Who Are Dynasty, Blue, Ice, Diamond, and Dallas?

PETA’s Community Animal Project (CAP) delivers doghouses, straw bedding, toys, and affection to forgotten dogs in deeply impoverished
areas of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. These neglected
dogs have seldom if ever been cared for, much less shown any kindness. They are
chained 24/7 through bone-chilling winter nights, raging storms, hurricanes,
and blisteringly hot summers. Last winter, PETA staff and weekend straw-delivery
volunteers found hundreds of dogs in desperate trouble—among them, Dynasty,
Blue, Ice, Diamond, and Dallas.

Last
February in Portsmouth, Virginia, volunteers spotted a plastic dog crate
partially concealed by a doghouse. Since the carrier was old, dirty, and
surrounded by trash and there was no food or water nearby, they thought at
first that it had been junked, but then they heard movement inside: A dog who
was trapped inside began barking, thumping his tail, and jumping up in
excitement. With mounting horror, they noticed that there were actually two
dogs in the carrier—and one of them wasn’t moving.

Inside
the crate, they discovered the remains of a skeletal female pit bull named Dynasty. The
surviving dog, a male pit-bull mix named Blue, was also malnourished, and his
white paws were stained yellow from having to stand in his own urine. The crate
was so small that Blue couldn’t move without stepping on Dynasty’s body. The
volunteers called the police, and Dynasty’s remains along with Blue were both relinquished
to PETA. Thankfully, Blue was eventually adopted into a loving home. An
examination by a veterinarian revealed that Dynasty didn’t have a single ounce
of fat on her body and had been suffering from an untreated broken femur. The
only contents of her stomach were a few pieces of straw that she had eaten in
an attempt to sustain herself. Blue and Dynasty had evidently been put in the
crate the day before PETA found them so that they would be out of the way while
their owner and his family decorated their house for a birthday party.

On
Tuesday—after a judge heard testimony from PETA and a veterinary expert from
the Virginia Beach SPCA—the dogs’ owner, Adriane Mason, was found guilty of cruelty to animals for starving Dynasty to death and depriving
her of emergency veterinary treatment. Mason faces a sentence of up to a year
in jail and/or a $2,500 fine and will be sentenced in December. The horrified judge
said that he wished he could impose on Mason a sentence similar to the one that
Mason had imposed on Dynasty and Blue—confining him to a crate without food or
water in the middle of winter—but, he said, that would amount to “cruel
and unusual punishment.”

In another horrifying
case of starvation and neglect, PETA also gained custody of two adult pit bulls
and a puppy in Bertie County, North Carolina, after finding the severely malnourished dogs chained amid junk, filth, and their own waste last winter.

The puppy, Ice, was
near death and was rushed to a veterinarian, who determined that he was
critically anemic and emaciated. Ice’s gums were chalk-white, and he weighed
just 16 pounds, less than half of the normal bodyweight for a dog of his size.

The dogs’ owner refused offers of
free veterinary care for the remaining dogs, Diamond and Dallas. PETA persisted
and gained custody of both adult dogs, who were dangerously emaciated but, fortunately,
bounced back with care—Dallas gained more than 30 pounds, and Diamond more than
25, in less than a month.

This week, the man responsible
for keeping these pit bulls chained and starved was found guilty of cruelty to animals,
ordered to pay restitution to PETA for the cost of the dogs’ veterinary care,
and, most importantly, prohibited from ever owning or harboring any animals ever
again!

What You Can Do

Donate
here to support PETA’s efforts to expose cruelty, push for the prosecution
of abusers, and save animals’ lives. If you suspect that animals are being
neglected or abused, call your local animal control or police department
immediately. If the agency isn’t responsive, contact PETA.