MAHONING COUNTY Animal cruelty all too common, agency reports

There's only one humane agent for all of Mahoning County.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- The case of a Melrose Avenue woman charged with animal cruelty is just the latest in a series of similar offenses throughout Mahoning County.
Jason Osborne, humane investigator at Animal Charity, said he has had 104 cases of animal cruelty or abandonment so far this year. The majority of those cases occur in Youngstown and involve people leaving their pets outside without food, water or shelter or people who abandon their animals.
"People just move and leave their animals inside of the homes," he said.
Last week, Laura Entrikin, 46, whose address is listed as South Avenue, but who owns a house on Melrose Avenue where police and zoning department officials found two dead dogs among the debris inside, pleaded innocent Tuesday to misdemeanor cruelty to animals in Mahoning County Area Court.
A pretrial hearing is set for April.
Two cats that were still living at the house were removed, Osborne said.
The humane investigator since December, Osborne said a review of cases shows a slight increase over this time last year. Osborne is the only humane investigator for all of Mahoning County.
"I think it goes along with problems with the economy and people moving and, unfortunately, the animals get left behind," he said.
Process
When Animal Charity gets a call about an abandoned or abused animal, it must post a notice at the house giving the animal's owner 15 hours to contact the agency. That's in accordance with Ohio Revised Code.
If the 15 hours elapses without contact from the animal's owner, Osborne returns to the home to see if the animal remains. If it does, he contacts the local police department to enter the house.
The animal is removed and taken to Animal Charity while the investigator continues to try to locate the owner. Charges also may be filed.
If the animal's owner is convicted of cruelty charges, Animal Charity sometimes requests that prohibitions be imposed so that he or she cannot own animals in the future, Osborne said.
In a recent case in Youngstown in which an owner left nine dogs in a house, the judge imposed such a restriction. But court cases can be lengthy, he said.
Osborne said he's trying to arrange meetings with officials in different jurisdictions to try to devise some solution to address the problem.
"It's an ongoing problem and it's not getting better; it's getting worse," he said.