Court-seized dogs burden animal shelters

They can't be adopted, push out other dogs

CHAPEL HILL -- When Bob Marotto walks down the first corridor at the Orange County Animal Shelter, the dogs run to the front of their cages, barking with excitement. Marotto offers a quick pet through the chain-link fence.

In another corridor behind a locked door, a different scene greets him. Many dogs growl or rear up on their hind legs. Others, like Cupcake, a white chow with a spatter of black spots across her snout, creep to the back of the run and watch Marotto warily. No fingers in the kennels here.

The Triangle's biggest shelters took in about 250 dogs seized in court cases last year.

Court seizures typically make up less than 2 percent of the total dogs in local shelters each year, but these dogs can stay for months on end.

Many are neglected or abused. Some are seized in dog-fighting investigations. Most of the latter must be destroyed because of their violent tendencies. But the sport is also responsible for the blood of dogs that never see the inside of a ring.

As court cases drag on, seized dogs take up space and resources that could go to adoptable dogs.

"They're basically treated as evidence," said Michael Williams, director of Wake County Animal Care, Control and Adoption Center. "Only we have to provide care for that evidence, we can't just throw it in an evidence locker."

Two dozen or more

The Durham County Animal Shelter gets about two dozen seized dogs a year.

"It definitely is an issue that affects the Durham shelter," said manager Jennifer Sherian. "I'm sure it affects any shelter."

Orange County averages about 35 court-seized dogs each year.

In Wake County, the Animal Care, Control and Adoption Center and local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals can get up to 200 seized dogs annually.

The number for any area shelter can spike at a moment's notice.

The Johnston County Animal Shelter housed 47 pit bulls seized in a giant dog-fighting case last year, said Ernie Wilkinson, director of animal services.

The shelter, which could hold 65 dogs, euthanized 15 to 20 animals after the pit bulls arrived for lack of space, though some would have been killed anyway because of behavior problems, he said.

"It really cripples a shelter's whole operation," Wilkinson said.

Care isn't cheap

As cases continue, shelters' costs add up.

In Johnston, the first month of the pit bulls' care cost $15,915, Wilkinson estimated.

"These dogs require special care that's different than normal animals," he explained. Many need special diets, medications or even modifications to the shelter itself, such as kennels where dogs can't see one another.

It normally costs $5 to $8 for a dog's daily care at a shelter. Dogs seized in abuse and neglect cases can run two and three times that, Wilkinson said.

A new law written by William Reppy, a Duke law professor, along with other members of the N.C. General Statutes Commission, requires a defendant to pay for the animal's care until a case is resolved.

"Taxpayers were getting stuck with these costs, but there were worse things, too -- adoptable dogs, instead of staying there, were being killed," Reppy said.

Cupcake, the chow at the Orange shelter, was among 17 dogs seized in January in an animal cruelty case. Two of the dogs are in foster care. Nine were euthanized.

Orange County is using the law to help pay for the remaining six dogs' care. By September, the owner will have paid more than $11,000.

The new law also helps reduce the number of seized dogs in custody.

Now stuck with the cost of care, some defendants make deals letting the county hold some dogs as evidence and destroy the rest, Reppy said.

Such deals might seem harsh, but most seized dogs, aggressive and undersocialized, will end up euthanized anyway.

Wake has to euthanize about 80 percent of its seized dogs, Williams said.

"No shelter can take the liability risk if a dog has been a fighter before," he said. "There's usually no chance for them."

Even pit bulls and other seized dogs that pass rigorous behavior tests often don't find a home. Stereotypes can sentence them to an unlucky fate as well.

"Pit bulls can be great animals if treated right," Williams said. "[But] they have a bad rap."

Adapting to the dogs

Whether nature or nurture leads to dangerous dogs, shelters are responding to them, said Marotto, director of Orange County Animal Services.

"They really are a normal part of shelter operations," he said. "We have to be able to [take court-seized dogs] to engage in animal protection in the community."

The new Orange County shelter expected to open next year will have nine runs for dog court-seizures and six for dog quarantines for dogs that have bitten someone. A flexible holding space of seven runs will also help in larger court cases, Marotto said.

Many of these runs will have Lazy Susan doors so staffers won't have to enter cages for feeding and floor-to ceiling walls so dogs can't provoke each other by peering over the top of their run.

"This is truly what shelters are here for," he said. "We're here for stray animals and to support local government."