[fearlessknight]

The bulldogs first came to St. Lucie County's Humane Society last summer, after police carried them away from a house in Fort Pierce belonging to a man accused of beating and abusing them while raising the dogs to fight. Of the 29 seized, four were adopted. Eleven were euthanized.

The other 14 lived out six pampered months at the Humane Society, ringing up a $62,000 tab in food, lodging, medicine and veterinary attention while their owner went to trial. As time passed, the Humane Society suggested euthanizing the rest. But the defense recommended sending them to a no-kill veterinary hospital in Marietta, Ga.

Under court order, a man with the hospital picked them up on Feb. 11.

But they never made it.

Today, 13 of those 14 dogs are back at the Humane Society, some showing new health problems such as flea infestation and malnourishment after Fort Pierce police found them scattered across the Treasure Coast. One remains unaccounted for.

Police are now considering criminal charges against the courier, Mark Hawthorne, who says he did nothing wrong in dropping them off with a man in Okeechobee who said he could find them homes.

On March 6, a month after Hawthorne dropped off the dogs, Fort Pierce police raided the home of a drug dealing suspect, finding cocaine, cash and one bulldog, which the Humane Society identified as one of the 14. Days later, a second dog turned up wandering Fort Pierce streets.

Police began retracing the dogs' brief but bizarre odyssey, rescuing the others from the home of an Okeechobee man, Devon Mitchell, Mitchell's aunt's house and a shelter at a Seminole Indian reservation.

Fort Pierce police Detective Sgt. John Schramm said Hawthorne may have committed a crime if police find he violated the court order, if he colluded with the dogs' original owner or if he sold the animals and pocketed the money.

"He's ultimately the responsible party in this," said Schramm. "He says he'll do all this for these dogs, but now they're in a back yard in Okeechobee; one ends up in a drug house in Fort Pierce; and the other is running down the road. That, ultimately, sums it up."

The dogs returned to the shelter scarred and emaciated. Their feet and legs were covered in dried feces. One was pregnant. The story is a far cry from what officials expected to happen to the dogs after the judge ordered them sent to the suburban Atlanta hospital.

"I think there was some collusion here," said Frank Andrews, executive director of the St. Lucie County Humane Society. "Somebody wasn't telling the truth."

Hawthorne denies any wrongdoing. Reached by telephone Tuesday, he said a contact in the area, whom he would not name, referred him to the man with whom he ultimately left the dogs. He said he was clear with the judge that his first option would be to adopt them out to a new owner locally before driving them to Marietta and boarding them at the hospital, the Town and Country Veterinary Clinic, where he is operations manager.

"It's an expense to have to travel up there," Hawthorne said. "I was just trying to save their lives."

Hawthorne contends that the Humane Society unnecessarily euthanized the first 11 dogs to save money. He concedes the owner of the place he left them may have allowed them to be adopted by the wrong people, although he said the Okeechobee home seemed more than safe with "professional-grade" kennels. Police differ, saying the dogs were found chained to barbell plates and stored in hot wooden kennels.

Hawthorne also says reports of the dogs' past abuse are exaggerated.

"They were not abused," said Hawthorne, who says he has 11 years experience in animal rescue. "I've seen abuse before, and these animals were not abused."

It's unclear whether Hawthorne violated the court order. According to a transcript, at one point during the February hearing, Hawthorne told the court that he would deliver the dogs to the Town and Country Veterinary Clinic.

But Judge Cynthia Cox's order does not explicitly demand it. The order does demand that the 14 dogs be picked up by 3 p.m. on Feb. 11 and delivered to a no-kill animal shelter. It does not specify which shelter.

The state attorney has declined to prosecute Hawthorne. Assistant State Attorney Jason Berger said he would not comment until Fort Pierce police complete their investigation of the dogs' departure and subsequent return to the St. Lucie County Humane Society.

Schramm said there are still unanswered questions.

"(Hawthorne) is a vet and he took custody," Schramm said. "Whether he let some of them go or whether he never intended to take them to Georgia, we don't know."

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localne...dogs_0326.html

[Miakoda]

14 lived out six pampered months at the Humane Society, ringing up a $62,000 tab in food, lodging, medicine and veterinary attention

Ironic. Food + roof over head + veterinary care = "pamerpering" when done by an animal shelter.

Yet these same people are fighting to take the dogs away from owners who follow the exact same "recipe" because they don't let their dogs live in the house, wear personalized collars, sleep on $50 dog beds, etc.