Nottoway County, Virginia pays one man to care for the county’s lost and homeless animals. That man is now on unpaid leave after being charged with two felony counts of animal abuse. Both charges stem from shelter pets the ACO allegedly left to suffer without veterinary care until they were near death.
In one case, a terrier who was unable to stand was left in a cage without treatment or pain medication for two weeks before a rescuer transported him to a group willing to take the dog to a vet. A court document indicates the ACO claimed he took the dog to a vet initially, received a $2000 estimate but opted instead to leave the dog at the pound for the five day holding period before killing him. I wonder if he thinks fulfilling the holding period requirement earns him extra credit on the test. When the rescuer requested copies of the vet records at the time the dog was being transferred, the ACO reportedly said he had thrown them out since he was just going to kill the dog anyway. WRIC reports the dog had to be euthanized.
In the second case, a kitten was impounded with serious wounds and injuries which became infected as he sat in a filthy cage at the pound for at least five days without veterinary care. The ACO reportedly said he had placed, then removed, a splint on the kitten’s leg (playing vet hospital is yay) and that he was holding the kitten while waiting for a feline leukemia test to arrive. Which you know, testing for FeLV is important but not HOLD IT HOLD EVERYTHING THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD important. The ACO reportedly told the rescuer not to post the kitten’s photo on social media. Red flag, anyone? Sure would be a shame if someone saw what state the kitten was in and offered to take him to a vet and ruin the ACO’s fun, I guess. When the rescuer finally took the kitten to a vet, it was determined he had a badly infected leg wound, his pelvis was fractured and there was nerve damage to the bladder and rectum. The kitten was unable to stand or urinate and had to be euthanized.
The Nottoway Co shelter pets are currently being cared for by a neighboring county while the ACO is on leave. Hopefully the other county has some sort of checks and balances in place so that one horrible person can’t harm animals as the whim strikes him. Shame on the elected officials of Nottoway Co for having zero interest in what the actual hell was going on in their shelter – which was actual hell, to be accurate.
(Thanks Nathan.)