Officer Elizabeth Devlin, Florida
Police Officer Helps Send Abusers to Jail
I am a police officer with the Daytona Beach Police Department and for the first time in 15 years, I was successful in getting animal abusers sentenced.
Last year, a narcotics task force unit served a warrant at a local house and found approximately 30 pit bulls in the backyard—our city ordinance allows for only 4 dogs. Many of the dogs were tethered on short, thick chains and few had access to water, food or shelter. There was a large makeshift kennel where some of the dogs were kept. The kennel was more like a box—with no access to light, and no air holes.
Almost all of the dogs had scabs, scars or wounds. One poor girl was bleeding heavily from a wound to an artery. One dog had a broken jaw. Another had a front paw that had been previously broken and never fixed. All but 2 of these 30 broken and beaten dogs had to be euthanized.
It took over a year for this case to go to trial. But I got a wonderful state attorney named Dennis Craig. He had never had an animal case before, but he was thorough, intense and absolutely wonderful. In the end, one man was sentenced to 2 years in prison, and the other sentenced to 5! This was the first time in Daytona Beach anyone had ever received a prison sentence for animal abuse.