Last Wednesday night, Tulsa police walked into a rented house near 12th and Memorial and found a nightmare. Nineteen animals were dead inside. Twenty-two malnourished dogs and two cats were still alive, standing in urine and feces among stacked kennels and trash bags.
The woman living there told officers she worked for a dog rescue. She has been booked on 29 counts of animal cruelty.
I run I Love Every Dog, and I have seen how much people trust the word "rescue." When someone hides suffering behind that word, the damage goes beyond the animals. It hurts every legitimate rescuer and every family who hands over a pet in good faith.
The Tulsa Humane Society is now treating the surviving dogs and cats, and Tulsa Animal Services has closed its doors to handle the intake. Those animals deserve more than a charge on a booking sheet. They deserve a prosecution that follows through.
I am asking the Tulsa County District Attorney's Office to do three things:
1. File and pursue every cruelty count supported by the evidence, without pleading them down.
2. Ask the court for a lifetime ban on owning or caring for animals, plus full restitution for veterinary costs.
3. Review the rescue organization named in this case, and anyone else who may have sent animals there, so no other dogs and cats are placed in the same danger.
Please sign and share. The animals who died cannot speak, but we can.
