Forty-two hounds were rescued from grim conditions at a home in Wilson County, and the rescuer is questioning the county’s response.
The rescuer, Melanie Thrift, travelled four hours several days a week from Rockwell, where she runs Rimertown Rescue, to feed and treat the dogs. After three weeks, she relocated all of them, with some being placed as far as New York. She first laid eyes on the dogs in late July.
“I found it shocking that this many dogs needed this kind of help and the severity of these hounds be in the shape they are and the horrors that are down there at this site,” Thrift said.
The dogs originally belonged to the property owner’s husband, who died in June. Thrift says the owner contacted the Sheriff’s office requesting help with the dogs soon after but did not receive help. Photos from the property show emaciated dogs with visible rib cages. Some had rashes covering much of their bodies. One photo showed a carcass well into the decaying process.
“When I first arrived at the property, the condition was horrible. There were a few hounds we weren't even sure were alive or that even would make it through the night,” she said. “You've got dogs that have died and dogs that have eat their other litter mates because they were so hungry.”
Thrift says when she first arrived, there were a few dead. That’s a fact the sheriff’s office disputes. In a statement to CBS17 in Raleigh, the sheriff’s office says it opened an investigation on July 24 and found no dead animals on the property. The sheriff’s office does note that some dogs were underweight and that four dogs were improperly tethered. The office says It chose to “educate” Mrs. Davis rather than press charges and take the dogs.
Thrift believes conditions were so severe the county should have stepped in.
“I had actually asked animal control to help me and to work with me because the homeowner is a guarded person and I knew it was going to be an issue getting on site and getting the help I needed,” she said. “I wasn't allowed to bring as many volunteers in as I needed. It was a situation where I needed more people on this site, but animal control was not there to help me.”
The sheriff's office and animal control say they never denied assistance to the owner, but Thrift notes it was up to her to find food, medicine and rescue shelters for the dogs. Thrift says she was in frequent contact with one of the county’s animal control officers.
“There was no help. I did get calls to find out how many dogs I had got off the property that week,” she said. “I did not understand why it mattered to him when he had the opportunity to work with me and it was made very clear that he did not want to work with me to help these dogs.”
Complicating the issue is the owner only Thrift allowed on the property.
Thrift wishes the Sheriff's Office would have issued a warrant to charge Mrs. Davis and remove the dogs from the property early in the rescue process.
The Sheriff's Office says it chose to give the owner the opportunity to remedy the conditions considering her circumstances as a recent widow.
PRE has reached out by e-mail, phone and an in-person visit to the Sheriff's Office, requesting additional details concerning its interactions with the owner, when the office first learned the situation, and to ask if the county could have taken the hounds without pressing charges. We have yet to receive a response besides the statement issued.
