Brownwood Animal Control ?

Kittens' deaths stir anger
Collin County: Drowning kittens once seen as OK for control
10:01 PM CDT on Thursday, May 19, 2005
By LINDA STEWART BALL / The Dallas Morning News
There was a time, not too long ago, when drowning kittens was considered an acceptable way to control the cat population.
Longtime Collin County farmers say that method of getting rid of unwanted animals was commonplace to some of the older generation. By today's standards, many consider the act barbaric, even criminal.
On Tuesday, a Fannin County man was arrested on an animal cruelty charge in connection with the drowning of four kittens in a northeast Collin County creek. Prosecution of such cases is rare because witnesses don't usually come forward.
Earl Rutledge, 62, of Trenton was charged after a bystander said she saw a man chuck a box full of kittens over a bridge and took down his license plate number.
If convicted, Mr. Rutledge, who owns a machine shop in McKinney, could face a maximum penalty of two years in jail and a $10,000 fine. Out on bail, Mr. Rutledge could not be reached for comment.
The case has raised the ire of animal welfare activists, but some wonder whether he was caught in changing mores.
Robert "Mike" Black, 55, a Collin County farmer who lives between McKinney and Melissa, said drowning cats was not unusual in the past.
"A lot of people did drown them because they had so many," he said. "They'd put them in a sack and throw some bricks in there and throw them in the tank or whatever."
He said barn cats were a popular way to chase rats away. But when the number of cats grew too large, people didn't know what else to do with them.
There was "no such thing as the SPCA in the country" and sterilizing a cat or dog "was unheard of," he said.
So the animals were destroyed.
"I've seen a lot of people do it, but I just let ... [the wild cats] go," Mr. Black said.
James Randles, 67, who grew up on a farm in Anna and owns about 78 acres in the area, recalled having only one or two cats as a child.
"We came up with one and the next thing you knew you had 25 or 30 running out the back door. You can understand why a man would be aggravated like that. Cats will multiply on you."
But animal-rights advocates say drowning is cruel because it takes several minutes. They claim euthanasia or death by injection is more humane because it's quick and painless.
"The [state animal cruelty law] does not specifically say it's illegal to drown a cat, but I think a reasonable person would say, times change, we have animal shelters you can take animals to that don't charge anything," said James Bias, president of the SPCA of Texas. "Just because we did it 100, 50 or 10 years ago doesn't mean the standards are always going to be the same.
"We had slavery for a number of years. That was acceptable then. It's not accepted now."
Rural sociologists' research shows there is a difference in the way rural people and more urban dwellers view animals – though studies don't specifically address cat drowning.
"People having had a farm background do tend to have a more utilitarian view of animals," said Jeff Sharp, associate professor of rural sociology at Ohio State University. "They see animals serving more of a functional purpose."
But surveys have found that some suburbanites, those in the upper incomes, aren't necessarily the most sympathetic to animals.
"The whole idea of abuse, I'd say that happens across the spectrum," Dr. Sharp said, adding that there's a growing level of concern for animal welfare. "In general, our society is trying to come to some sense of what is appropriate treatment of animals."
Elaine Munch serves on the board of an organization that relocates barn cats to more urban areas. When she was a child, it was not unusual to hear of people taking a bag of kittens down to the river.
"It's a prevalent old country attitude," said Ms. Munch, who is also president of Metroplex Animal Coalition, which provides free spaying and neutering services for low-income Dallas residents' pets. "The city attitude is, if you don't want your animal, drive them out to the country and dump them, as if country folk can take care of them. That's what a lot of ignorant city folk do. Ignorance is everywhere."
Animal-welfare activists say there are better ways to deal with unwanted animals.
"The kinder thing to do is take the animal to a shelter. But the smarter thing to do is to take your animal to be spayed or neutered," Ms. Munch said.
E-mail lsball@dallasnews.com

By the numbers
420,000
The number of cats that two uncontrolled breeding cats can produce in seven years.
70,000
The number of kittens and puppies born in the U.S. each day.
10,000
The number of people born in the U.S. each day.
200,000

Estimated cats and dogs killed each year in animal shelters in Denton, Collin, Tarrant and Dallas counties.
SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research
SPCA clinic locations:
•Downtown Dallas: 362 S. Industrial Blvd., 214-651-9611. Open Sunday-Friday, noon to 6 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Spay/Neuter Clinic: 214-651-9611 ext. 116 or 133.
•McKinney: 8411 FM720, 972-562-7297. Open Monday-Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. Spay/Neuter Clinic: 972-562-7297 ext. 105.
•The Colony: 4720 E. Lake Highlands, 972-625-5545. Open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.
SPCA dropoff fees:
•$25 for a pet owner dropping off an animal to be euthanized.
•$53 if a pet owner wishes to make an appointment to be with the animal during the process.
SPCA spay and neuter costs:
•$40 for male cats; $45 for females.
•Dogs: $50 -$100, depending on weight.
•Spay/neuter assistance programs and free spay/neuter programs are available to those who qualify. Go to www.metroplexanimalcoalition.com and click on "Spay/Neuter Information."
source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/052005dnccokittensfolo.c4470146.html
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Steve Blow:
Cruelty, or country sensibility?
07:34 PM CDT on Thursday, May 19, 2005
This may sound a little bit like the racist who says, "Some of my best friends are black."
But honest, some of my best pets were cats.
There are dog people and cat people, and I definitely come down on the cat side of the question. I admire their utter independence.
And anyone who knows me will vouch that I can't stand cruelty of any kind. I'm a softie. Stories of animal torture make me sick to my stomach.
Can you tell I'm working up to something here?
OK, I'll quit hem-hawing around and get to the point. As a certified cat-loving, cruelty-hating sort, I have to ask: Are we making too much over the guy who drowned a box of kittens?
I mean, are we really that far removed from our country roots?
It may come as a shock to city folks, but animal control wasn't always a job you relegated to some nameless, faceless euthanasia technician. As my colleague Linda Stewart Ball makes clear in her story today, this was sad work you did yourself, often involving a tow sack, a heavy rock and a creek.
I don't know Earl Rutledge of Trenton. He's the man charged with animal cruelty in this case. If it's proven that he is someone who enjoys inflicting cruelty upon animals, then by all means, let's throw the book at him.
But I suspect that a 62-year-old man from a small Fannin County town may well be one of those people with the rural sensibility that says you take care of your own problems, even if it hurts to do it.
And a box of unwanted kittens is definitely a problem.
Now, I don't want the lynch mob that has been after Mr. Rutledge to turn around and start after me.
Talk radio has been treating the guy like a mass murderer. One of the professional radio blowhards was bragging about the unspeakable ways he would like to personally torture Mr. Rutledge.
Let's try to keep a little perspective here. I'm sure not saying that Mr. Rutledge's alleged action was the ideal. There are much, much better ways to handle the problem.
But there are much worse ways, too. What if Mr. Rutledge was seen simply dropping that box beside the road? Would there be such an uproar?
I doubt it. But our real disgust ought to be directed at the cowardly, all-too-common practice by city types of dumping kittens in the country.
That leaves kittens to slowly starve to death. Or get eaten by coyotes first. Or manage to survive and turn wild, adding to the already huge problem of feral cats.
In my book, a quick end in a creek is far more humane than any of those alternatives.
Yes, absolutely, it would have been better for Mr. Rutledge to take the kittens to a shelter. But the end result would have been just about the same.
No-kill shelters are a nice idea, but they can only accept a tiny fraction of the animals offered to them. Good luck with a box of stray kittens.
Most unwanted animals end up in those shelters with the thankless, heart-breaking task of euthanizing all that aren't adopted.
It has been a sad week for animal stories. In Denton, a man has been on trial for fatally injuring a dog by tapings its mouth shut.
A jury sentenced Richard Swift to two years in state jail, which may seem pretty drastic at first. Two years of community service cleaning cages in an animal shelter sounds about right.
But I suspect that jail sentence had more to do with Mr. Swift's six previous criminal convictions and his obnoxious behavior during the trial.
I guess the point I'm getting at is simply this: Let's definitely punish animal cruelty, but let's not demonize others for simply having different attitudes about animals.
Education will go a lot further than vilification.
E-mail sblow@dallasnews.com
source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/localnews/columnists/all/stories/052005dnmetblow.c44629e1.html