TOWNSEND, Tenn. — A man has been charged with animal cruelty after authorities said he abandoned his dog in a Townsend home earlier this month.
Neighbor Jannah Lamb told 10News she heard the dog’s pained howls, night after night, for weeks on end.
“This particular night she was going on and on and on, and it sounded like she was in distress,” Lamb said.
The dog’s screams eventually fell silent - she was found dead the next morning.
A police report released by BCSO on April 4 said officers found an empty bag of dog food near her body.
“There was nothing. And the smell was pretty bad, and we knew she had died,” Lamb said.
The owner of that dog was charged with animal cruelty. The situation, Lamb said, continues to pain neighbors who tried to get the dog help before she died.
“I looked inside. There were feces in there and things scattered around, and nobody around. I began to ask the neighbors if they’d seen the owner. And they said no,” Lamb said. “So I called the police and they came.”
In cases like this though, officials say few laws exist which would have allowed either law enforcement or neighbors to breach the home and rescue the dog.
Blount County Animal Control director Jim Dale said three separate calls were made about the dog in the weeks leading up to her death.
“If it's an abandoned animal, we cannot remove the animal right away. We have to post it for five days. After five days of no response, then we can try to get a warrant to remove the animal," he said.
He said Animal Control was able to make contact with the dog's owner, at which point property rights prevented them or any of the neighbors to breach the home and rescue her.
"We don't have any legal authority to remove a dog without a warrant because of property rights and that," Dale said.
Neighbors buried her themselves. Lamb said a few of them are now speaking with leaders in the community to see what they can do to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
“Somehow, this poor dog slipped through the cracks,” Lamb said. “I don’t want to point any fingers, but I’m hoping this dog hasn’t died in vain.”
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