Animal abuse a continuing problem in Butler County
By Paige Scott
Lou, a 2-year old Doberman Pinscher, was brought to the Animal Friends Humane Society’s office April 22 with open sores in and on his skeletal frame. According to x-rays, he was so hungry, he ate rocks. He passed away five days later. The Animal Friends Humane Society posted about Lou on their Facebook page, saying he deserved so much better.
“We do take comfort in knowing that Lou didn’t die alone, chained up in a backyard, left to fend for himself. We will seek justice for him,” they posted along with a picture (shown above) of the Doberman.
Lou’s owner, David Neanover, is facing a felony charge of cruelty to a companion animal.
A Facebook group, Justice for Lou, organized a rally outside of the courthouse in Oxford for Neanover’s initial court appearance. Lou’s death, and the outcry over it, have made visible a longstanding problem in Butler County: animal abuse.
Ongoing but invisible
When pet owners are found guilty of some type of abuse, animal shelters such as the Humane Society and the Animal Adoption Foundation in Hamilton are the places the abused animals go to first.
According to Eric Johnson, the director of the Animal Adoption Foundation, the mission of his organization is to “provide a safe, humane shelter for abused, neglected or abandoned dogs and cats.”
Johnson said every day they are working with animals who have suffered abuse — many times that means trying to save the lives of the animals in their care.
“We provide any and all medical care provided for any pet taken into our program,” Johnson said.
According to Butler County Deputy Dog Warden Supervisor Kert Merbs, the number of animal abuse cases in the county have been increasing.
“We have always had animal abuse cases, but I would say for the past two years they have increased. We deal with at least one large animal cruelty case a month,” Merbs said.
He says they receive at least four calls a day.
“We encourage people to always call if they have any concerns. There isn’t a call that is too small for us to look into.”
Defining animal abuse
According the Ohio Revised Code, animal abuse is defined as “torture to an animal, depriving an animal of necessary sustenance, unnecessarily or cruelly beating an animal, needlessly mutilating or killing, or lacking to supply an animal with wholesome food, water, and shelter.”
Animal abuse cases — like Lou the Doberman — are often uncovered by city police or county sheriff’s offices. When an abused animal is taken into custody, they are turned over to organizations such as the Animal Adoption Foundation or the Animal Friends Humane Society in Hamilton.
“Our purpose is to take in any strays from the county, any stray dog found within Butler County can be brought to our facility and be housed for safekeeping for the owner to claim,” said Animal Friends Humane Society Executive Director Tara Bowser.
When an animal brought to the Animal Friends shelter needs immediate medical care, veterinarians are available to help and can perform surgeries at the shelter.
The animals are then housed in a large open cage with plenty of room, and kept separated from the rest of the shelter population until they are healthy and have received proper medical attention.
“Animal abuse is certainly a widespread issue,” Animal Adoption Foundation volunteer Mark Murphy said.
Though they try to raise awareness of the issue, and treat its victims, those who work or volunteer at animal shelters seem pessimistic about the ability of activists, or the law, to curb the problem.
“I think animal abuse is a problem that is never going to go away. I don’t think the laws will ever be strict enough to stop it,” Bowser said.
One problem might be the penalties associated with animal abuse.
The director of the Animal Adoption Foundation, Eric Johnson, says he finds the consequences for those convicted of animal abuse quite surprising.
“What is surprising to me, not just in Butler County but nationwide, are the penalties for those convicted of animal abuse,” he said. “The punishment in far too many cases is simply a slap on the wrist without jail time, and I think animals deserve better than that.”
Lt. Lara Fening of the Oxford Police Department thinks there are a number of reasons why animal abuse continues to be a common occurrence.
“People need to be more educated on the issue,” she said.
Stray stories
According to the Animal Friends Humane Society, stray cats are very common. At both the Animal Friends Humane Society and the Animal Adoption Foundation, there are many more cats than there are dogs. Stray cats are brought in to the Animal Adoption Foundation many times a week.
Some cats at the shelter seem frightened and shy. The Animal Adoption Foundation says it has been doing its best to get these cats back to a healthy state, but it can often be months before the cats are ready to be adopted and find a home again.
(To learn more about local animal shelters read reporter Halier Barger’s Oxford Stories article about animal adoption and abandonment.)
Volunteer Mark Murphy says there are many animals that come into the shelter and they have no idea what their story is.
For example, there is currently a dog there that was found as a stray, but no one knew where he came from or what had happened to him.
“All we could do is see that the dog had a collapsed esophagus,” Murphy said.
At that point, all they can do is try to help the animal as best they can. This is often the case as many animals are found wandering around as strays without a collar or contact information attached to them.
When it comes to animals who have suffered abuse, this makes it impossible to press charges against anyone.
Brandy, the dog with the amputated leg, is another example of an abused animal that was unidentified.
“Brandy clearly had trauma to her back leg,” Murphy said.
He says it was clear when she came in that the dog needed medical care and that it appeared that Brandy’s owner had been unable to provide that care for her.
“We tried to save her leg but it was way too late, so we ended up having to amputate it,” Murphy said. “Luckily she is getting along fine on three legs. She’s a happy dog, I am surprised she hasn’t been adopted yet.”
Over at the Humane Society in Hamilton, not far from AAF, Tara Bowser says they have a lot of animals that come into their shelter that are just “skin and bones.”
“Most of the time, they don’t really need a lot medically, they just need a whole lot of love, food, rest, and a safe warm place,” Bowser said.
More recently, they had a puppy come in named Trooper, who had been hit by a train, causing him to lose his back legs. Trooper came into their facility and they were able to help him fully recover. He ended up finding a brand new home and is healthy now.
Around the same time, Macy, an emaciated pit bull was found as a stray in the city of Middletown. They were never able to locate Macy’s owner so they were unable to press charges.
“Macy was extremely underweight,” Bowser said. “We put her in a foster home and helped her get healthy again and she ended up finding a really good home.”
She says that the majority of cases they get are animals that are severely emaciated and underweight. A lot of the time they are neglected.
“Sometimes they just need reassurance from a foster family so they know that everything is going to be okay,” Bowser said.
The problem in Oxford
According to the Oxford Police Department, animal abuse cases are even found among college students. Angela Schatzle is a public safety assistant with the OPD. She says that although they don’t see as much in Oxford as the rest of Butler County, cases still do come up.
“We have a list of animal welfare checks we tell people to look for if they see a possible animal abuse case,” said Schatzle.
She says the things people concerned about an animal’s welfare should look for include: Does the animal have enough food and water? Does the animal appear healthy and well taken care of? Does the animal have access to shelter? And lastly, is the animal living in a good and clean environment?
“The standard care in other countries is different than what it is here, so I think that is why we often see animal abuse cases with international students,” Schatzle said.
For example, there was a student who left their animal in the care of a friend over winter break. The cat, Clover, appeared to have suffered physical trauma and had severe burns on her back when the student returned.
In another case, six dogs were left in a single apartment when the owners went back home for the summer. They had reason to believe their animals were being taken care of. It was soon discovered that they were living in unacceptable conditions and lacked proper food and water. They were taken to a nearby shelter. The people supposedly taking care of them were taken to court.
Cases like Lou the Doberman or Clover the cat serve as reminders that animal abuse is an ongoing problem in Butler County. It’s a problem that Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, who also serves as the county’s dog warden, has pledged to fight.
“We are not going to tolerate it. We are not going to put up with it,” Jones said during a recent visit to the Humane Society.
Tara Bowser holds out hope that change is possible when it comes to animal abuse, but only if it remains a visible priority.
“I do think that more can be done especially in this area to hopefully really change those people that are abusing animals,” Bowser said.
There’s hope among many that the public conversation taking place in the aftermath of Lou’s death will keep the issue of animal abuse from becoming invisible again.
