[pookiebear]

Originally Posted by Wylie's Mom

This isn't the HSUS - this is her LOCAL Humane Society: Welcome To The Stark County Humane Society

Misslissa, if you have an exception and everything is on the up and up, it should be okay - they probably just need to confirm all of this, and it's a very good thing that shelters follow through on things - we need them to do this for animals. That said, I'm very sorry if this report is due to some vengeful neighbor, that's awful .

Please keep us posted on how it turns out .

Ann, thank you for posting the link to the Stark County Humane Society. I did look under services and learned that in Stark County the HS does assist in the prosecution of owners of neglected and abused animals.

My comments on page 1 of this thread were based on the knowledge that I have of our HS here in Brunswick, GA. The HS here does not have any investigative officers, and does nothing but rescue animals. I didn't know the HS in any county had officers.

I think that it is wonderful that they can investigate every complaint whether it has validity to it or not. They don't know until they check. We are not fortunate enough to have that additional investigative help here, and our county animal control could certainly use some help.

Thanks again for posting the link. I was worried about the authenticity of of the officers calling on her!

Cruelty Investigations

Our officers continue to respond to complaints regarding cruelty, abuse or abandonment of animals throughout the county. While education of pet owners may be appropriate in some cases; our officers are trained in compiling evidence in order to successfully prosecute pet owners who violate the law.

In 2009, a total of 613 complaints were investigated. A large number of these complaints were due to pet owners moving and not taking their pet(s) with them. We had a number of calls from health departments and social service agencies because an owner was not able to care for their animal(s) and/or had a large number of animals in their home. Ohio still is behind the rest of the country in updating our cruelty laws. Many of our animal laws are over 150 years old, and desperately need revised.