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Woman Arrested After Starving Pit Bull Rescued

Photo courtesy of Hillsborough County Animal Service

Mizz Ginny, a pit bull female, was rescued this week from a wooden crate outside a Plant City home.

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By MIKE WELLS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 8, 2008

Bones protruded under the fur of the emaciated pit bull lying at the bottom of the small wooden crate.

Surrounded by fecal matter and kept without food or water, she'd lost more than half her weight.

Motionless, and with no detectable pulse or blood pressure, the brown and white dog showed no signs of life.

Until she moved her eyes.

That tiny motion under the eyelids prompted an investigator with Hillsborough County Animal Services to rush her Monday night from the Plant City home to an emergency veterinary hospital, Animal Services spokeswoman Marti Ryan said.

Weighing just 21 pounds and too weak to move, nutrition was fed to her intravenously until she was strong enough to drink water and eat soft food.

A concerned citizen reported the dog's treatment, Ryan said.

"This was one of the worst cases of starvation we've ever seen," she said.

Monday night, Jekea R. Vickers, 29, of 608 Bethune Drive, told a Plant City police officer she never wanted the dog anyway, Ryan said.

Vickers told police the pit bull belonged to her boyfriend who was in jail and that she had done nothing wrong because she had called Animal Services about two months ago to pick the dog up, Ryan said.

That's not how it works, the agency spokeswoman said.

"We are not a delivery service," Ryan said. "She has to come and bring it to us. It's her property and she knew it."

Before the Animal Services investigator left with the dog, Vickers was in the back of the police officer's patrol car and the investigator thought she'd been arrested, Ryan said.

The police officer did not arrest Vickers, though, possibly because he was unfamiliar with how animal neglect cases work, Ryan said.

"There's a disconnect between the responsibility of the citizen and the rights of the animal to humane treatment," she said.

When Animal Services learned Vickers had not been arrested, the agency sent investigators to Vickers' home Wednesday. She was arrested on one felony count animal cruelty by starvation and a misdemeanor of improper confinement of an animal without food or water, Ryan said.

Vickers was released from Orient Road Jail later that day after posting a $2,500 bond. She declined comment today.

Animal Services staff renamed the dog Mizz Ginny after one of the investigators in the case and are working hard to save her, Ryan said. So far, the dog has reacted positively and shown no signs of aggression, Ryan said.

Her recovery is uncertain because she tested positive for heartworms, Ryan said.

Treating heartworms can cost in the hundreds of dollars, and the cost usually deters people from considering adopting dogs like Mizz Ginny, Ryan said.

"If she recovers, we will go about the procedure of finding a rescue group to take her in," Ryan said.

Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813) 259-7839 or mwells@tampatrib.com.

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