Abuse and Torture an Animal, Get a Free Pass, from NC to CA

by Stephanie Ernst

categories: Farm Animals, Hunting, Investigations and Rescues, Politics and Law

Published June 25, 2009 @ 06:58AM PT

Wisconsin, California, North Carolina--all three are places where in recent days those who've abused animals have been defended or received a wagging finger as punishment, by the court system and by their employers. From deer run over by snowmobiles to baby farm animals left to languish by a high school ag teacher to a police officer being demoted for caring about abused horses, with the horses going straight back to their abusers--it's a sad world out there this week.

Wisconsin: In a truly sick display of cruelty in January, a group of young Wisconsin men killed five deer (including a fawn) by chasing them down and running them over with snowmobiles (they killed four themselves and injured the fifth so badly, leaving her with broken legs among other injuries, that she had to be euthanized). One injured deer was dragged to a tree and tied to it, left to strangle to death, after being run over. Another had her stomach ripped open by the snowmobiles. (Here's one of the January stories from after the arrest.)

One of the men has been in court recently, charged with both animal cruelty and hunting out of season, with an incredible ruling from the judge: Because the men insist they were hunting (and because the state filed hunting-related charges), they can't be accused of animal cruelty. The judge dismissed the counts of felony animal cruelty.

Why? Because you can't charge someone for animal cruelty when the act is associated with hunting. Hunters are exempt from animal cruelty charges, the judge says. Oh yes, I'm serious. They killed them brutally, cruelly--and obviously for the thrill of killing. One witness has reported that it wasn't even until after killing them that someone came up with the bright idea to return for one of them later, for the meat (perhaps the reason the injured deer was left tied to the tree). But this was their method of hunting, so it can't be deemed cruel. So apparently, all you have to do after torturing and killing an animal is claim you were hunting, and you get a free pass. Naturally, there are lots and lots of people in Wisconsin furious about this ruling, some hunters included. But the attorney for second person on trial is now making the same argument of course, and the judge in that case has ordered the district attorney to drop either the felony animal cruelty charges or the hunting-related charges.

California: Who has even fewer protections than deer? Farm animals. And there is a high school ag teacher in California who's hoping that means she can get away with animal cruelty that she's engaged in repeatedly, possibly dozens of times, given that she's been teaching these classes for 15 years.

Parents and students complained in 2006 that the animals under her care in the school's FFA program were being terribly mistreated. First, there was the lamb in early 2006, who languished for two weeks with a broken leg before the teacher, Tracy Putnam, did anything about the situation. And when she did kill the animal (after not getting treatment for her), she didn't even do that humanely. She overdosed the lamb on a prescription drug that a veterinarian indicated was absolutely not a humane form of euthanasia--yet Putnam says this is how she euthanizes all animals. Later in 2006, "an investigator responded to a report of a steer that could not stand. The investigator was told the animal had joint problems and was due to be slaughtered." The Animal Services captain reminded the teacher again that she was "required to get veterinary care immediately for any sick animal." Fast forward just a few months to January 2007, and "Animal Services responded to a complaint of a sick goat. Officers took the animal to a veterinarian who diagnosed coccidia, an intestinal ailment that causes diarrhea, and pneumonia. When the goat did not respond to treatment, it was euthanized."

You may be thinking, but this all happened two and three years ago, so why is it just now coming to light? Animal Services submitted its investigation and recommendations in 2007. The district attorney's office just didn't bother to file charges until May 2009, even though the investigation showed that this teacher was obviously and consistently neglecting animals and treating them inhumanely. Why the two-year delay? "The DA usually assigns a higher priority to cases involving alleged crimes against people." It didn't matter that who-knows-how-many other animals may have been suffering at this woman's hands for the last two years. They're just animals.

And Putnam doesn't have just the government and law enforcement's apathetic attitude on her side; she also has the backing of the school that employs her, despite the damning evidence and statements; an assistant superintendent reports that she's "doing a good job" and the district has full confidence in her. (Article with the most detail here.)

North Carolina: A Pender County sergeant who has voiced concern that animals are mistreated too often in his county, while citizens and law enforcement look the other way, led the seizure of ten horses from a residence in May, on animal abuse charges. After noticing that the horses were malnourished and underweight, he first called the county's animal control services, but they refused to help. They insisted that they'd received reports about these horses before and didn't see anything wrong. So with the aid of a local humane society, Sergeant Mike Lewis went in himself and rescued ten horses, eight dogs, and a pig.

The accused quickly pleaded "no contest to a negotiated plea of one misdemeanor count of animal cruelty. They each received three years unsupervised probation." So what's happened since the abusers got their slap on the wrist? They've gotten five of the horses back; a veterinarian deemed six of the ten healthy enough to go back. And that, of course, implies that the other four aren't and that these six too were in bad shape when they were seized last month.

The officer who obtained a warrant and tried to rescue these animals when no one else would, when not even animal control would admit that these horses needed help? He'd been warned before by his apparently indifferent superiors to stay out of animal issues and leave them to animal control. So for rescuing these animals and bringing charges against their abusers, he's been demoted. (Additional links: "Horses Seized After Failed Purchase," "Veterinarian to Decide Whether Horses Are Returned to Owners")

Photo: Paul Stephen/Star News