Cherokee sheriff's office takes over dog abuse case

NORTH CAROLINA -- The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the abuse of a dog that was hogtied and left for dead in a wooded area last weekend. At the same time, authorities say they have corrected a “series of bad circumstances” regarding how the case has been handled.

The 7-year-old pit bull mix being called Marshall was found by a family passing by Ferry Road near Highway 11 Saturday afternoon.

The family called 911, but a dispatcher told them that animal control officers only worked weekdays and said nothing could be done.

The dog was left with all fours tied up, covered in ticks and severely malnourished and bruised until the Humane Society of Cherokee County was notified Sunday and came to rescue the dog.

Marshall is now receiving treatment at a Gaffneyarea veterinarian.

“We’re not going to let something sit idle. We’re going to take care of it,” Sheriff Steve Mueller said of the case. “We’re hoping we can find who did this. I hope we can generate a lot of tips.”

Prior to the sheriff’s office taking over the case Monday afternoon, no report had been filed and no criminal investigation had begun.

County administrators determined the dispatcher Saturday mistakenly told the caller that animal control could not respond, and a report was never entered into the computer-aided dispatch system, or CAD system.

The key misstep in the process has been corrected, said Assistant County Administrator Holland Belue. He said measures have been put in place to ensure other animal cruelty calls are handled correctly.

Belue said the 911 caller did not provide “quite as much information” as what’s needed and said the dispatcher was busy that night so the report was not entered into the system.

As a result, neither animal control nor any other law enforcement agency was ever notified.

“There come times when something happens and you have to learn from it,” he said.

“We found out we had a process that we needed to improve.”

Belue said the call center and administration met Monday to draft a new policy that involves entering calls into the CAD system, even when it does not directly involve the most common public safety agencies.

“I think sometimes in bad circumstances it allows us to strengthen ourselves,” Belue said.

“At the end of the day, we improved our system. We’re going to be able to better handle situations like this next time.”

Judy Wyles, director of the humane society, said the silver lining in Marshall’s case is that the county has corrected a problem.

“They instituted an entirely new policy about animal calls,” Wyles said. “This will not happen again.”

She said the humane society, a nonprofit, is aiding in the investigation to find the individual responsible for Marshall’s abuse and is asking those with information to call Crime Stoppers at 1888CRIMESC.

Belue said the humane society is working with the sheriff’s office to make responsibilities clear so that the county’s animal control only handles misdemeanors involving animals, and the sheriff’s office takes on any felony cases involving animals.

“Due to the nature of this crime, it would be a felony offense,” Belue said.

But Mueller said animal control has traditionally taken all animal cases, including felonies. He said it is rare for animal control to request the assistance of the sheriff’s office. Mueller also said most of the time if a deputy sees a situation involving an animal, then animal control is called in to handle that portion of an investigation.

“It’s always been standard practice for the sheriff’s office that if we go out and we see an animal’s been abused or there’s a simple leash violation, we always contact animal control to take over. That’s been followed for years and years here,” Mueller said. “There needs to be open lines of communication between agencies that work together.”

Mueller said the reason his agency is taking on the investigation into Marshall’s abuse is because of the severity of the situation and that animal control won’t take responsibility.

“It’s not the public’s fault because the administration won’t require animal control to do what they need to do,” he said. “It’s very disturbing for somebody to do anything like that to an animal, to throw a dog out the way they did.”

After a humane society staff member went to the sheriff’s office Monday afternoon, the sheriff’s office filed the report Tuesday morning and an investigator was assigned to the case, Mueller said.

The sheriff’s office is also keeping a close line of communication with the humane society, he said.

Wyles said the humane society is offering a $5,000 reward for tips leading to the arrest and prosecution of the culprit in the case.

(The State - Mar 24, 2015)