Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 8, 1994 TAG: 9404080104
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Since a newspaper story about the dogs ran last week, the Roanoke Valley SPCA shelter has been flooded with calls from people who have donated $1,400 to help them - the most that's ever come in in such a short time.
Three veterinarians and two dog groomers have donated services to clean and treat some of the dogs. There are chows, poodles, eight puppies and an English sheepdog - and a waiting list for them all.
"I just wanted to cry," said Al Alexander, executive director of the SPCA shelter. "It's just restored my faith in humanity."
Fifteen dogs were living in a Rutrough Road mobile home with an elderly couple, and eight more were penned outside. They were living in filth, with feces 3 inches deep inside the house and layers of it in the pens where the outside dogs lived. Some were malnourished and, except for feedings, hadn't had human contact in years, according to animal control officers.
One of the dogs died after being removed from the home, but the rest are being treated and are expected to survive. Alexander has a waiting list of 20 people who want to adopt them. Some of the dogs are becoming friendlier and he thinks by the end of next week the dozen or so that are adoptable will be living in their new homes.
Gene Hallenbeck of Mud Lick Kennels donated his services to clean and groom two of the poodles. After three baths, they still smelled a little, he said, and "they were matted to the point they could hardly walk."
In the four days they've spent at his kennel, the poodles - at first "very scared" - have responded well.
"It's pathetic people in our society are so ignorant they don't know how to care for animals," he said. "We need to do a lot of educating because pets are very, very popular. And the majority of people don't know how to care for them."
Alexander said he will screen the people on his waiting list to make sure they know what to do.
"They've lived that way, probably all their life," Alexander said, pointing to a dog matted with dirt, fur and excrement. "These dogs don't know what house training is. They've lived covered in feces."
A tiny toy poodle whose right front leg got caught up in matted fur and grew in the wrong direction got the most offers of adoption from the public. Her fur, which had grown in dirty clumps covering her eyes, has been clipped; and she's been cleaned. Her leg was cleaned, although the useless limb hangs gnarled and raw from her body.
Dr. Mark Finkler volunteered to treat her and amputate the leg, a procedure that will have to wait until the dog gets stronger. Shelter staff put a comforter in her cage to keep her warm and she shyly nuzzles anyone who approaches.
"I think she'll make an adorable little pet," Alexander said. "She got to me big time."
The dogs were rescued from their miserable existence two weeks ago, but their owners - Monroe David Shoup and Ruby Boone - still live in the brown-and-white trailer where animal control officers found a trashcan in the living room half-filled with dog waste.
In exchange for cruelty charges being dropped in General District Court last week, Shoup agreed to give up the dogs and promise not to get any more.
An employee of the Roanoke County Department of Social Services came by to check on them after the Animal Control Department reported their condition. The couple said they can live alone.
"It's just me and her. We don't need no help," Shoup said.
Neighbor Jimmy Morris, who had been feeding the outside dogs, agrees. The dogs just got to be too much for the couple, who both use walkers, he said.
"If you want to kill them, put them in a nursing home," Morris said. "They're good people. Up till two years ago, they were in good health."
Boone, who says she is 88, said she's had dogs all her life and she would like to get another one, even though Shoup reminds her that the judge told him they couldn't.
She said her poodles were named Juney Bug, Bad Eye and Honeycomb. She asks whether they were put to sleep.
"Since they took the dogs away, it's going to bring her way down fast," said a neighbor who asked that his name not be used. "She's real fond of them."
She has cleaned the trailer, and the stench that made an animal control officer sick after entering the home is gone. The floor is bare plywood - the dogs dug up the carpeting, she said - and they plan to get a new rug and another couch to replace a worn, dirty one.
Shoup, who says he's 74, had a hip replaced and was in a nursing home for about three months, Morris said. Then he checked himself out and came home six or eight months ago. That was when Morris began feeding the dogs every night for him.
Shoup says he'd like to get a Pekingese, despite the judge's order - but only one.
"I need one," Boone said. "I ain't got none. Just one little bitty one I can wash and keep clean."
by CNB