Columbia County Sheriff’s deputies searched a home in Goble final Friday and located 18 frozen puppies allegedly getting used as snake meals, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned.
Investigators obtained a search warrant for the home after the sheriff’s workplace acquired a tip that the resident was freezing puppies, authorities mentioned.
Goble is about 40 miles northwest of Portland.
The sheriff’s workplace confiscated the puppies’ stays. However, there is no such thing as a regulation in Oregon that prohibits feeding dogs to different animals, an animal regulation professional advised The Oregonian/OregonReside. “Oregon does not have a law specifically prohibiting the slaughter of dogs for food,” Joyce Tischler, a professor of animal regulation at Lewis & Clark Law School, wrote in an e mail.
Federal regulation makes it unlawful to commercially slaughter dogs or cats for human consumption, she added. Animal cruelty can be unlawful. “Depending on how the puppies were killed,” Tischler mentioned, “there may be the potential for charges for cruelty.”
The sheriff’s workplace turned over the stays to the Oregon Humane Society’s Animal Crimes Forensic Center, the place forensic veterinarians had been working to find out the puppies’ reason behind dying, mentioned humane society spokesperson Laura Klink.
Sheriff’s officers discovered a number of snakes that had been being stored on the residence as pets, together with a protected widespread kingsnake. Courtesy of Columbia County Sheriff’s Office. Columbia County Sheriff’s Office
Sheriff’s officers mentioned deputies additionally discovered a number of dwell snakes within the home, together with a standard kingsnake that was turned over to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Common kingsnakes, which usually eat birds, frogs and small mammals, are prohibited from being stored as pets in Oregon until they’ve been bred in captivity and have markings which are totally different from wild kingsnakes, mentioned Beth Quillian, a spokesperson for the fish and wildlife division.
The widespread kingsnake is native to southwest Oregon and categorized as protected wildlife within the state, Quillian wrote in an e mail, including that the fish and wildlife division is prone to rehome the snake with a zoo or different accredited facility.
The sheriff’s workplace has not introduced any arrests within the case and has not launched the identify of the home’s resident.
— Tanner Todd covers crime and public security. Reach them at [email protected], or 503-221-4313.
