Thread: Attempted puppy drowning thwarted by humane society

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-760900.html

Humane Society focuses on local case

By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun
jstevenson@heraldsun.com
Aug 13, 2006 : 6:20 pm ET

DURHAM -- Following closely on the heels of a rare cruelty-to-horses case that left one animal dead, an alleged attempt to drown three puppies in the Eno River has focused the national Humane Society's spotlight on Durham.

Juan Rodeo, 39, and Fidencio Rojas, 31, both of 4915 N. Roxboro Road, are accused of throwing the Lab-mix puppies into the river July 18. They are scheduled for a court hearing next month.

A city employee rescued the soaked animals and they now live in a shelter.

The Humane Society of the United States in Washington is urging District Attorney Mike Nifong to prosecute the case vigorously in hopes of deterring animal abuse.

"As you may know, animal cruelty is often a red flag for other types of abusive behavior," society Deputy Manager Peter Wood wrote Nifong. "Study after study has shown that people who harm animals are at significant risk of becoming violent to people. In fact, a recent Northeastern University report found that animal abusers are five times more likely to commit violent crimes against humans.

"For all these reasons, we feel that significant intervention is warranted in order to prevent future instances of abuse against both animal and human victims," Wood added. "Decisive prosecution [of the Eno River case] and sentencing that includes meaningful incarceration, psychological counseling and a prohibition on contact with animals would provide the kind of intervention that is needed. It would also send a message to the community that animal cruelty is indeed serious."

Nifong was on vacation last week and could not be reached for comment.

However, he recently placed animal-cruelty cases under a relatively new family-protection unit in his office, allowing for more effective prosecution.

"That's fantastic," Wood said in a telephone interview.

"It's good to know they take animal protection so seriously," he said. "It's very rare for prosecutors to do that. We need decisive prosecution, but some seem to think, 'It's just an animal. It doesn't matter.'

"But it does matter," said Wood. "Like little children, animals cannot defend themselves. They can't pick up the phone and call 911."

Wood said he also was following a Durham case in which James Warren Robbins was sentenced this month to 240 days in jail, the maximum punishment, for failing to adequately feed and water four horses on roughly three acres on Russell Road.

One animal starved to death and was left to rot. The other three became little more than "walking bones," according to District Judge Jim Hill.

The county spent more than $8,000 to rehabilitate the surviving horses.

Robbins was convicted of four Class 1 misdemeanors, each carrying a top penalty of 120 days in jail. But state law does not permit more than two such sentences to be imposed back to back at the same time, meaning 240 days was as high as the judge could go.

Robbins is appealing.

Under the law, some cases can be prosecuted as low-level felonies "if a person maliciously tortures, mutilates, maims, cruelly beats, disfigures, poisons, or kills any animal." Conducting a dogfight also is a low-level felony.

However, Lt. Melinda Duarte of Durham County Animal Control said last week that most local cases are handled out of court.

"For someone to wind up in court, it has to be pretty serious, pretty chronic," she said in an interview. "Our goal is to educate, fix the problem and not strong-arm people. We've adopted more of an education mentality. Our officers will normally issue warnings first. If we hit people right away with a civil penalty, they have to pay it and might not have enough money left to build a dog house or do whatever else they need to do."

On the criminal side, only two cruelty cases are now pending in Durham, according to Duarte.

One is the Eno River attempted-drowning incident. The other is a misdemeanor charge against Ernest Early Jr., who is accused of leaving his puppy in a hot car -- parked in the sun -- while he went to work at an area hotel.

Early's dog was rescued after a passerby noticed its distress.

Assistant District Attorney Jan Paul heads the family-protection unit that oversees animal cruelty cases here.

"Our pets and other animals are important parts of homes and families," said Paul, who owns four dogs, four cats and five horses.

"They are voiceless victims," she added. "I'm proud to have the chance to show our community that our office takes crimes against animals seriously."

Under the law, some cases can be prosecuted as low-level felonies "if a person maliciously tortures, mutilates, maims, cruelly beats, disfigures, poisons, or kills any animal." Conducting a dogfight also is a low-level felony.

I'm glad to see they are getting prosicuted for something........I just find identity theft and ruining peoples lives, or driving and killing innocent people with no license or insurance, or child molestation and wife beating and drug and human smuggling, atleast as awful and that seems to amount to not much more than a slap on the wrist. Great for them to realize that animal torture is an indication of further problems. Too bad they can't make that connection with the fact that if they have no respect for 1 law they have no respect for others and don't deserve amnesty. Doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

Juan Rodeo, 39, and Fidencio Rojas, 31, both of 4915 N. Roxboro Road, are accused of throwing the Lab-mix puppies into the river July 18. They are scheduled for a court hearing next month.

I'm assuming we don't know if these folks are illegal aliens. If anyone hears they are, please post it as a follow-up.

Did anybody else notice Mike Nifong is the same prosecutor as the one in the Duke Lacrosse case?

Mexican's are notoriously cruel to animals even in Baja. I'd like to see those globs of smegma go a couple of rounds with an American Bulldog or an Argentine Dogo.