Twenty-eight. That’s the number of animals who were euthanized at a Georgia shelter after their owners were charged $100 or more with the promise to provide all shots and medical care and place their animals with adoptive families.
Lowanda Kilby, the former director of Boggs Mountain Humane Shelter, a supposed “no-kill” animal shelter in Georgia, was indicted by a grand jury on September 4 for allegedly charging owners not to euthanize their pets and then killing them anyway. The shelter has since been closed down.
The indictment accuses Kilby of funneling more than $10,000 of the so-called “Lucky Dog-Lucky Kitty” money into her personal PayPal account. It also lists the names of all 28 animals whose owners gave them up for adoption with the promise that they wouldn’t be put down:
Buddy, Georgie, Brady, Tug, Tank, Red, Spot, Jake, Ginger, Denver, Toshie, Kelly, Dixie, Roger, Nora, Spike, Boss, Lola, Oreo, Sally, Pookie, Brownie, Thor, Jenny, Molly, Tuxedo, Jersey, Bart.
They are simply called “animals,” but Chris Simmons, director of Paws 4 Life, referred to them as dogs in a statement posted on the shelter’s Facebook page.
Euthanizing Animals Not a Crime in Georgia
Since euthanizing animals isn’t a crime in Georgia, none of the 60 felony counts charges Kilby with cruelty or mistreating animals. Rather, she is accused of theft, deception and violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act for allegedly mishandling donations.
Sadly, this scenario is by no means unique. Last year nearly 100 dogs were found abused and in deplorable condition at the site of an animal rescue group in Wingo, Kentucky, that was set up to save them and give them a chance for a new life.
When rescuers arrived on the scene they found various breeds and sizes of dogs running loose among piles of debris and living in crowded, dilapidated pens, as well as dead dogs and dog bones scattered throughout the property.
Earlier this year there was the case of 19 animals who were found in disgusting conditions in a so-called “dog rescue shelter.”
In that incident, a Florida woman seemed to be running a loving rescue service from her home, but it turned out that she was hoarding 17 dogs and two cats in squalid conditions. She and her boyfriend were subsequently arrested on charges of animal cruelty and child neglect, because there were also two children living amongst the filth.
Kilby First Killed the Animals, Then Sent Fake Photos of Their New Homes
At the Boggs Mountain Humane Shelter, Kilby routinely sent thank you notes to the animals’ owners and assured them that their animal had been adopted into a new home, sometimes even sending fake photos of the animal in its new abode — all this after the animals had been killed.
“It’s a black eye on the community. We want to make sure we show that the case has been investigated and that someone will be held accountable,” Rabun County District Attorney Brian Rickman told WAGA.
Why do humans behave like this towards animals? Rather than getting into a psychological examination of these animal haters, let’s just say that taking control of animals, torturing them and killing them are all acts of extreme cowardice. These animals depend on their human owners for their very lives.
Such people must never be allowed to be around animals.
The good news is that the Lucky Dog-Lucky Kitty program in Georgia was taken over by the nonprofit Rabun Paws 4 Life Animal Shelter. Paws 4 Life also says it’s a “no-kill” shelter, but its monthly report for August proves that it had a 98 percent “live release rate.”
Sadly, the 28 animals at Boggs Mountain Humane Shelter have been silenced forever.
Please publicize this so that it doesn’t happen again in Rabun County, Georgia, or anywhere else.
Blogs & Forums
