Mobile County Animal Control Officer, Carmello Miranda says the number one form of animal abuse in our area is dumping and abandoning dogs and cats. He says Mobile County is a hotbed for animal abuse when it comes to abandonment and he says, it's time for the public to get involved.

Nancy Myers rescued a dog that was beaten and abandoned when he was 4 years old. Thanks to Mrs. Myers and her husband, the dog named "floyd" has a happy home. Unfortunately, thousands of others are not rescued. They face starvation or if they end up in animal shelters and aren't adopted, they are euthanized.

Abuse in Alabama

The Mobile County animal shelter is always full. Animal control officers bring in between 20 and 25 dogs a day. The great majority of them have been abandoned. In fact, in Mobile county alone, every year, more than 10 thousand dogs are abandoned. Director Miranda told News 5, "all these strays, they weren't born strays. They were owned dogs. These are dogs that owners use to have and just left them behind. So that is the biggest one we have in Mobile. Besides dog fighting, abandonment, animal abandonment is the biggest problem we have in the county."

Animal Cruelty Laws

State
Type of Crime
Maximum Jail Sentence
Maximum Fine


Alabama
Felony
10 years
$5,000


Florida
Felony
5 years
$10,000


Mississippi
Not a Felony
6 months
$1,000

Miranda wants the public to come forward to help in bringing the owners of the abandoned dogs to justice. He says the public needs to participate in the prosecution of the owners. He also says, people should come to the shelter to adopt some of the animals before they are euthanized.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a non-profit organization that is very active in finding homes for animals in the local shelters. Mobile SPCA president, Janine Woods told News 5, " if they come to us and adopt and animal, what they have is an animal that's probably had all of its shots, if it hasn't had all of them, it's had a least two sets. It's already been spayed or neutered it's been vet checked, we know whether it has heart worms or not. So for that little adoption fee that you pay of maybe a hundred dollars, you're going to get 3 or 4 hundred dollars worth of service and you're probably adopting an animal that's been in a shelter and it desperately needs a home."

If you want to learn more about how you can help the SPCA in their efforts to stop abuse, you can call them at 251-633-3531. The SPCA Mobile office is located at 620 Zeigler Circle West.