Article 30: February 2023
Dog suffering, neglect and deputy reaction
Call the editor:
Concerned about starving dog
There is a starving animal near our rental property between the jurisdiction of Broken Bow and Hochatown where it’s unincorporated, and the McCurtain County Sheriff’s office has come out and looked at this starving dog, who is a bag of bones and is starving to the point that it’s immobile and defecating on itself, with feces stuck to its rear because it is no longer able to stand up to defecate.
It didn’t have food or water when we saw it on Thursday morning when we were at our cabin, so we called the sheriff’s department and an officer came out, looked at the dog, took pictures, and said he was going to leave a note on the owner’s door to take it to the vet. We asked what was the timeline on taking it to the vet because it needed urgent care.
He said that was up to his discretion.
To that comment we said we will call the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and ask if that is true, that it’s up to his discretion or if he could seize the animal right then.
Of course, he wasn’t very happy about that, and said if we do that, that they’ll just refer us back to him, and we said okay, officer, you have a good day, and he left. But before then, he was in our cabin, and we have audio recording of him saying that the night before, he wanted to shoot his own outdoor dog because it was barking. He also said when it was way below freezing recently, he didn’t let them inside because they have a barn to get into, and that he also hates his indoor dog because his wife loves them more than him. This made my friend and very uncomfortable, so we were just nervously laughing in the audio that you can hear him saying all these outlandish things that really indicated to us that he just doesn’t care about the welfare of this dog.
Mind you, this is the third dog in the last year and a half that we have seen starving to death here, and the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office has done absolutely nothing about it. On Friday, when did get some local officials and citizens to start calling them, they finally got around to making the report, and said that they were getting a court order to seize this animal from the property, so we started getting a little sense of hope Friday morning, thinking that was going to happen.
By Friday even, the person answering the calls at the sheriff’s office said that he didn’t have time to check the report for me to let me know if there was an update, and then on their Facebook page, they had commented back to me on their last post and said that they did get in contact with the owner, and I guess they just believed the owner blindly who said that the dog was born with a disease (which proved further neglect, I would think), and that were just waiting to obtain the records from the owners to prove that it was born with this disease.
I don’t know why they didn’t obtain that immediately, but they said they were waiting on those records to which we responded, “Why are you believing this? It’s obviously starving to death. If it does have a disease, that’s further proof that it needs help. Then they commented yesterday that they would take money to give to the owner to help the starving animal.
We don’t understand what any of this means, and now they’re asking for money for the owner, when they’d left the dog for dead.
Call the editor:
Animal cruelty a federal offense
Do people know it’s a federal law to be cruel to animals, with a hefty fine and jail time, also? There is a law in the city if you have a (vicious dog) you have to show you have a $50,000 insurance policy in case the dog hurts someone.
“Cruelty to animals” includes a lot, such as not providing shelter, water or food at all times. Pets are to be taken care of.
In 2019, President Trump signed into law the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, a bipartisan measure making animal cruelty a federal offense.
Forgot who the sheriff is
I bought a “Jailbird” magazine that has people who committed some kind of crime, and they showed a lot of sheriffs there from the counties, but they did not give the McCurtain County sheriff’s name, and I seem to have forgotten it. Could you please let me know?
Kevin Clardy
More on starving dog
This is concerning the Call the Editor on Tuesday, Jan. 13. This person is concerned about this starving animal. They said they didn’t have any food or water with them. Well, they could have gone to the store and got some instead of calling the sheriff’s department. If this dog is in that bad of shape, then they needed to do something immediately if it was too weak to stand up.
Our sheriff’s department and law enforcement have enough crimes to investigate. Yes, this is a terrible situation, and I hope they can do something about it, but that’s not going to help that dog. If that dog needed help immediately, they should have stopped and rendered assistance then.
Appreciated couple’s help
Me and my husband had a flat tire this afternoon. We had the flashers on. This Holly Creek couple came and pulled in behind us. They also had their flashers on, and they stayed there until we got everything done and helped us. I just want to thank them, and to say that people need to learn to get over or slow down when you see someone on the side of the road, because someone could get hurt.
Saddened by deaths of young people
I’ve been thinking of the tragic 4:30 a.m. shooting at the Catfish King parking lot on Dec. 31. The loss of these two young kids is so very tragic. I feel so sorry for their family and friends who loved them.
My question is, why are parents allowing their under-aged children to be out at that time of the night? My parents always made us come home at 10, until we got a little older, and then they made it 11 p.m. They would say nothing good happens after midnight.
I didn’t really understand that statement then, but I certainly do now, and I can’t dispute it. Parents, please be responsible and make your kids come home at a decent hour. Some of you have provided really nice vehicles to these kids. You might have to take the keys away for a while.
