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…)

JULIE STEWART
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

MOUNTAIN HOME — An old-fashioned law enforcement tool helped authorities catch William and Tammy Hanson, who officials said were on the run for more than three years in a notorious animal cruelty case in Baxter County.

Tipsters turned them in, officials said Wednesday. (more…)

DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF
AND WIRE REPORTS

Federal authorities have arrested about 30 people and seized about 350 dogs in dogfighting raids Wednesday across six states including Arkansas, the Justice Department said.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which cooperated in the investigation, said the target of the raids was believed to be the largest dogfighting operation in U.S. history. (more…)

Michael Johnson and his dog Sam walk down the trolley tracks along St. Charles Ave. in New Orleans on Monday during a lull in Hurricane Gustav. (ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE/Rick McFarland)

KRISHA WILLIAMS TURBEVILLE
RESCUE IN THE ROCK

Shelters in Central Arkansas were busy Monday caring for animals from the Gulf Coast as Hurricane Gustav barreled into Louisiana.

The humane societies of Pulaski and Saline counties and Little Rock Animal Services had taken in dozens of pets temporarily as their owners streamed into Arkansas over the past few days. (more…)

KRISHA WILLIAMS TURBEVILLE
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Private and municipal shelters in central Arkansas are being overrun with animals found in rural Pulaski County, stretching resources to the point that shelter officials say they can no longer afford to keep caring for the county’s strays.

“The Pulaski County Humane Society is literally going broke trying to keep up with these animals and doesn’t have room for one more,” said Desiree Bender, the Arkansas state director for the Humane Society of the United States. (more…)