ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 5, 1996 TAG: 9609050071
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Six of the dogs seized in June from the Solid Rock Kennel in Draper still have not found homes, and if they are not adopted, they probably will have to be killed.
Dr. Randy Vaughn, one of the veterinarians at the Tipton Ridge Veterinary Medical Center who has been caring for the dogs for nearly three months, said the clinic cannot keep them forever. The county animal shelter, moreover, has no room for them.
Back in June, deputies from the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office picked up 24 dogs and seven cats abandoned by kennel operator Terry Weaver and his fiancee, former social worker Annette Jenkins.
General District Judge James Brice authorized the county to dispose of the animals. Two dogs were found to be vicious and had to be destroyed. The other animals have all been adopted, except for these last six medium-to-large dogs.
The six dogs are all friendly, housebroken, spayed or neutered, dewormed, clean and have all their shots, said Debbie Taylor, an assistant at the clinic. "They just need someone to love them," she said.
All of the animals were ravenous when they arrived at the clinic, Vaughn said. Some had eye or ear problems that had to be treated, and were infested with different kinds of internal parasites. Now, however, all of them are in good health.
The couple who left the animals when they moved from the kennel each faces 31 charges of cruelty to animals and abandonment. Jenkins turned herself in to the Sheriff's Office a few weeks ago. Weaver has not yet been apprehended. He claimed he was operating the kennel as part of his ministry and therefore it should be exempt from county zoning requirements.
Complaints by visitors to the kennel about the way the animals were treated or confined led to an official investigation and, eventually, the search warrant when Weaver and Jenkins were found to have left.
Anyone interested in adopting any of the animals can call the clinic at (540) 980-0186 or come by. A $50 donation to the Pulaski County Humane Society has been asked for each animal adopted. Some of that money will go back to the clinic for the care and medical treatment of the kennel animals, although it comes nowhere near covering the clinic's cost.
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