Jacquii Cooke posted a rant on Facebook about how her Pit Bull, Blu, didn't get the medical treatment he deserved when she took him to a local veterinary clinic. In the post, Cooke says Blu was suffering from what appeared to be heartworms, but the medicine for it wasn't working.
Cooke said that three days after Blu began taking the medicine, the worms started crawling out of him and the dog lost about 10 pounds. It was at that point Cooke decided to smother the dog to death out of an act of compassion and love.
Her post read, "FWIW. I smoothered[sic] him to death in a kind act of compassion and love".
The post drew an immediate response from several people, including Missi Carlisle, who showed the posts to police and filed a report of animal cruelty.
"I've never heard of anything happening and someone blatantly going on Facebook saying this," Carlisle said. "I don't understand how you can suffocate a dog in a kind and compassionate way."
Cooke was adamant that what she did was best for the dog, and does not care what people think of her, or what she did.
Cooke also admitted to Local 8 News that she had smothered a dog to death previously to this time, and said she would do it again if another one of her dogs became sick. She said she did it because she did not want anyone to stick a needle in any of her dogs.
"I held him in my arms and I put him out of his misery. It was an act of compassion. And if anyone cares to think differently - I'm happy to entertain a conversation," Cooke wrote in an email to Local 8 News.
At the Oak Ridge Veterinary Hospital, a clinic unrelated to this case, Dr. Kris Novinger said she has never seen anything like this before.
"It's appalling to me that she felt that smothering him to death was an act of compassion and love. That's, that's....not any compassion that I know of. That's cruel and unusual punishment," Novinger said.
Novinger said there are any number of other options that one could pursue with a sick animal. She explained that taking the dog to an animal shelter would have been a better option because the shelter could of at least put the dog down in a more humane manner. She also suggested that the dog could have been given to someone who could have afforded to pay the bills for the dog, instead of covering its face and killing it.
But Cooke was clear that she did what she thought was best.
"I will NEVER allow anyone to euthanize my animals. EVER! I will not pay any person on the face of earth to kill my dog," Cooke wrote.
The Oak Ridge Police Department is investigating this case and has spoken with Cooke about the claims.
(WVLT - Nov 9, 2015)
No comments:
Post a Comment