Surviving twice: Dogs overcome cruelty, time held as evidence to find families

Advocates juggle duel role of preserving evidence, caring for animals.

By Alexandra Mester / The Blade
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 12:00:00 GMT

Louise clearly did not want to leave the oversized tennis ball she was happily destroying.

The dog made the most of her recent brief respite from her kennel at the Lucas County Canine Care & Control shelter. She zoomed frantically in an outdoor play yard before setting her sights — and teeth — on the ball. She obsessively ripped off the blue and yellow fuzz and resisted gentle pulls on her leash when it was time to go back inside.

The shelter has been Louise’s home for 19 months and counting. She and five other “pit bulls” were seized by Toledo police in late June, 2018, as part of a drug and dogfighting investigation. Three were transferred recently to the Toledo Area Humane Society and found new homes. The remaining three, including Louise, are still at the county shelter waiting for rescues to take them in.

The six canines illustrate a complicated, niche issue in animal welfare — holding animals as evidence in criminal cases.

Live evidence

“You have to collect and preserve the evidence,” Stephen Heaven, president and chief executive of the Toledo Area Humane Society, said. “In cruelty cases, the animals are the evidence.”

But animals — most often dogs — aren’t objects that can be locked away in an evidence room until they are needed again. They require ongoing care, stimulation, and socialization.

The need to both care for animals and preserve them as evidence means they often wind up in shelters, their futures in limbo while investigations and court cases proceed. But the negative impacts of long-term confinement can cause dogs to develop behavioral issues that may become severe or, sometimes, downright dangerous.

“It’s very important that you look after their mental well-being as well as their physical well-being,” Mr. Heaven said. “Some dogs deteriorate very quickly.”

Select foster homes can sometimes be used — caretakers must abide by strict rules to protect the animals, preserve evidence, and prove chain of custody — but groups like the humane society generally prefer to keep the dogs in their custody.

“We can more easily take care of any medical care, prevent escape or possible theft, that kind of thing,” Mr. Heaven said.

Kelly Sears, director of the county shelter that primarily handles stray canines, said the agency holds dogs as evidence only at the request of local law enforcement. It is uncommon for dogs to be there as long as the group of six has been, she said, though some may be there for several months waiting to be adopted.

Impacts of confinement

How well dogs hold up in long-term confinement varies. Their previous experiences, the environment they are kept in, the available resources, caretakers’ ability to dole out individual attention, the duration of their confinement, and many other elements all play a role.

The high-volume county shelter, designed for short-term holding, is a very stressful environment for any canine. Ms. Sears said the six dogs from the 2018 case held up well despite that.

“Knowing this could go on for a while, the dogs were put on a very strict, structured enrichment plan,” she said. “Lots of puzzle games, special feeding bowls, Kongs, walking and dog-yard playing schedule, watermelon and frozen broth, different textures for the dogs to experience, etc.”

They were also given trazodone, a medication used to help manage anxiety in canines.

Kelly McLaughlin is co-founder and president of Bark Nation, a metro-Detroit nonprofit that focuses primarily on assisting area law enforcement with investigating suspected dogfighting, and helping to seize and care for those canines. She was previously the director of Detroit Animal Care and Control and experienced firsthand the need for better options for dogs held as evidence.

“This area of animal welfare is severely under-serviced,” she said. “It’s very difficult for these shelters to hold these animals and give them the care they need.”

Bark Nation keeps most dogs in its “Pitness Protection” program in large kennels measuring 5 feet square, Ms. McLaughlin said. The enclosures can be expanded or altered as needed, and dividers between kennels act as visual blockers to reduce stress. All dogs are taken out for exercise at least twice daily and provided copious and varying enrichment.

Even so, some dogs begin showing frustration from confinement, Ms. McLaughlin said. They may bark, pace, jump, spin in circles, or become reactive to stimuli outside their kennels. They might begin to lose weight or mentally shut down.

Dogs’ individual personalities also factor strongly into the equation, Ms. McLaughlin said. As most would expect, active dogs typically need more attention and stimulation than those who are content to snooze all day.

Ms. McLaughlin actually met the local group of six in November to help evaluate them for future placement.

“They held up remarkably well,” she said. “You can tell there was effort put into that. They were very well loved by the staff there.”

Holding animals for long periods also affects the agencies caring for them. The emotional toll it exacts on their caretakers can be quite steep, Mr. Heaven said.

“They become special projects for a lot of people and the outcome of that animal becomes paramount in their lives,” Mr. Heaven said. “It becomes very stressful to see them just continue to sit there, especially if they see a dog struggling behaviorally.”

The animals also use valuable resources. The Lucas County shelter already has too few large kennels for its daily needs. The six dogs seized in 2018 occupied a half-dozen of those high-demand spaces while the shelter repeatedly struggled with crowding in recent months. And none of the cost of their care will be recovered because their former owner was not ordered to pay restitution.

Forfeiture

When dogs are seized as evidence, Ohio law provides a 10-day window for agencies to file for civil forfeiture in court. Owners can be ordered by judges to post bonds for their animals’ care. The figure was set at $1,300 per dog for a 30-day period in the recent case of 30-plus dogs seized from across Toledo as part of a large, ongoing dogfighting investigation. If owners do not pay, the animals are typically ordered forfeit.

When law enforcement knows animals are likely to be seized while they’re executing a search warrant, they can line up veterinary care and boarding for animals in advance, and prepare for the forfeiture process, said William Dailey, an assistant Lucas County prosecutor.

That’s what happened when Toledo police in early November seized those 30-plus dogs. The canines were immediately taken to a predetermined, secure location that could see to their needs while thoroughly documenting their conditions for evidence purposes. Prosecutors filed for forfeiture soon after, and the dogs were subsequently released so they could start new lives as soon as possible.

But in other cases, like the case of Louise and her five canine compatriots, dogs may be seized in criminal investigations with no forewarning at all. That makes everything that comes next — caring for the animals, pursuing criminal indictments, and civil forfeiture of the dogs — much more difficult, Mr. Dailey said.

It is common procedure for police to call the county shelter to remove and house canines found in such circumstances. So there Louise and the others went, and there they stayed for a year and a half through numerous delays in the criminal case. Without a court order or voluntary surrender from the owner, the dogs had to continue to be held.

“We try to finish these cases as expeditiously as possible, but sometimes things are just out of our hands,” Mr. Dailey said. “In some cases, new indictments come and it’s like starting over again. That happened in this case, too.”

Happy endings

The dogs are finally getting that long-awaited chance to leave their pasts behind.

Four of the six will always bear the physical scars of dogfighting. Louise’s left front leg is abnormally curved after an untreated fracture healed improperly. She and a female named Patches have broken and worn teeth. They’ve also clearly gave birth to multiple litters. In addition to his scars, a male named Hollywood tested positive for babesia, a blood-borne parasite common in dogs used for fighting that can seriously affect their health.

While Louise, Patches, and Hollywood wait for rescues to help them start new lives, the other three from the same case now have families to call their own. Jackson, a male, was adopted just last weekend and is reportedly doing well, the humane society said. And Mila and Harvey are thriving after a few weeks in their new homes.

Mila, who showed no signs of having been fought, loves to cuddle and gets along with her new family’s cats.

“There was just something about her,” said Nicole Berns-Moore of Ottawa Lake, Mich., who adopted Mila. “I just fell in love with her. She was just goofy, wanted to lick you and be by you and jump around and play.”

Harvey, who has numerous scars around his neck, was adopted by a Tecumseh, Mich., family.

“He is a wonderful dog,” Michelle Deavers said. “He loves to cuddle and has been playing with our other two dogs. He’s just happy as can be.”

Harvey is developing a close bond with her son, who is autistic and nonverbal. The youth tends to scream when he is excited, and the dog has taken to alerting his owners when it happens.

“Harvey gets worried that [the boy is] hurt every time he screams, and he tries to get one of us,” Mrs. Deavers said. “He’s a good boy.”

It’s those kinds of outcomes that make everything worth it, Ms. McLaughlin said. People should never assume that animals rescued from difficult situations can’t go on to live full and happy lives. They will prove everyone wrong, she said.

“We can’t be afraid to treat these dogs like they’re dogs,” Ms. McLaughlin said. “We have to give them that chance.”

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