Oct. 24, 2009
There isn’t a hole deep enough for the creep or creeps who burned two (and who knows how many more?) pit bull puppies with acid and left them for dead in east Bakersfield over the last few months.
Someone knows who did this and they need to come forward so these criminals can be dealt with.
Beyond that, Kern County Animal Control’s sense of urgency needs a swift kick in the pants.
Though Animal Control quickly got both dogs rescued, which is highly commendable, they did not alert law enforcement nor the public about the burned pups.
Some of you may not like pits, may not care for dogs in general and may be sick of hearing me harp about our stray problem.
But this goes far beyond all that.
Torturing an animal like this could be the sign of a budding serial killer. It could be an indication of a dog fighting ring. Gangs may be using the poor dogs to flex their muscles.Or meth makers could be on some weird rampage. If it’s “just kids,” they need help.
Either way, I want to know about these things, I want my fellow community members to know and I want to be assured that law enforcement knows.
The more eyes we have out there, the better our chances of catching the sickos.
When I asked Animal Control Director Guy Shaw about it, he said they didn’t have a suspect so they hadn’t made any kind of report.
“We only have so many people for enforcement,” he said. “All we can do is increase patrols and unless we see someone in the middle of the street pouring acid on a dog, there’s not much else we can do.”
It’s really up to the community, he said, to be the eyes and ears of Animal Control officers.
Hello?! How’s that gonna happen unless the community KNOWS about these things?
And I’m not sure how this has escaped Shaw’s attention, but I have one big, fat mouth when it comes to animal welfare in this county.
One call or e-mail to me and I will holler to the hills about it! I’m pretty sure my number’s around here somewhere...ooop, there it is right at the bottom of this column. USE IT.
As it was, the rescuer and some other folks in San Diego were so outraged by this act, they scraped together a $5,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of whoever did this to these dogs.
They circulated a flier on the Internet, which made it to New Orleans media first, for cripes sake, and eventually got to me.
Imagine if Animal Control had alerted locals right away about the first puppy. Maybe it wouldn’t have happened to the second puppy.
OK, enough ranting, here are the details:
Animal Control picked up the first burned puppy in late July around Greenwood Drive and Niles Street. It was clearly tortured. Burned from the back of its neck to its tail and left to die.
Then a little after midnight Oct. 15, the Sheriff’s Department got a call from someone who said they found an injured puppy tied up behind their house. It was burned in the same pattern.
That was just east of Monica Street on Pioneer Drive, about a mile away from where the first puppy was found. Both had their ears cut.
Animal Control called a pit rescuer in San Diego who got the first dog, now named Smokey, who’s still undergoing surgeries.
He also took three other pit puppies found near where Smokey was. All had their ears clipped as well but no others were burned.
The same rescuer was called for the most recent burned pit, who now goes by Charlie, who’s also still in the hospital.
“Charlie was severely emaciated and his paws were flat, indicating he was kept in a cage,” the rescuer told me. He doesn’t want to be identified for fear the dogs were part of a fighting ring or gang.
He said he’s been working with Kern’s shelter to save pit bull dogs and has rescued 48 since May.
“Something needs to be done up there,” he said. “It’s just getting worse and worse.”
I’d say a start is ramping up communication so at least we know how bad the problem is.
Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Californian. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com.
HOW TO HELP\
People from San Diego will be in Bakersfield Monday distributing 200 to 300 fliers offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the person or persons who doused the pit bull puppies with acid.
For more information, you can contact the rescuer at (619) 851-2907 or email smokey91942@gmail.com.
If you’d like to make donations for the puppies’ medical care, you can contact the Animal Medical Center in San Diego at (619) 444-1166 and say you’d like to donate to the account named “Charlie & Smokey.”
You can also call Kern County Animal Control with tips about this, or any other, act of animal cruelty at 868-7100.
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