Tell your family, friends and neighbors that keeping quiet when they know of an animal in distress is just plain wrong; it is completely unacceptable behavior. If anyone knows of an animal in distress, basic standards for human decency require communication with authorities or with rescuers. We animal lovers must change our culture one person at a time!
In memory of the starved puppy “Snoop” in Oshkosh, WI
A young couple in a small city purchased a pit bull puppy in January and named him Snoop. They kept him in a crate in their living room. They fed him well for several weeks and then they stopped feeding puppy chow regularly, later saying that “it was too expensive and too stressful.” For the next 8 weeks or so, they watched Snoop grow thin and weak from starvation inside his 2 x 3 foot crate from the comfort of their living room couch.
They had a visitor to their apartment in late February and again in late March. This visitor reported that the puppy looked skinny during the first visit, and during the second visit, the emaciated puppy was shaking and his coat held feces and urine stains. But the visitor reported this to authorities AFTER the puppy was found dead. WHAT???
DEAR VISITOR: your silence while the puppy was alive was COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE. While you did not directly cause Snoop’s death, your silence was MORALLY WRONG. Not only did Snoop die a horribly long, painful and unnecessary death, your bizarre friend’s life is irrevocably changed, soon to be convicted of a crime. You could have prevented both by calling the Oshkosh Area Humane Society. One phone call–would this have taken 5 minutes of your time? You KNEW this was wrong or you would not have informed the authorities later on.
Soon after the visit, the weirdly cruel Bryan Hutcherson carried his dying puppy–just a skeleton with skin–from their warm living room outside to a sidewalk 2 blocks away. He put little Snoop down on the cement next to a snow pile, where the night’s chill finally relieved poor sad Snoop of his long suffering. A neighbor discovered his pitiful little body in the morning sun.
After a short investigation during which the visitor finally contacted authorities, the owners were arrested on animal cruelty charges. Bryan Hutcherson faces 3 years and 6 months prison and a $10,000 fine if found guilty. The Lakeside Animal Hospital death report reveals Snoop died of systematic organ failure, malnutrition, dehydration, and exposure. Hutcherson will probably be found guilty, unless he is found to be incompetent. His girlfriend also faces charges.
The Oshkosh Area Humane Society named the dead puppy Gabriel during the investigation when his real name was not yet known. They have named their new food pantry Gabriel’s Pantry to honor Snoop’s suffering. May he long be remembered in that place where people come for free pet food; how appropriate–a wonderful gesture. Provide donations to this organization to continue their wonderful work.
Read about Snoop here. The picture is graphic and will hurt your heart.
Are you wondering how to bring up the subject to your family and friends about their moral obligation to report animal neglect and abuse? Start here. Get pocket posters here (English and Spanish). Keep them in your car or backback. When you see an animal in distress, and the owners are not around, leave a pocket poster in a door or gate. The “Your pet needs more food” poster would have let Snoop’s owner know that someone was watching. That is very powerful.
Snoop’s story is just heartbreaking. We all have to do the right thing when confronted with animal neglect or abuse.
His name was Snoop..The beautiful puppy never stood a chance with the owner that he was cursed with – that owner was identified to police through an informant..That informant led police to the home of Bryan I. Hutcherson 19..Shockingly Hutcherson is reported to have told police that the puppy was too stressful and too expensive to feed..Instead of surrendering the puppy to an animal control facility the man and his girlfriend reportedly watched him starve to death before their eyes..Apparently little Snoop was kept in a wire cage measuring 2 ft x 3 ft – the cage was kept in the couples living room. The informant told police that the puppy was covered in feces and shaking the last time that he was seen in February..Puppies with their quickly growing and developing bodies require special puppy food during their first year of life – food with extra calories and nutrients to keep them healthy and ensure proper growth..Instead Snoop received nothing – from what his owner told police he apparently received nothing for over a month..Hutcherson told the police that he decided to lay the sick puppy on the sidewalk just 2 blocks from his home last Thursday – the puppy was so weak that he could not raise his head from the cement…..
Hutcherson and his girlfriend are the most deeply depraved people I have ever heard of, to starve not one but two puppies within steps of their comfy living room couch. (Diamond, their other puppy, was also starved but with months of compassionate care from the Oshkosh Humane Society, has recovered and was just adopted into a loving family and she even has a sister dog. Her new name is Maya.)
I would not entrust these people with the care of a plant. Yet the girlfriend is pregnant.