Judge rules noseless dog was neglected; Victory won’t be going back to her owners
A Texas judge ruled yesterday that a dog who was missing her nose when she was found wandering in a field should not be returned to her original owners.
“I find that this dog was unreasonably deprived of care,” Hutto Municipal Judge Lucas Wilson said of the dog, named Victory by her rescuers.
Animal control officers initially believed she’d been the victim of abuse, but Victory’s owners, when they came forward to reclaim the dog, said she suffered from an autoimmune disease that ate her nose away.
The court ruling, which came after a four-hour hearing, means the bearded collie will remain in the care of Austin Pets Alive, which will place her in a new home.
Josh Fogelman, an attorney for the owners, Shawn and Candice Lance, said after the ruling that the owners took good care of the dog, who they called Olive, and never abused her.
“I believe this is a witch hunt,” he said after the ruling. According to the Austin American-Statesman, Fogelman was unsure whether the Lances would appeal the ruling.
Hutto police found the dog wandering in early January and took her to a local veterinarian. She was later placed in foster care by Austin Pets Alive, a local animal welfare organization that raised $15,000 in donations for her. Victory was scheduled to receive a skin graft, but that was canceled when her owners called police in February to reclaim the dog.
Shawn Lance, who recently moved from Amarillo, said he had taken the dog to a veterinarian there three times after her nose started to scar and lose color. The medicine the vet prescribed made the dog sick, though, so he took her off it, he testified.
Lance, a financial adviser for Edward Jones who said he worked for several years as a veterinary technician, testified that he and his wife tried to find the dog after she disappeared by putting up a missing poster at a community mailbox and calling an animal shelter.
He said that the dog lost her nose when he took her to a veterinarian.
No charges were filed against the Lances, but a judge was asked to intervene to determine whether Victory should be returned to them.
Judge Wilson said that Shawn Lance made an unreasonable decision to “wean her off of medication” and said veterinary records don’t indicate the dog, at the time of her last visit, had lost her nose.
“If you look at the veterinary records they say the nose is raw but still there,” he said.
While it’s possible the dog lost her nose to disease, the judge said, evidence indicated the pet was being deprived of proper care.
Posted by jwoestendiek March 7th, 2013 under Muttsblog.
Tags: abuse, animal control, animals, austin pets alive, autoimmune, bearded collie, care, denied, disease, dog, dogs, hutto, judge, lost, lucas wilson, neglect, no nose, nose, noseless, pets, proper, ruling, suspected, victory
Comments
Comment from Sarah
Time March 8, 2013 at 9:48 am
Poor lil dog… I agree with Vida in the comment above. You dont neglect an animal like that, you find them help, even if you cannot afford it… you ask. people WILL help. And if they are that ill and in that much pain, dont make them go on…..
Comment from Davey Jones
Time March 8, 2013 at 11:42 am
If the dog had a form of cancer that ate away the nose there would likely be no form of medication to stop that. Vets are not always the innocent party here, there are a lot of vets out there who will take advantage of owners by selling meds or other veterinary specific items just to push some product and make some money, even when they know the items are not going to help the dog in any way. You would think the vet in this case would have been subpoenaed to court.
Comment from Karen
Time March 8, 2013 at 1:25 pm
Things are changing in the world of animals. Not that many years ago, this dog would have been returned to these owners because they neglected her but didn’t apparently outright abuse her. I’m so gratified that this little girl will have a future with a new family who will take proper care of her. Any owner who has been a vet tech at any point — any responsible owner, period, would know that the meds needed to be adjusted or switched, not just stopped.
Comment from micheal
Time March 8, 2013 at 11:07 pm
This article doesn’t say the dog was in pain. Why would you put a dog down that wasn’t in pain? It has a autoimmune disease that took her nose. If the meds. were not working and making the dog sick, I would hope (as owners) we all have a right to take our animals off medication. We lost our dog to lupus three years ago. There were periods when he went into remission. We did not treat during that period. If this is the direction animal rights are going…I would advise people to stop adopting animals. You have no rights!
Comment from Suzy
Time March 9, 2013 at 12:41 am
I am safe to assume we are all animal lovers on this site. We know the bond that we share with our animal is strong for both owner and pet. How do we think Olive a.k.a. Victory feels about being torn away from the only family she has ever known? It sounds like the owner’s cared enough to repeatedly treat her with medication, but it made her sick. As a dog owner, I think they cared about the dog’s quality of life. That does not sound like neglect to me.
Comment from diane
Time March 27, 2013 at 11:50 am
Maybe the “owners” are telling the truth, but if so they should not have left Victory the way she was. I think she is better off in another place. I am suspicious of the “owners”. And, adopting a pet is still a good thing to do.
Comment from vida
Time March 7, 2013 at 5:49 pm
Something doesn’t sound right here, you don’t just take a dog of meds and leave it at that while the dog goes downhill. Even in extreme bad financial times you try something to help. Or if you can’t help and the animal is suffering you humanely euthanize. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to find the dog a better home.