OUR VIEW: This is getting embarrassing.
We do not pretend to know why people starve and mistreat animals. We don’t live in that world - we don’t want to live in that world. We thank God that there are law enforcement officers and humane treatment people who do live in that world.
Unfortunately - they live in that world.
And, for the past three years in Laurens County, they have had to live far, far too often in that world. There was animal abuse before Champ - there is and will continue to be animal abuse after Champ. However, we consider his case to be a watershed moment.
As Champ’s abuser, Elizabeth James Morton, was being sentenced, her defense team handed up to the judge paperwork about previous ill-treatment cases in Laurens County. One got probation, one served a day in jail. The judge barely looked at it, before giving her the maximum sentence allowed for the crime for which she was convicted.
The same week, 8 people were arrested and charged with the two degrees of animal abuse acknowledged by state law. One says you can be sentenced to 5 years in prison for torturing an animal. One says you can be sentenced to 90 days in jail for overworking an animal - this charge is basically to protect the carriage-pulling horses of Charleston. Another part of the law says you can be sentenced for abandoning an animal - unless it’s a hunting dog which are set out to flush game toward hunters. Stiffer penalties are blocked by, basically, rural lawmakers who say the “government” doesn’t have any business telling me what I can do on my own land.
Problem is, in Laurens County, so many houses are way off the road that you would never know if a dog were curled up, chained and starving, in the backyard. That is going to change, some, as more subdivisions are being built. More people are going to start living closer to each other in Laurens County.
That mean more neighbors will be concerned. That means more cases will be reported. That means an addition will be needed for law enforcement. The County is on its way to responding - Champ caused the Sheriff’s Office to take animal control from Public Works, the Capital Sales Tax will provide money to expand the Laurens County Animal Shelter.
And all this is good - we need trained officers to deal with animals, mostly dogs, that suffer from abuse. Some Facebook experts have said if you want to have a pet, be sure you want to care for it. But in the most extreme ill-treatment cases, these are not pets - these are possessions.
Living, breathing possessions.
So, we are challenging the people of Laurens County, Take Pride in Your Possessions. Follow the path of 4-H, which teaches young people to show, love, and provide for their animals. Don’t go out into somebody else’s field and stab that person’s horse - to do that, you are a sick human being.
Yes, God gave us dominion over Animals. We are commissioned to care for them and, in exchange, under the proper conditions, we receive their devotion and they can provide for our needs. We know this message won’t sink in to the brains of animal abusers. But maybe the children can lead us.
Show them, teach them about animals, and they will become the next generation of care-givers, not animal-possessors.
