Update on Oklahoma teens who beat their two pet cats and posted video on youtube

Two Lawton area teens accused of beating a cat and posting it on YouTube over the weekend will be going through the juvenile justice process in Oklahoma. The 14 and 16-year-old brothers each face two charges of animal cruelty after law enforcement was directed to two videos on Sunday that showed the beating and torture of the grey cat named Dusty, and each video carries separate charges.

During their investigation, the Comanche County Sheriff's Department discovered a third abuse video that shows the beating of a black and white cat - also at a teens' home. The sheriff's department rescued that cat today.

The videos uploaded to YouTube show two separate incidents of animal abuse involving the same cat, and the teens face separate charges for each video. "We filed two counts of animal cruelty on each of the two teenagers today," said Comanche County District Attorney Robert Schulte. "They will be referred to the juvenile court system. We'll expect them to make their appearance early this week before the juvenile judge."

The teenagers have a right to a jury trial, and if they waive that, a judge will decide their fate. Until the two suspects are 18-years-old they are considered juveniles and the court records will be sealed. However, Schulte says he knows there is a lot of public concern over the case, and the court is taking it seriously. "I can tell you that our juvenile judge is a long-standing judge, very conservative, very well thought of, very well respected judge," he said. "He will do what he believes is necessary, and feels best in this case as it goes through the system."

The courts have ensured that the pets will not be abused again. Dusty was removed from the home on Sunday, and the second cat was removed Tuesday. "They have been treated by local veterinarians, they are doing well," said Schulte. "They will not go back into the home, and they are expected to be adopted out into a good home in the next few days."

Schulte says he did not know what punishment the boys may face if found guilty, but said the penalties for a juvenile conviction could include psychological counseling, court monitoring until they turn 18, community service to provide restitution for treatment of animals, and/or placement in court custody.


pet-abuse.com 

Teenagers in Oklahoma video taped themselves beating a cat and posted it on Youtube

An animal abuse story that has sparked outrage across the country has Comanche County Sheriff Kenny Stradley saying that two local boys are responsible. The teen was filmed beating and torturing a cat, and uploaded it to YouTube over the weekend. It was viewed about 30,000 times.

Internet observers along with information from popular websites such as YouTube, Reddit, Digg, Facebook and Myspace, came up with pictures posted by a teen in Lawton that related to parts of the video. That's when 7News and local authorities began receiving calls. "At this time, it appears that it is here in Lawton. We re just at the beginning of this, but it s looking like it is from Comanche County," said Stradley.

The horrifying day may be over for the cat, but it is just getting started for its abusers. "We'll put it together and take it to the D.A. It will be up to the D.A. whether or not he files charges or not. Our job is to put the investigation together as a case and take it to the DA and that's what we'll do," said Stradley.

Sheriff Kenny Stradley says the cat has been taken to a local veterinarian and that investigators have questioned two boys.

The abusers names are not being released because they are minors.

What I want to know is who are the sick people, all 30,000 of them who would watch this video!?!?!  This is just disgusting! 

Contact Sheriff Kenny Stradley:

Comanche County Sheriff's Department
Comanche County Courthouse
315 SW 5th Street
Room 102
Lawton, Oklahoma 73501

580.353.4280

(I cannot find an email address for the Sheriff)


http://www.kswo.com/Global/story.asp?S=9852277

http://www.pet-abuse.com/cases/15258/OK/US/

Update on woman living with over 100 dogs in van

Catherine Titus, 71, has received calls from caring animal lovers around the country.  They are asking how they can help her and the 120 dogs she is living with.  10 dogs have been adopted and nearly all of them have been spayed or neutered.  Donations and supplies are appreciated but she really wants homes for her dogs.  

HOW TO HELP

Making a donation

→By mail: Donations can be sent to First Bank and Trust, P.O. Box 700, Healdton, OK 73438. Checks can be made to "In care of First Bank and Trust for the Catherine Titus Account.”

→ In person: Donations can also be made in person to First Bank and Trust branches in Ardmore, Duncan, Healdton, Norman and Waurika, said Melissa Hudson, a financial services representative in the Healdton branch.

Helpful tip

Donations should be made to the trust account and not directly to the feed store where Titus buys her dog food, said a spokeswoman for Whitener Feed and Seed.



If you would like to adopt a dog, please contact Compassion Seeds , a local animal sanctuary helping Titus.


Read more... 

Woman Lives in Van with 120 Dogs

ARDMORE, Okla. -- There is an old woman who lives in a van -- she has so many dogs, she doesn't know how her lifestyle can withstand.

Animal rescue organizers don't understand how 71-year-old Catherine Titus has been able to care for more than 120 dogs, either, while living out of an stripped van in rural Wilson, Okla.

"The dogs mean everything, but it is definitely overwhelming for her," said Scott Sutherland, director of Southern Oklahoma Animal Resources (SORE), an organization that facilitates low-cost spay/neuter initiatives.

"She loves the dogs, but she has to be taking care of herself, too."

Titus, who is unemployed, survives off the $700 Social Security check she receives each month. Five hundred of those dollars go toward the dogs, who were all strays she took in several years ago.

The rest is used to feed herself.

Initially, Sutherland said, Titus, who used to work for the Humane Society in Texas, had around 35 dogs that stuck around her van after she continued to feed them.

The dogs continued to breed and grow in number, eventually depleting the majority of Titus' funds and energy.

She heard about SORE two months ago, Sutherland said, and called him, seeking urgent help.

"She said, 'I can't live like this any more. I have all of these dogs and I don't know what to do.' I went out there, met her, saw all the dogs, and it was just a mess. We couldn't even tell how many there were," he said.

None of the dogs, which were mostly Lab mixes and in the 20- to 30-pound range, had any shots, or were fixed. They had never visited a veterinarian, but appeared well-fed and, aside from cases of sarcoptic mange, in good health. Titus had also treated them herself, Sutherland said, with penicillin shots she occasionally administered.

Even though she recognized the need for assistance, Titus wasn't willing to give all of her dogs up. She allowed Sutherland and his team to remove approximately 76 dogs, which were later spayed and neutered.

Around 40 dogs remain on Titus' empty lot, Sutherland said. SORE hopes to have all of the dogs removed within the next few months, a variable dependent on Titus' willingness to release them.

The surrounding community does not have many state or city run animal care and control resources to fall back on, says Karin Morrison, director of Compassion Seeds, a private organization that provides animal re-homing and foster services.

"We try to do as much as we can, but this is a totally different area," Morrison said, remarking on the high abandonment and stray numbers in the community.

"We have gotten calls from people wanting to help from Germany to Maine, but no one here is stepping forward. We can't do it all on our own and people don't care."

The closest animal shelter, Ardmore Animal Care, Inc., is a private facility, which admits nearly 8,000 pets a year, its director, Kim Lee, told Pet Pulse.

Though the shelter is based one-and-a-half hours away from Titus' lot, Lee has brought her dogs food on several occasions. Lee also "tried to get the dogs out of there," she said, but Titus would not surrender them.

SORE has been working "non-stop" to reason with Titus over the past few weeks, and to also catch her dogs, which Sutherland described as "shy."

Only 15 of the dogs are presently available for adoption. The rest will "need a little more time" until they have received all necessary medical treatment and are properly socialized. They are not aggressive, Sutherland said, but are unused to the human touch.

"They need to be pet a little more, to spend more time with humans," Sutherland said. "We will continue to work with them."

SORE's efforts have become convoluted by Titus' fickle, yet determined nature, Sutherland says.

"We will take some dogs and then she will say that she wants the 10 oldest back, and then begins naming them," he explained. "Then we have to convince her all over again to allow us to keep those."

The situation can't be simply classified as a traditional hoarding case, Sutherland says, given the need for Titus' cooperation, as well as her attachment to the dogs.

"This isn't an animal rescue, but a human one, too," Sutherland explained. "This woman has nothing. She lives in a filthy, shell of a van that sits on flat tires. These animals are everything to her."

"If you remove some dogs, then yes, you have rescued some animals, but maybe we have destroyed a human being in the process, too."

As a part-Cherokee Indian, Titus is willing to be admitted to a shelter or facility available only to people of Native American descent.

But she won't got unless she knows that all of her dogs are taken care of.

Now looking outside the community, the animal welfare organizers assisting Titus are hoping other shelters or agencies will step in and lend a hand.

"Ardmore is only a town of 30,000, and the surrounding towns are only 2,000 to 4,000-population," Sutherland said. "We don't have a big market here and we need someone to step in, from New Jersey or New York to say, 'We will take 30 dogs, we can help.' "

It's a step that would help pull both the 120 dogs, Titus and her van out of the mud and onto a better life.

http://www.zootoo.com/petnews/womanlivesinvanwith120dogs-1093 

Puppy Mill bill dies in House. WHY?

How is it that the state and national legislatures can be so caring of one thing which is fairly inconsequential and let another important bill die?

House Bill 3192 was created to put a stop to puppy mills in Oklahoma.

A puppy mill is considered a dirty, trashy place where one or several breeds of dogs are kept in deplorable conditions with little or no medical care that ensures puppies are always available.

The Humane Society of the United States considers a puppy mill a breeding facility that produces purebred puppies in large numbers with problems like overbreeding, inbreeding, minimal veterinary care, poor quality of food and shelter, lack of human socialization, overcrowded cages and the killing of unwanted animals.

HB 3192 would have targeted breeders that raise dogs in these conditions.

The problem is that no one would second the motion, so it has been killed for the year.

Oklahoma has more than 600 breeders registered with the Department of Agriculture. The only state with more is Missouri.

This bill would ensured that breeding facilities are kept at an acceptable standard by having veterinarians grade them. If the facility did not pass inspection, the breeder would be unable to sell the animals.

Since 2000, more than 10 breeders have had their operations shut down. This is 10 out of 600. How many more puppy mill-like conditions exist in the 590 others?

The public cannot know until we have licensed inspectors to view them all. Meanwhile, state health inspectors have more important things to do than drive out to the ‘boonies’ to check them out.

Allowing veterinarians to be licensed and to do it would make it a more plausible idea.

Of course, they can only inspect registered dog breeders, and many breeders sell their animals to pet shops without having to show any sort of “clean bill of health.”

While there are problems with any bill introduced or law enacted, this one could have at least been given more of a chance to develop before being shot down.

The real problem I have with the legislature is that it is ready and willing to pass laws to allow Burns Hargis to become president early and move into his house months before he was supposed to — but a bill like this, which is meant to actually protect not only the animals in this state, but also the responsible breeders and owners who love them — is allowed to languish.

Is it really so important that Hargis takes office early?

I understand that it will allow him to weigh in on the budget, but to make something like that such a priority when those same legislatures don’t give a damn about the welfare of our animals is not only sad, but despicable.

I am in no way stating that the bill introduced to help elect Hargis is not useful or does not have the good of OSU at its heart, but surely people can see the fallacy shown by brushing off another important issue so easily.

Perhaps if animal rights supporters had more money to throw around, much like the way a college brings in revenue for the state, this would be a different story.

Unfortunately, those who support animal rights have more important things to spend money on than lobbying their legislature — like their animals.