MASSACHUSETTS -- The small brown pit bull lay dead under a scorching sun, moments after a witness said it had gasped for air and collapsed. There was no water or food in tin pans nearby outside as temperatures soared into the 90s.
Three other pit bulls – one emaciated with its ribs showing, also without water or food – barked and cried amid squalor in the side yard of the Montello Street home. Officials said the dogs had not been socialized with humans – one has since been euthanized.
Three other pit bulls – one emaciated with its ribs showing, also without water or food – barked and cried amid squalor in the side yard of the Montello Street home. Officials said the dogs had not been socialized with humans – one has since been euthanized.
Police and city animal control officials visited the scene July 1 and removed the animals. A news reporter and photographer also observed the scene.
But despite the apparent evidence, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said Wednesday the agency will not prosecute the dog owner on animal cruelty charges.
“At this time there’s not enough evidence to bring any charges,” MSPCA law enforcement officer Richard LeBlond said.
LeBlond said a necropsy on the dead dog was inconclusive. He said the cause of death “was definitely not starvation ... and not dehydration.”
“We don’t know what the dog died of,” he said, adding the dog could have had a heart attack. “It didn’t die of starvation or heat stroke.”
[Inconclusive simply means they couldn't say for certain what caused the death. That doesn't exclude heatstroke or starvation. It means the body tissues were too far mushed in the hot sun to get a deermination that would hold up in court.]
An MSPCA law enforcement officer met with the dogs’ owner, Monje Joseph, 26, at his home in July.
MSPCA officials also interviewed all the neighbors of the apartment house at 1007 Montello St., but “we came up with nothing that was in violation of the cruelty law,” LeBlond said.
Brockton police Lt. Paul Bonanca said if the MSPCA does not press charges, he will have the city’s animal control officers review the case.
“I’ll have them redress the issue and look at our own options,” Bonanca said. “If it looks like there’s animal cruelty, we’ll file a complaint and the charge will be pressed.”
Animal cruelty is a felony crime in Massachusetts. If convicted, a person could receive the maximum penalty: up to a $2,500 fine and not more than five years in a state prison.
State law states that anyone having custody of an animal that “fails to provide it with proper food, drink, shelter, sanitary environment, or protection from the weather,” among other actions of animal cruelty, can face criminal conviction.
But animal officials said this week it is difficult to prove animal cruelty in court.
In 2011, for example, the MSPCA pursued just 10 criminal cases from the 2,352 complaints it received.
“When an animal dies and does so like in this Brockton case, the optics look really bad. The sweltering hot day, there’s no food, no water, the animals are not socialized,” said MSPCA spokesman Rob Halpin.
“The optics are really, really bad and this is a horrible, horrible situation, but proving animal cruelty is not easy,” Halpin said. “There isn’t enough at this stage for us to get a successful prosecution.”
The MSPCA investigation centered around the necropsy results of the dead dog, LeBlond said. MSPCA investigators did not examine the three remaining pit bulls as part of the investigation because they were being kept by Brockton Animal Control at the time, he said.
When asked why the conditions of the other dogs were not reviewed as part of the investigation, LeBlond said, “We were concentrating on the dead dog.”
“It’s still an open case,” he said.
One of the three surviving pit bulls was euthanized last week. The other two – Blue and Sadie – are being rehabilitated by Jeni Mather, founder of the Brockton Blue Dog Shelter, and her volunteers.
After learning the MSPCA would not prosecute the pit bull case on Wednesday, Mather became speechless.
“Wow, I’m just, wow,” said Mather, who became silent for several minutes. “I think it’s a travesty. I’d like to see the evidence, and I wish that more could be done. I’m blown away.”
(Enterprise News - August 16, 2012)
