Authorities Seek Owner Of Abused Dogs

SEBRING - With a sheriff's deputy standing by, Highlands County Animal Control officers confiscated two dogs at an Avon Park Lakes residence and took them straight to a veterinarian.

One of the dogs survived.

The other didn't.

Both dogs had a long, deep cut around their necks from a wire that was wrapped tightly where a collar would normally be. The wires dug into and split their flesh open.

Charges of animal cruelty will be considered if authorities can identify and locate the dogs' owner(s), said Darryl Scott, director of Animal Control.

At Lake Forest Veterinary Clinic, Dr. Mark Griffin examined both dogs and diagnosed one, a male, red chow/cur mix, as being "in such severe shape that it needed to be euthanized," Scott wrote in his report about the incident.

The Animal Control officer who inspected the dogs at about 12:15 p.m. on April 9 called Scott as well as a sheriff's deputy to the scene to see the condition of the dogs. In his report, Scott noted that his officer "felt it was a criminal abuse case and the Highlands County Sheriff needed to be called in."

Scott said he agrees with that assessment.

The two dogs were tied, one to a tree, the other to a trailer axle, at a trailer home on Lone Bay Road in Avon Park Lakes, off State Road 64. The two abused/neglected dogs were kept at a trailer home on a lot with another trailer home where five dogs, in good condition, were tied up around the yard, according to the report.

Scott said anyone with information about the two dogs or who owned them is asked to call Animal Control at 655-6475 or the Sheriff's Office at 402-7200.

The "red chow/cur mix" that had to be euthanized because of its severe neck wound "was tied to a tree by means of a knotted, twisted cable," Scott wrote in his report. His report continued:

"Also tied around the dog's neck was a thin, blue, plastic-coated wire. The blue wire was pulled so tight that it had cut into the dog's neck completely all around the neck of the dog.

"This was not a new injury, but one that has been occurring over a period of time and getting worse daily.

"The dog was unable to get to his shelter, did not have any clean drinking water available, and appeared to not want to move due to the wire pulling on his neck causing him pain."

The other dog, also bound around its neck by a tight wire that cut into its flesh, was a female mixed breed.

"She was tied to a trailer axle with a chain and she, too, had a thin, blue wire tied around her neck and it was starting to cut into her as well," Scott wrote in his report. "She also had a large, fleshy tumor growing on her neck. This dog had no clean drinking water or food."

At the veterinary clinic, Griffin was able to save this dog. He sedated her and cut the wire out from the wound in her neck. Scott said this dog was put on antibiotics and is recovering at Animal Control's impound facility.

A sheriff's deputy questioned a person living at the other trailer on the lot, where five dogs were tied up, according to the report.

"Those dogs had water and shelter and appeared to be OK at this time, although we will be doing follow-up welfare checks on them," Scott said in his report. "There was no one at home at the first residence with the two dogs," Scott's report said.

So far, neither sheriff's deputies nor Animal Control officers has been able to identify the person or persons who owned the two dogs. The investigation into this incident remains open.