Tabor City Police seeing an increase in animal abuse and neglect cases reported

COLUMBUS COUNTY, NC (WWAY) —Tabor City Police has seen an increase in the number of arrests and reports for animal abuse and neglect cases in the past few months. Chief Donald Dowless said colder weather and the pandemic have impacted the level of care people are providing to their animals.

Chief Dowless says many people have been unable to care for their animals due to illness or death from COVID-19. He says many of the animals are left outdoors in fenced-in areas, or chained to trees or other objects, unable to eat or get to warm spaces.

“We’ve had approximately 18 animals, where animal control in the last 6 months had to come and pick them up from us, and that’s not counting the ones where the people call animal control and they came over,” said Donald Dowless, Tabor City Police Chief.

Dowless says during the winter storm, the department responded to several reports of animals in distress.

“A couple cases here recently, we had some horses during the snow, a couple weeks ago, that were out and my officer rode by and there was ice on them. Another incident, where the individuals had some puppies and dogs and all, no water, no food, chained down where they couldn’t move,” said Chief Dowless.

Chief Dowless offered a reminder that it is illegal to mistreat or jeopardize the health of their animals.

“There are laws out there to protect these animals they are kind of harsh too. So, make sure that if you cannot feed your animals or take care of your animals, that’s what we have Columbus County Animal Services for,” said Dowless.

The Tabor City Police Department encourages community members to report animal abuse and neglect cases to them or to Columbus County Protection Services.