The dog days of August, year round

There are some citizens in Bertie County having the personal feelings of a rock.

That would be the only explanation to allow for a dog’s collar to cut into its heavily fur covered neck so deep that the skin was slowly broken allowing raw flesh to protrude from the leather collar’s tightening due to the puppy’s growth.

The pictures were not pretty. Nor were the other series of pictures of dogs, neglected throughout the county while their owners pay little consequence.

I’ve been following the dog problem in Bertie County for almost two years. During that time I have covered PETA Local Affairs Director Rachel Bellis’ plight regularly at the commission meetings as she expresses her concern for neglected dogs throughout the county.

As temperatures continued to increase over the past summers, hitting record breaking numbers this season, Bellis and PETA have turned up the heat on local efforts to save dogs in despair.

Bellis’s position has always been focused on persuading the commissioners to pass a non-tethering ordinance prohibiting dog owners from tethering dogs. The commissioners have claimed the ordinance would be unenforceable due to manpower and the cost of enforcement would be prohibitive.

After the recent approved tax increase of 6.5 cents, it is apparent there is little funding available to direct towards the county’s dog problems. Fortunately, the commissioners recently nixed a new animal shelter which could have increased the tax rate even more.

It’s been said the commissioners are concerned about the hunter’s vote and that’s why they tend to stray from a leash ordinance.

That may be true, but if voter concern is what the commissioners were afraid, they wouldn’t have agreed on a tax increase that some say is staggering.

While a tethering ordinance is not in the cards, the commission could consider constructing an ordinance that would make canine neglect a misdemeanor, punishable by a ticket and a fine. In North Carolina, violating a county ordinance can be a Class 3 misdemeanor, which can result in a fine of up to $500 and 1–20 days of punishment.

The policing of the ordinance could be very simple.

In Kelford, the Bertie County Sheriff’s Office recently installed cameras to track crime. A picture in Kelford is worth a thousand words and, possibly, a jail term.

Bellis presents pictures to the commissioners monthly, providing adequate evidence Bertie county dogs are neglected, mistreated or have succumbed to death which has occurred in more than one incident.

With the pictures, names and addresses of the residents neglecting their dogs in hand, Bellis is similar to those cameras in Kelford. Her intelligence is based on human exposure to over-exposed dogs, not the artificial type that clicks the camera shutter from a pole in Kelford.

With evidence in hand, the county commissioners would have all they need to have Animal Control Officer Skip Dunlow issue a ticket for an ordinance violation that needs to be researched, developed and passed sooner than later, before the dog days of August are upon us.