AKRON , Ohio (WJW) — Laura Lawson of Rubber City Rescue has responded to calls to help police with stray or neglected animals — particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, when many animal shelters were closed.
“Police — they see them before anybody else does. I mean, they see them in the middle of the night when they are driving and there’s nobody around,” said Lawson. “That dog pops out, that officer grabs the dog, he now has nowhere to take it so we opened up our kennels to assist them — fire departments, humane societies and folks like that — and then we do our own thing as well.”
8-year-old girl found driving to local Target: Police “It’s not just the city of Akron. We do for every police department throughout Summit County, including Homeland Security, Highway Patrol, SWAT — you name it, we do it,” she said.
Last week, Lawson was dispatched to an apartment on Miller Road where police found a dog that was emaciated, having been left without food in deplorable conditions.
“It was inside an apartment, so Summit County Animal Control cannot go inside a residence. The dog wardens can’t and neither can the county wardens. It’s usually the humane society, and you have to have a warrant. So I was told that this is being handled by the humane society,” said Lawson.
She rounded up the dog, a female pit bull, but felt uneasy when they were loading her into a van to take to the rescue.
While trying to get the pit bull into a cage, the dog attacked her.
“She was going in the cage, but I went to shut the door and take the leash off of her head and she hit the door, knocked me back, got me in the face, the breast area and then nailed my arm,” said Lawson. “I just got to the point where I was like, ‘I give up. If you are going to do it, just make it fast. … And that’s when it let go.”
Her husband was there, but said he felt powerless to help.
“I had to hold the dog. If I let go of the dog, it was going to rip her arm apart. I’ve got [her] by the neck and the head and I beat on [her] but could not get [her] to release [her] grip at all. [She] was right there by the throat and [she] wasn’t going to let go. If [she] would have had her throat, I couldn’t have saved her,” said Ronnie Lawson.
After the dog was forced into a cage, Laura was rushed to a hospital with injuries to her face, requiring stitches to her nose, chest and arm, which she said the dog was tugging on like a rope.
She is now undergoing a series of nine rabies shots at $1,200 each, of which she is personally responsible for $650, the emergency room visit and follow up visits.
Although she was dispatched there by police, she does not work for the city, so all of the expenses after insurance are out-of-pocket.
On Monday, Akron City Council was asked to consider doing something to help her with her bills.
“The shelters in Akron and Summit County were full. She had a kennel open at her home. She took this dog to her home to care for it,” Carla Maple told council.
“Laura is a volunteer. She is not an employee by the city of Akron, but she puts Akron first and I am requesting that somewhere in Akron’s budget we can look and find the funds to help — not just help, but pay for her medical expenses,” said Maple.
Councilman Donnie Kammer not only repeated the request, but demanded that council consider more.
“I’ve been expressing my concern regarding the lack of cages available at the animal control facility and the lack of resources for our Akron police officers,” said Kammer.
“I applaud the work of Laura Lawson and the Rubber City Rescue group and I support her. However, as a city, we cannot continue to call upon our citizens to do the work of the city.”
Kammer said he is drafting a resolution that would demand Akron police no longer use Rubber City Rescue or any other private rescue to help with their calls until they develop a protocol to help keep rescuers like Lawson safe.
“She is being called at midnight, 2 in the morning, 4 in the morning, to come out to assist, to take these dogs in for all different reasons, because she can’t take them to the animal facility that the county owns and operates,” said Kammer.
‘Despicable’: Local sheriff’s social media post sparks debate Because she operates a rescue and is not a warden, Lawson had to give the dog that attacked her back to her owner.
She did so after caring for it, in spite of the attack, for several days following the attack. Over that time, the same dog damaged a steel cage that was supposed to be indestructible, to the point that metal bars were bent and the top of the cage was destroyed.
She worries that the dog could turn on someone else just as it did on her.
But she also worries about what will happen to other dogs like that one if she is not able to help police get them off the streets.
“When you realize that there’s nobody there to assist and nobody there to take the dogs, we are going to have the dogs everywhere,” said Lawson.
“I love my town. I love my town, I love my state and I just wanted to help,” she added.
Maple said, “I would love to see Akron support Laura the way Laura supports Akron.”
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