The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports the sheriff in Washington County, approximately 130 miles southeast of Atlanta, on Wednesday arrested a man who kept at least 25 injured and emaciated dogs tied to tire axles and posts in an apparent dog-fighting operation. Investigators found another 27 buried dog carcasses, and the sheriff said there could be others.
Billy Taylor Jr., 52, who had previously been convicted of forgery in DeKalb County, was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, but the sheriff said he would be charged with “many counts of cruelty to animals.” The dogs were suffering from untreated injures, respiratory problems and open wounds, and were shivering when they were rescued today by the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
“It’s bad enough that these dogs were treated cruelly and raised in horrible conditions,” Tim Rickey, the ASPCA’s Senior Director of Field Investigations and Response, said in a statement. “But to leave them like this to starve is incomprehensible and speaks exactly to the kinds of heinous crimes the ASPCA fights day in and day out.”
The sheriff’s office began investigating the cruelty case about four months ago and called on the ASPCA for help several weeks ago. The ASPCA took the surviving dogs to an undisclosed shelter in Washington County where they were being treated by ASPCA veterinarians with help from the University of Florida’s Center for Forensic Medicine.