Doll Stanley, who chairs the In Defense of Animals’ Justice for Animals campaign, says Grenada County Sheriff Alton Strider purposefully and willfully ignores cases where animals have been neglected or abused.
In Defense of Animals is based in California. Stanley also serves as the director of IDA's Hope Animal Sanctuary in Grenada.
Strider did not return multiple calls seeking comment.
“They are there to enforce all the laws,” Stanley said. “It’s public mandate.”
A petition has been signed by more than 12,000 people asking Strider to investigate both crimes, Stanley said.
“It is puzzling to Grenadians who dearly care for their companion animals and to those of us involved in protecting Mississippi’s animals why two cruelty cases with solid evidence have not been investigated by the Grenada County Sheriff’s Department,” she said.
Stanley said the deputies she has worked with in the past have been both helpful and professional but that she hits a roadblock when the sheriff steps in.
“It is disappointing that current cases in which (Sheriff Strider) is directly involved appear to be intentionally disregarded,” she said. “We urge the sheriff to seek justice for these victims of these unthinkably sadistic crimes.”
In February, Stanley said the Sheriff’s Department was notified of a man who allegedly killed a family’s dog and showed off photos of the dog, shot, bound with cord, stuffed into a bag and dumped near Mississippi 7.
Stanley said, to her knowledge, no charges were ever filed in that case.
Grenada County resident Clay Davis said he called law enforcement in July when he found his neighbor’s dog deceased and chained to a tree. A deputy came and took a report, but Davis said, to his knowledge, charges have not been filed.
Stanley said the deputy filed the report in July 2, and she filed an affidavit against the dog’s owner, alleging he had abandoned the dog and left it to die.
Davis said his neighbor moved and, using a log chain, chained the dog to a tree in a wooded area. Davis said he could not see or hear the dog but went over to investigate when he noticed a strong odor.
“The poor thing was starved to death, chained to a tree with no food or water,” he said. “I feel awful that we didn’t know.”
Davis said law enforcement told him he would be responsible for burying the dog. “They said, ‘If you can’t get the property owner to do it you’ll have to do it yourself.’”
Davis said he buried the dog himself.
After several weeks went by, Davis said he personally visited the sheriff to see if there was an update in the case and was told the department was “snowed under.”
“He said they were extremely busy and would get to that guy whenever they could,” Davis said. “It’s been two or three months now, and so it’s obvious they’re not actually going to do anything.”
Stanley said she feels the community as a whole is at risk when animal abusers never receive punishment or treatment.
"Today’s animal abusers are tomorrow’s psychopaths,” she said. “So long as the perpetrators of these sickening crimes remain at large they are a danger to our entire community.”
Davis said he understands that law enforcement officials can get busy and cases take work but he’s “frustrated” with what he sees as a lack of follow through.
“I’m angry with the man who starved the dog to death but fairly frustrated with law enforcement,” he said. “I’m sure they’re quite busy but that’s a crime too, just like burglary. I think they should approach it just as diligently as they did the other crimes.”
Stanley said her affidavit has been pulled from courthouse records.
And it was not the first time. Stanley said she has filed multiple affidavits against people for neglect in Grenada County. She alleges the sheriff has pulled those from the record, and the cases were never followed up on.
Once, Stanley said, she went and spoke with Strider several years ago regarding a starving horse in the county. She said the sheriff told her to go file an affidavit at the courthouse and, when she got there, the courthouse told her the sheriff had called saying she couldn’t file an affidavit. When she went back to see Strider, “he laughed in my face,” Stanley said.
“The bottom line is, I really am a gregarious person. I really have been taught all my life not to rock the boat," she said. "Sometimes, you not only have to rock the boat but you might have to tip it over.”
Chained Dog Left to Die
On July 1, 2016, In Defense of Animals - Justice for Animals Campaign received a report that a Grenada County, Mississippi dog had been starved to death. The caller, a close friend of our campaign's director, Doll Stanley, said the neighbor across the street had moved and the neighbor beside the vacant residence discovered that the tenant's dog was dead and decomposing in the dog house behind the residence.
Doll responded to the report, met with the two neighbors who reported the case, took their information and took photos of the deceased dog and the area surrounding the dog house. She asked the Grenada County Sheriff's Department to send a deputy. Deputy Tim Gholston, SO 31, responded. Doll and the neighbors gave their statements to Deputy Gholston who in turn wrote and submitted an incident report on July 2, 2016.
Doll pursued justice by filing an affidavit with the Grenada County Justice Court alleging that Dave Trusty, the resident of 477 South Archie Jackson Road, Grenada, Mississippi had starved his dog. Subsequently, the Grenada County Sheriff's Office pulled out the affidavit in order for the investigator to establish the facts of the case.
One of the justifications that Mississippi legislators give for not being willing to increase animal cruelty penalties is that current laws and penalties are not even being enforced, so in order to see better laws, we need to ensure that the current paltry laws are at the very least enforced.
(Jackson Clarion Ledger - Nov 11, 2016)
No comments:
Post a Comment