County steps in to rescue menagerie of abandoned animals

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Six black and brown dogs with protruding ribs bark loudly at anyone who approaches the Blues Brothers statue that sits in front of Jake Silcox’s house along U.S. Highway 421. Tucked into a stone wall behind the statue are three warning notices from an animal control officer who notes that the animals appear to have no food or water and need medical attention.

In addition to the large dogs, three miniature ponies, three llamas and what appears to be a peacock eat silently from a stack of hay tossed over the fence by
neighbor Sid Arnold.

“I’d say he [Silcox] started moving out alittle over a month ago,” Arnold said Thursday. “I asked him ‘are you moving or are you going on vacation,’ and he said, ‘I’m undecided right now,’ but his lights and water are off.”

In an interview Thursday with the Bristol Herald Courier, Arnold declined to speculate why Silcox mighthave left his home and animals behind.

Silcox, a professional motorcycle drag racer, could not be reached for comment. Phone calls made to a Bristol, Tenn., business he owns and uses to promote
his status as an All Harley Drag Racing Association rider were not returned. When a call was placed to the phone number listed for his house on the 3900 block of Highway 421, a recording said the phone had been disconnected.

Over the past two weeks, Silcox and his animals have drawn the attention of the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office, which confirmed an investigation Thursday.

“We are aware of the situation and are investigating it,” Capt. Keith Elton said Thursday, adding that both his office and the University of Tennessee’s Extension Office in Blountville have been monitoring the animals and are building a case against Silcox.

The apparent abandonment of the animals also worries a Tennessee official with the Humane Society of the United States, who reports an increase in animal neglect and abandonment cases recently due to the economy.

The animals

Arnold said he’s had a few conversations with Silcox since mid-November, when Silcox apparently left the animals behind on the property adjacent to his own home.

It was during one of these conversations that Arnold told Silcox one of his dogs may have killed a fourth llama. Silcox stopped by his property the day after Thanksgiving and moved the animal’s body under a metal shed, Arnold said, adding: “He [Silcox] ain’t been back since.”

While some shelter is available in a concrete dog pen, the animals have been dependent on the good will of neighbors for food and water.

Arnold said he volunteered to feed the animals with some hay from one of his barns and Silcox agreed to pay him for the service. He also told one of his friends, former Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper John Taylor, about the animals’ plight.

“The thing is, he [Silcox] just left them,” Taylor said last week. “They’re abandoned. I just can’t get that out of my head.”

Taylor, who last month filed paperwork to challenge Sheriff Wayne Anderson in the August 2010 election, said he’s been working with Arnold to feed the animals and keep an eye on them. He also informed the Sheriff’s Office that the animals had been left without food or water.

Since then, the Sheriff’s Office has provided a large bag of food for the dogs.

The investigation

Sheriff’s Capt. Elton refused to comment further about the investigation, for fear it might “tip the county’s hand” and ruin any case it might bring against Silcox.

But the warning notices provide some details about the investigation. Animal Control Officer Aaron West stopped by Silcox’s house on Dec. 1, Dec. 3, and Dec. 4, according to the notices. It was on his second visit that West noted: “The dogs are thin, need to be seen by a vet (ASAP)” and have “No food/water.”

West’s warnings also state that the condition of the animals appeared to violate the state’s animal cruelty law, which makes it a crime when anyone “fails to
provide necessary food, water, care or shelter to an animal in the person’s custody [or] abandons unreasonably an animal in the person’s custody.”

These warning notices are normally the first step taken by law enforcement officers as they build an animal cruelty case, said Leigh Ann McCollum, Tennessee’s director for the Humane Society of the United States.

Based on her experience, McCollum said the next step law enforcement agencies take is to build enough probable cause to obtain a court-ordered search and seizure warrant, which allows them to go onto property and take the animals.

“That animal is evidence,” she said, adding that a law enforcement agency must be careful to document the physical condition of the animal and its environment.

Both of these factors will eventually play a role in bringing and prosecuting an animal cruelty case, she said. McCollum also offered her agency’s assistance in the case.

While she was on a break Thursday from testifying in an ongoing puppy mill trial, McCollum said her agency has been regularly involved in building such cases in recent months.

“We have dealt with several cases of abandonment in the past several months,” McCollum said.

She added that “irresponsibility” is the biggest factor involved with animal cruelty. People often take in a pet without fully realizing the financial commitment,
she said.

The tanking economy magnifies the problem because as their finances deteriorate some people realize they can’t afford to maintain their current living situation and have to move.

During this process, she said, people often leave their animals at the old address, rather than take the steps to find new homes where they can be properly cared for.

These problems are especially prevalent in Tennessee, McCollum said, because the punishment for animal cruelty is relatively lax. On the first offense, animal cruelty is classified as a misdemeanor and punishable by a maximum sentence of 11 months and 29 days in jail and a $2,500 fine, according to the state code. Second and subsequent offenses are punished by a maximum of one year and six months in jail and a $3,000 fine.

It’s in part due to this punishment that Tennessee ranked near the bottom of a list ranking the 50 states in terms of their animal control laws, said McCollum, who could not remember the state’s exact ranking.

“There are some states on the list that are worse than we are,” she said, adding that Tennessee is somewhere in the bottom tenth of the list.

McCollum did commend the Sullivan Sheriff’s Office for at least starting an investigation: “If they’re acting, then that’s certainly a positive step.”

gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518