The young husky discovered last month in Elizabethtown after a botched attempt at neutering has been relinquished to Organization for Responsible Care of Animals, which will find a home for the animal.
This, after his owner, David Lamar Martin, of Elizabethtown, was charged with cruelty to animals, a summary offense to which he pleaded guilty July 27, according to court documents.
Martin paid $187 in fines and fees. He also agreed to give up the dog.
Reached at his home Friday, Martin referred all comment to Lancaster County Detective Joanne M. Resh, who filed the charges against him.
"You'll have to talk to her," said Martin. "I don't own no dog."
Resh said she could not comment, and referred calls to county District Attorney Craig Stedman.
State and newspaper records show Martin is the former operator of Linden Valley Kennels in West Donegal Township. The kennel closed voluntarily in 2009, according to Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture records.
According to newspaper records, Martin ran afoul of West Donegal Township officials in 2006, who didn't know he was running the kennel in the 3000 block of Bossler Road. The kennel was licensed by the state at the time. Martin subsequently received approval from the township zoning hearing board to operate the kennel.
Bandit was originally picked up by ORCA after being found more than three weeks ago with exposed testicular arteries and veins and no scrotum from being banded for a neutering attempt.
Though ORCA had begun to investigate, the DA's office took control of the case: The charges were filed against Martin by county Detective Resh.
"In essence," said Stedman in an e-mail, Martin "tried to neuter the dog — an infection set in which was not properly treated until we got it to the Humane League" of Lancaster County, where veterinarian Dr. Bryan Langlois cleaned and bandaged the dog's wounds before returning it to ORCA's care.
Dr. Mark Huber, who subsequently operated on Bandit, said the dog had been banded for home castration and was in severe pain. Kondravy said the surgery "was more extensive than we thought it would be.
"We were lucky the infection hadn't spread — but the dog is going to be fine."
District Attorney Stedman, in his e-mail, said Martin "was very cooperative with the detectives, pleaded guilty and voluntarily signed the dog over. We could not find any similar case to this one in Pennsylvania."
Kondravy said news of the case sparked an outpouring of support. "We had all these people call in," she said. "People will stop me and ask what's happening with the case."
ORCA and the Humane League of Lancaster County funded Bandit's medical care. But Kondravy said some donations have helped cover the bills.
An ORCA worker will keep the dog for the next week or so to gauge how socialized and ready for adoption it is. After that, "we have a whole list of people interested in adopting him."
(Lancaster Online - July 31, 2010)
No comments:
Post a Comment