In the same month, Halifax County Animal Cruelty Investigator Robert J. Richardson received a complaint on Straight Road where a dog tied to a satellite pole had died from starvation as her two puppies were kept in a 3-by-3 kennel in plain view.
Chase had spent his life chained outside, the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said in a statement released this week.
The statement not only details the plight of Chase, but calls for the county to consider enacting a ban on tethering.
PETA fieldworkers met Chase as early as January of 2012, said Emily Allen of the organization's animal cruelty division. “He was chained his entire life,” she said today. “He was at the mercy of his owner.”
Chase as a puppy.
Because PETA's animal cruelty division has no law enforcement powers, fieldworkers could only visit the dog. “Chaining is not illegal in the county of Halifax. We had made visits, visited Chase more than a dozen times, helping with neutering, vaccines and medicine,” Allen said.
Since tethering in the county is not illegal, it took time to build a case.
Working with Halifax County Animal Control to build a case, Chase was seized in late August, so weak and emaciated that he couldn't stand or walk, PETA said, and his condition so dire that animal control officers had to euthanize him.
The day after Chase was euthanized, PETA said, a second dog on the property, a puppy named Rex, was voluntarily relinquished to PETA's fieldworkers.
A post-mortem examination of Chase's body revealed that he weighed 15 pounds — half of his normal weight.
The veterinarian who examined Chase concluded that the condition of his body— essentially a skeleton draped in skin — was likely the result of months-long starvation.
Richardson charged Chase's owner, Charlene Marie Parker of Roanoke Rapids, with one count of cruelty to animals. Her arraignment is scheduled for December 16.
“We seized him on the first complaint we received on him,” Richardson said. “PETA was beneficial in helping us in this case. They had been trying to assist her.”
In the same month, Richardson charged Amy Williams, of Straight Road in Roanoke Rapids with two counts of animal cruelty.
In that case Williams reportedly had the dog tied to the pole and the puppies in a small crate with no food or water. The puppies have been rehabilitated and sent out for rescue, Richardson said. The case is still pending in court.
Allen said cases like Chase and the one Richardson investigated independent of PETA demonstrate the need for the county to consider banning tethering. “What makes me mad is if you can't afford to feed or care for them, there are resources to call. There's no excuse to let animals waste to death.”
PETA worked with Roanoke Rapids, Weldon and Enfield to enact tethering bans. “We're hoping this type of abuse and neglect doesn't continue to happen in Halifax County,” Allen said.
There are plans in the works to formally speak with county commissioners on the matter.
"Thousands of dogs in Halifax County starve, freeze, and suffer because they've been chained and forgotten like an old bicycle in the backyard," said PETA Director Martin Mersereau. "PETA's motto reads, in part, that animals are not ours to abuse in any way, and we urge Halifax County to prevent other dogs from enduring what Chase went through by following the leads of Roanoke Rapids, Weldon, and Enfield and banning the continuous chaining of dogs."
Said Mersereau in the statement, “Dogs who are chained outdoors spend their entire lives eating, sleeping, and eliminating in the same few square feet of space. Chaining dogs deprives these highly social pack animals of the social interaction that they need, which can make them aggressive—and nearly three times as likely to attack. A growing number of cities and counties have banned or restricted the continuous tethering of dogs.”
