FOLEY, Alabama – After finding an acquaintance’s dog bound in electrical wire, a local woman is speaking out about animal cruelty in Baldwin County.
“I just get so mad,” Kelly McClendon, 53, said. “Why do people do this? People need to know.”
McClendon found a one-year-old yellow lab mix suspended upside down by its leg on the back porch of a home in Evergreen Tuesday two days after the dog’s owner was hospitalized for a stroke. A friend had been feeding the dog in the owner’s absence and was surprised to find the dog bound in wire, according to McClendon.
The docile mutt’s tangled predicament was no accident, McClendon said.
“The dog couldn’t have done it. The wire was twisted and tied. Somebody did that to her,” McClendon said. “Her leg swelled up to the point where the toes split and they were bleeding bad. When the swelling went down, we saw that her leg was broken. It could not be saved.”
The dog, named Jill by her previous owner, underwent surgery Tuesday in Daphne to have her leg amputated. McClendon, who has five rescue pets of her own and runs a pet grooming and boarding business out of her home in Foley, is keeping the young dog until she can find it another home.
“When I found her, that was the last straw. I just can’t take it anymore,” McClendon said. “What happened to that dog was horrific and people don’t know. It could be happening next door to you and you wouldn’t even know it.”
The pet abuse problem is fairly prevalent, according to Sonja Presley, Baldwin County Humane Society executive director. Of the 4,237 requests for assistance the organization handled last year, animal cruelty was the fifth most common reason for calls, Presley said. The BARC! director cited a similar recent case in Atmore, where the dog needed its leg amputated due to a severe fracture.
When the agency receives calls of suspected pet abuse, they are required to turn it over to local law enforcement.
Although there is no national reporting system for animal cruelty incidents, the national media covered 1,880 cases in 2007, according to data collected by the Humane Society. About 65 percent of reported incidents involved dogs, with the most common victim being the pit bull, while 18 percent involved cats.
A large fraction of the animals seen at the Baldwin County Animal Control Center are possible abuse and neglect cases, but most incidents go unreported, according to shelter supervisor Charlotte Plumb.
McClendon, who receives social security benefits, is raising money to pay the veterinarian bill for the dog’s surgery. She’s looking for a good home for the dog, she said.
“The man who owned her doesn’t have a lot of money and he’s in the hospital. I don’t know where she’s going to go,” McClendon said. “I don’t have much but I do what I can.”
