The Real Cost of Fighting Cruelty

taxpayers of Horry County were the ones stuck with the bill.

It was a budget buster for Horry County Animal and Environmental Services, as administrative supervisor Brittany N. Martin observed. “The shelter cannot bear the burden of having to foot these bills since this is not something that we can anticipate when building the budget for the upcoming year,” Martin relayed.

“Maybe even more importantly, living in a shelter environment for such a long time is extraordinarily difficult on the dogs and makes it more challenging to find them new homes.”

By JANELL GREGORY, HSUS South Carolina Director

Late last year, 275 dogs were rescued from multiple counties in South Carolina during an investigation of an alleged dogfighting operation led by federal law enforcement agents. I was present at two of the 10 properties near Columbia where the agents executed warrants.

During the operation, the HSUS and Bark Nation assisted in the seizure of 70 dogs, many extremely thin and with visible, festering wounds. It was surreal to see these skinny dogs chained to trees wagging their tails, begging for attention, and showing affection toward their rescuers as they were removed from their chains and carried to evaluation stations on scene.

The operation was the largest dogfighting deployment in South Carolina’s history and involved more than 60 law enforcement officers from numerous federal, state, and local agencies.

Rescue Costs Money

Despite South Carolina’s laws against dogfighting and animal cruelty, it would not have been possible to conduct this historic operation without federal law enforcement agencies involved. That’s because of our state’s ineffective costof-care law. This is the law pertaining to expenses incurred by local animal agencies when they house lawfully seized animals for law enforcement cases. The animal agencies take on the financial burden of providing shelter, food, and veterinary care while the criminal case ensues, which can sometimes take years. Ineffective cost-of-care laws can seriously impede law enforcement’s ability to respond to large-scale cases of illegal animal cruelty, like those involving hoarding, puppy mills and animal fighting. Caring for seized animals during a lengthy court process is not only hard on the animals, but it is also needlessly expensive for South Carolina counties and animal care agencies, as a recent case in Horry County demonstrates.

The case began in March 2019, when Horry County law enforcement officers seized 22 dogs from a suspected dogfighting operation and their owner was charged with felony dogfighting. Nine of the dogs were pregnant and Horry County ended up caring for 40 dogs in its shelter.

When the disposition of the dogs was finally resolved in November 2021, more than two years after they were initially rescued, the cost of medical and daily care for the dogs exceeded $350,000, and the

STATEHOUSE TO THE RESCUE?

The good news is that effective costof-care legislation is pending in both chambers of the State House (H. 3682/S. 456). This legislation will establish a civil process in regard to animals lawfully seized in a cruelty or dogfighting case. Specifically, the seizing agency may file a petition to request that the animals’ owner pay for their food, shelter and veterinary care. If a judge determines that the amount requested is reasonable, the owner can either pay in monthly installments or relinquish ownership of the animals. If the owner fails to relinquish ownership of the animals and fails to pay the court ordered monthly amount, the animals will be forfeited to the seizing agency. This would alleviate the shelter’s requirement to hold them throughout the lengthy prosecution process.

This legislation is good for South Carolina counties, taxpayers, law enforcement agencies, and animals, and it has considerable support, including from the South Carolina Sheriffs Association, Charleston Animal Society and numerous other state and local entities.