleaded not guilty last week to six counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty on suspicion of abusing five dogs and a cat found crammed into cages, covered in feces and urine, their coats matted with filth. A judge has taken away custody of the 43-year-old woman’s six young daughters.
McDonough’s neighbors began fearing their missing pets met a worse fate than the abused animals after her son led officials to a backyard filled with the shallow graves of 20 dogs.
Douglas McDonough, 21, who turned his mother in to authorities on Nov. 5, called the home “a concentration camp for the animals” in comments to reporters after the arrest.
“She would have the oldest kids hold down the dog while we duct-taped his mouth and she would hit him,” he said, adding that he and his sisters were all forced to take part in the abuse.
On Tuesday, a judge removed the six girls — ages 18 months to 13 years — from the custody of McDonough, who is widowed. Her court-appointed attorney, James D’Angelo, called the animal cruelty counts a “low-level offense.”
“She’s not charged with killing animals and is entitled to a presumption of innocence,” he said. No one answered the door at McDonough’s home this week.
Dozens of people have called the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals since the case broke, fearing their missing pets had been victimized, Suffolk County SPCA Chief Roy Gross said.
“My daughter is still crying every day over her lost Chihuahua,” said neighbor Sharyn Padula of the family’s dog Bally, who disappeared just over a year ago. Two cats, Annabelle and Sylvester, also went missing.
After the dog disappeared, the family “posted pictures everywhere, Craigslist, and went doorbell to doorbell asking people if they’d seen him,” said Padula, who lives a few houses from McDonough. “I really hope they don’t find my pets there.”
McDonough’s two-story red brick house sits on a middle-class block of closely placed, well-kept homes buffered by manicured lawns and festooned with holiday decorations — except for McDonough’s, an unkempt structure with peeling paint, surrounded by fallen, matted leaves.
Since the dog carcasses were found, vandals have spray-painted “killer” on the garage and “guilty” on McDonough’s mailbox. Rotten eggs were splattered on the house and on an SUV parked outside. A New York tabloid has dubbed her the “Cruella De Vil of Long Island.”
Gross was summoned to the home after Douglas McDonough contacted Rescue Ink, a group of bikers who stage animal rescues in the New York metropolitan area for a television program of the same name on the National Geographic Channel. Efforts to reach the group, created several years ago by a former NYPD detective and ex-security guards and bouncers, were unsuccessful. Its messaging system was full and an e-mail seeking comment went unanswered.
Authorities found the animals — a shepherd mix, a beagle mix, an Italian greyhound, a cocker spaniel mix, a pug and a tabby cat — in wretched cages in the house. A “sickening” smell in the back yard nearly overcame animal control officers and firefighters, Gross said.
“This is one case I’m sure I will never forget out of the thousands and thousands I have seen,” said Gross, a 25-year veteran of abuse investigations. “It’s probably one of the most horrific cases of animal cruelty.”
After Douglas McDonough told investigators about the animals buried in his family’s backyard, SPCA authorities returned to the house with a search warrant and began digging. In all, 20 dogs were found in varying states of decomposition, suggesting they had died over a period of years.
Gross said necropsies were being conducted and veterinarians would search the bodies for implanted microchips that might help identify them. That could be the only way to determine whether any of the dead dogs had been stolen.
Upgraded larceny or grand larceny charges might be filed by the police if it can be proved any of the animals were stolen, Gross said.
It wasn’t clear why McDonough’s son waited until last week to alert authorities, and contact information for him could not be found.
A note from the Suffolk Division of Public Health was taped to McDonough’s front door Monday, saying the agency wanted to know about “bags of human feces in the backyard and garage.” A health department spokeswoman did not return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Two of McDonough’s daughters have been placed with their older brother, two with neighbors and two in foster care. Suffolk County social services officials would not comment on the status of the child welfare case and whether charges were possible.
McDonough, whose husband, Darren, was killed in a car accident last year, faces up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine for each count of misdemeanor animal cruelty if convicted. If authorities upgrade the abuse charges to a felony, she could be sentenced to up to two years in prison on each count if convicted.
Padula said she hopes the necropsies do not turn up her Chihuahua or other pets.
“I’d rather think that they’re wandering around still,” she said. “I don’t even want to imagine.”
