THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A boxer witnesses said was thrown out of a car onto a five-lane highway in Greenbrier on Saturday and struck by two cars is now able to walk, veterinarian Melissa Lombardi said.

Faulkner County deputies arrested Doyle Scroggin 5 miles south in Conway after receiving a 911 call from witnesses who said Scroggin dumped the dog, now named Peyton, on U.S. 65.

He faces charges of felony cruelty to animals, driving while intoxicated and littering. (more…)

THE LOG CABIN DEMOCRAT

A Little Rock man was arrested by Conway police Friday after he allegedly threw a dog into traffic on Highway 65.

Doyle Scroggin, 37, was arrested for felony animal cruelty and suspicion of DUI after witnesses say he threw the animal onto the highway.

According to Major Andy Shock with the Faulkner County Sheriff’s Office, citizens alerted officers after Scroggin allegedly stopped his vehicle in the middle lane of Highway 65 just north of the Greenbrier Animal Clinic. Witnesses said he got out of his car and removed the dog from the back seat. According to statements, he then threw the dog into the highway and kicked it before driving away. (more…)

Photo courtesy of Little Rock Animal Village

KRISHA WILLIAMS TURBEVILLE

Turbo, a gray-and-white great dane, often complains about wanting outside to find his new family, staff at Little Rock Animal Village say. After months of recovery from starvation and abuse, Turbo won’t have to wait much longer.

The shelter is sponsoring an essay contest to choose the perfect home for the dog whose owner was the first person in Pulaski County to be charged with felony animal abuse, says Tracy Roark, manager of Little Rock Animal Services.

“This is an amazing dog,” Roark says. “It is what animal welfare is all about, a dog that has had a bad bad life now with a chance to live out the rest of his life in a loving home. Makes me proud of what we can do.” (more…)

KRISHA WILLIAMS TURBEVILLE

A Mountain Home woman faces 23 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty after 14 starving dogs were seized from her property, said Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery.

Jeannie Marie Matticks, 47, was released from custody after posting $4,500 bail and will appear in Baxter County District Court on Aug. 19.

The dogs are receiving veterinary care at Baxter County Animal Control.

THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

At first glance, Lucky Chance has the demeanor of a carefree horse – happiest when he’s munching on hay, carrots and his favorites, horse cookies. The large scars on his body, however, paint a much darker picture.

After undergoing major surgeries from a September 2009 accident, the light brown-and-white horse was shown to public for the first time Sunday as the Humane Society of Pulaski County celebrated 10 years in its Colonel Glenn Road facility.

Humane Society Director Kay Simpson said Lucky Chance fell out of a horse trailer as it was being pulled by the horse’s previous owner, Danny Ferguson, 49, of Batesville. (more…)

THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

A Pulaski County woman was arrested Friday morning after sheriff’s deputies found at least 30 malnourished animals at her home, including horses, dogs and cats, according to the sheriff’s office.

Deputies arrested Shelia Ford, 43, on four felony counts and 30 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty after deputies found two of her horses loose and “in poor physical condition,” sheriff’s office spokesman Lt. Carl Minden said in a news release.

Ford was being held Friday evening at the Pulaski County jail in lieu of $20,676.58 bond, jail records show. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CROSBY, Texas — A tip led animal rescue personnel to about 1,000 dogs, rabbits, hamsters and birds in dirty, cramped conditions in northeast Harris County.

Meera Nandlal, with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said the home in the Crosby area was raided Thursday night.

Nandlal says the animals, allegedly for sale to pet stores, were found in cages and left in storage sheds. She says many did not have adequate food and water. (more…)

THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

A woman who served a year in the Baxter County jail after her conviction in one of the largest animal cruelty cases in the nation was transferred to a Missouri jail Friday to face additional charges.

Tammy Christine Hanson, 43, is charged with three felony counts of theft of an animal and a misdemeanor charge of failure to appear in court in Mount Vernon, Mo. She was taken to the Lawrence County jail in the southwestern Missouri town Friday afternoon and held in lieu of $25,000 bond, a jailer there said.

Lawrence County Sheriff Ed Weisacosky was unavailable for comment Friday, his office said. (more…)

THE NEW YORK TIMES

ST. LOUIS — Scientists and animal rights advocates have enlisted DNA evidence to do for man’s best friend what the judicial system has long done for human crime victims. They have created the country’s first dog-fighting DNA database, which they say will help criminal investigators piece together an abused animal’s history by establishing ties among breeders, owners, pit operators and the animals themselves.

Called the Canine Codis, or Combined DNA Index System, the database is similar to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s digital archive containing the DNA profiles of criminal offenders. Scientists say that by swabbing the inner cheek of a dog, they will be able to determine whether the animal comes from one of several known dog-fighting bloodlines.

“People are not generally going to the pound and buying pit bulls to fight — these dogs are from established bloodlines,” said Tim Rickey, senior director of field investigations and response for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. “And if a suspected dog fighter’s animal matches one of those bloodlines that would be a key piece of evidence.” (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LITTLE ROCK — Authorities say they’ve raided a cockfighting ring at a Saline County home.

Lt. Mike Frost of the county Sheriff’s Office says officers received a tip about the ring. He says when deputies arrived, they found 25 roosters, the ring and other fighting materials. Officers seized about $3,800.

Frost says two men escaped and authorities are looking for them.

THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

A homeless man used a kitchen knife to stab the throat of a puppy, killing it, as he burglarized a southwest Little Rock house early Wednesday, taking only a deck of cards and a ball cap emblazoned with a skull, police said.

As detectives led Adam Lee Waller, 28, to a police truck headed to the Pulaski County jail, a television news cameraman asked him whether he was guilty.

“Man, I didn’t kill any f *****g dog, no!” Waller said. (more…)

ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Two Johnson County women charged with felony animal cruelty for running a mass dog breeding operation were sentenced to probation and given fines after they pleaded no contest to all eight counts against them.

Deputy prosecutor Bruce Wilson said Christine Yarrington, 60, and Lynn Burkett, 51, were sentenced Wednesday in Johnson County Circuit Court to five years’ probation and were fined $1,500 each, plus court costs.

They also were prohibited from having any animals in their possession and were ordered to undergo counseling on proper ownership and treatment of animals, Wilson said. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BECKLEY, W.Va. — Her first name was borrowed, appropriately as time would tell, from Summer Bartholomew, the 1975 winner of the Miss USA Pageant.

Her last name is Wyatt.

“Just like Earp,” she smiled, explaining the spelling that mirrors that of the legendary lawman who joined his brothers and Doc Holliday in the famed Gunfight at the OK Corral. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Three members of a family preparing to move from Port St. Lucie to North Carolina have been charged with packing more than 20 cats in poorly ventilated wooden boxes.

The new owner of a Port St. Lucie home spotted three wooden boxes stacked near her neighbor’s yard on Saturday. Animal control responded and freed several cats. Authorities say 34-year-old Jessica L. Eskew arrived in a van with dogs and cats inside. The van was towing an open trailer, which was carrying a wooden box with 20 more cats. Some of the cats were close to heat exhaustion.

Eskew’s parents, 59-year-old James F. Eskew and 56-year-old Shelia N. Eskew, arrived and all three were charged with felony animal cruelty. (more…)

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

In the wake of the beating of a puppy, a California lawmaker has proposed the creation of a registry of animal-cruelty offenders, akin to those that list sex offenders.

California Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez, a Bakersfield, Calif., Democrat, has proposed legislation to create an animal abuse registry, the first in the country if approved. People convicted of felony animal cruelty would be required to list their address and criminal history on a registry.

The bill follows the recent conviction of a former Los Angeles County firefighter who beat his neighbor’s dog so severely it had to be euthanized. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missourians seeking new restrictions on the state’s dog breeders delivered tens of thousands of signatures in more than two dozen boxes to get their proposal before voters.

The group was among several that are trying to beat the clock and deliver their initiative petitions before the 5 p.m. Sunday deadline. Two already have been filed — on dog breeding and earnings taxes in the state’s major cities — and several more could be submitted.

Supporters of the dog breeding restrictions took photographs and posed with several dogs outside the secretary of state’s office building near the state Capitol. Boxes were wheeled in on carts and given to state election officials. (more…)

THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

A Lonoke woman who police said abandoned a pair of young great Danes when she moved out of Little Rock faces two counts of felony animal cruelty after her arrest Monday, the first Pulaski County case filed under a law that took effect last summer.

Little Rock animal-control officer Ryan Williford, 22, found a female named Las Vegas and a male named Duce emaciated and abandoned on March 16 in the back yard of 514 Mimi Lane.

Diagnosed with severe anemia, Las Vegas was unable to walk. She died two days later during a blood transfusion. An autopsy found she also suffered from “heavy hookworm parasitism,” according to a Little Rock police affidavit. (more…)

THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

A Conway man who pleaded guilty to abusing his family dog is headed to prison.

Eddie Lee Jordan Jr., 38, pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated cruelty to animals, a felony, and was sentenced to 66 months in prison with 36 months suspended for the abuse of Nini, a border colliemix.

During the suspended period, Jordan must pay all medical bills for the treatment of the dog he abused, Prosecuting Attorney Marcus Vaden said in a news release. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Jersey City police are hunting for two boys who threatened to shoot a dog with a pellet gun, then shot its owner when she shielded her pet.

The 13-year-old victim was struck once in the right leg in Thursday night’s incident and was taken to Christ Hospital in Jersey City, where she was treated and released.

Her injuries were not considered serious, authorities said. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court, with only one dissenting vote Tuesday, struck down a federal ban on videos that show graphic violence against animals. The ruling cheered free speech advocates, but it raised concerns that more animals will be harmed.

The justices threw out the criminal conviction of Robert Stevens of Pittsville, Va., who was sentenced to three years in prison for videos he made about pit bull fights.

The law was enacted in 1999 to limit Internet sales of so-called crush videos, which appeal to a certain sexual fetish by showing women crushing to death small animals with their bare feet or high-heeled shoes. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES — Courage weighed 46 pounds Monday.

And a long list of people would like to give the German shepherd a home.

The 3-year-old dog was 37 pounds and hours away from death when found by a good Samaritan on April 7, Dr. Bill Grant at the Community Veterinary Hospital in Bellflower said Monday. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A Hurley dog breeder accused of abusing animals took possession over the weekend of five puppies born to dogs he owned that were seized in a raid last September.

A judge earlier ruled that the puppies born to dogs since they were taken from Dan Christensen belong to him.

The dogs that were seized remain in the custody of Second Chance Rescue Center as evidence in the case against Christensen, who faces more than 170 counts of inhumane treatment of animals. (more…)