Help comes in for seized dogs

BY ERIC FERRERI, The Durham Herald-Sun
June 1, 2005 5:41 pm

CHAPEL HILL -- Several national animal protection groups are offering financial assistance to local rescuers helping rehabilitate more than 60 dogs seized last week from a private home in Cedar Grove.

At least two national greyhound groups are pledging funds, as is the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals, officials said Wednesday.

The American Greyhound Council has pledged $2,500, while the ASPCA is offering $3,000, said Joanna Wolfe, president of the Triangle Greyhound Society, which is helping distribute the dogs to other rescue groups.

The California-based Greyhound Protection League is also offering grant money to groups helping rehabilitate some of the 66 emaciated, sickly dogs recovered last week from a home on Old Noble Road.

Five of those dogs, most of them greyhounds, were euthanized at the Orange County Animal Shelter, which housed the dogs initially.

"Although we never imagined that greyhounds could be treated this way in a rescue situation, it is not unheard of for animal rescuers to get in over their heads," Susan Netboy, president of the Greyhound Protection League, said Wednesday.

Caring for the sudden influx of dehydrated, lesion-ridden animals taxed the shelter's staff over the weekend. There are now overtime costs and veterinarian and medicine bills to pay, so the shelter expects to eventually receive some of the relief money, said Joe Pulcinella, the director of the facility.

"Some cost goes into it," Pulcinella said, citing vaccines, topical products and heartworm tests among the expenditures. "Each dog had to be examined. Processing 66 dogs is labor and material-intensive."

Pulcinella said Wednesday he wasn't yet sure how much money the shelter spent dealing with the situation. Netboy, the national greyhound group's president, said costs could run as much as $300 to $500 per dog, particularly for those requiring medication.

"When you rescue an animal, there's no time to focus on fundraising," she said. "Many rescue organizations operate on a shoestring budget. When there's extensive medical treatment needed, that can be hard to handle."

The Triangle greyhound group has helped connect dozens of the dogs with several greyhound rescue organizations in the region. The Triangle group already has spent $3,200 on the endeavor, and the costs keep rising, said Wolfe, the group's president.

"There's never enough money," she said. "These dogs are going to cost a lot more than the money we have. These dogs have multiple medical issues."

County animal control officers, tipped off by a co-owner of one of the dogs, first visited the Cedar Grove home of Kenneth and Robbin Wiseman in the middle of last week. The Wisemans voluntarily turned over a handful of dogs to animal control officers, then several more, until last weekend, when county officials decided to seize every dog they found there.

Now, county officials hope that the Wisemans are charged with a crime. Animal control officials plan to bring evidence to the district attorney's office later this week that will include photographs, vet records and personal observations, said Ron Holdway, the interim director of the county's animal control office.

"We're going to make as compelling a case as we can," he said. "I think charges are warranted."

Holdway and others have said the Wisemans appeared to have good intentions in housing the dogs on their property, but that it became too much for them to handle.

But that shouldn't let them off the hook, Holdway said Wednesday.

"I don't know that we can prove intent, but the result is there," he said. "Abuse, at times, does not involve intent. The original intent may have been good, but that doesn't excuse the shape the dogs were in."

The Wisemans have an unpublished telephone number and have not been able to be contacted.