After a fire drove a woman and her four children from their home last week, a new tragedy struck Wednesday when she discovered three of the family's dogs had been euthanized. A fourth dog is in Burke County Friends for Animals' custody.
Sabrina Starnes lost her home at 4120 St. Pauls Church Road to a March 2 fire, the cause of which remains under investigation.
Starnes says Burke County Animal Control agreed to keep her four dogs until she could find a new housing arrangement.
Burke County Animal Control picked up three of Starnes' dogs the day of the fire and a fourth dog the next day, according to Lt. Steve Massey. None of the dogs had tags or rabies shots, he said, and two suffered burns from the fire.
According to Starnes, she called Burke County Animal Control three times. She said an officer, whose name she did not record, told her holding the dogs would cost $3 a day per animal including administrative fees. Starnes said she left her phone number in case anything changed.
She went to the shelter Wednesday and discovered three were euthanized. Burke County Friends for Animals had taken the fourth dog, a Rottweiler.
Starnes said officials told her it would cost $150 to $200 to get the Rottweiler back.
"I don't understand why they want to charge me so much now to get my dog back…. It's hard enough to come up with the money once you lose everything," Starnes said. "They destroyed my four children's dogs. That was the only thing they had left."
Starnes said the deputies apologized for the loss.
She hopes it doesn't happen to anyone else.
She said she's telling her story "just to not let this happen to somebody else, explain to somebody else more. I thought my dogs were in a safe place ... until I could get them back."
Massey said the dogs were euthanized on Monday after business hours. Burke County Friends for Animals picked up the Rottweiler on Tuesday.
Burke County Sheriff's Maj. Banks Hinceman said Animal Control actually held the dogs for seven days, which is two days more than usual and four days more than required by the state.
A county ordinance says owners forfeit ownership of impounded animals after five days, Hinceman said.
Massey said, "There's nothing malicious here or anything."
"Our biggest issue is the space," he said. "We don't have the space. We're in a 1973 shelter that has a very limited amount of space."
Massey said the shelter on Kirksey Drive can legally hold a maximum of 35 dogs. Animals are euthanized daily.
Hinceman said, "Being an animal lover myself, I hate that that happened. When you can only hold so many animals you have to make choices."
Massey said Animal Control attempted to contact Starnes during the past week, but the call went unreturned.
He observed that animal owners sometimes find out the cost of picking up their animals and then don't show up.
The shelter is not licensed as a boarding facility, Massey said, and anyone who needs to board their animals should seek a private facility.
If someone arranges a time to pick up their animal in a short while, the shelter will try to accommodate them, Massey said, but the shelter won't board pets.
In Starnes' circumstances, he said, the best solution would have been to arrange for the dogs to receive rabies shots and for her to get help finding an animal inn for boarding until she could find permanent housing.
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