Animal Cruelty Arrests

The house on 1417 Railroad Avenue may not look safe for people and Benton police say it wasn't even fit for a dog.

Officer Robert Shell was doing a code enforcement check on the house when he saw what he's calling one of the worse cases of animal abuse he's seen.

"It was heartbreaking to see the dogs in the shape they were in," says Shell.

As Shell was leaving the home, he saw a Great Dane tied up on the side of the home. The dog was so weak it could barely stand-up. He looked around the house a little more and found four more dogs. They were all malnourished and all in bad shape.

The Great Dane is now doing better. He's at Benton Animal Control where officers say he's still 60 pounds underweight.

A Pit Bull from the house is well underweight too, and its story is one that is sickening to Shell.

"The pit had been shot at one time and vet had wired its mouth shut and the owners had never taken it back to get the wires out of its mouth,? says Shell. ?It has a bad infection."

It also meant the Pit Bull couldn't eat or drink. As sad as this case is, Benton Animal Control says it's not a freak occurrence.

"It's rather common to see animals malnourished like this," says Animal Control Officer Deidre Young. "There's a lot of people that just chain an animal outside and say, oh it's a dog, it's all right and they put some food and water out there once in a while, and think that's OK and it's not." Young says the problem is that most people who abuse dogs never are punished in court. It's a misdemeanor, so at most people will have to pay a thousand dollars in fines.

While officers hope more people will become educated about animal cruelty, the focus now is getting these dogs healthy again.

"Once they're all back to health, we can adopt the animals out, which is what our goal is," says Shell.

The four people who lived in the house, Lavern Young, Michael Burrow, Linda Walker and Buryman Burrow, have each been charged with animal cruelty.

The dogs will not be available for adoption until they are healthy again. Benton Animal Control says it needs help in treating the dogs because they have expensive ailments. For more information, call the Benton Animal Control at (501) 776-5972.