I live in Ohio and I can find the relevant penalties for my state regarding animal abuse but I cannot find any information regarding renters liability.
The situation is: a family was renting a house and have essentially abandoned five dogs. The dogs are not getting proper food, water, or veterinary care. At least one is ill and they all have fleas and ticks.
I want to know who would be held accountable for fines, etc., the renter or property owner? The property owner has already started feeding the dogs, but would they be held responsible for the cruelty committed by previous renters?
What is the best way to ensure that the renters are properly punished for animal cruelty without holding the property owner accountable?
Unless the renters are still in the area, they’re probably going to get off scott free. No prosecutor is going to extradite them over something like this.
The owners, in taking over feeding the dogs, are putting themselves at some risk of becoming legally responsible for the dogs. It is important to establish an official record, which means calling the city or county animal control authorities and lodging a complaint. That is something the owners should do, and you should encourage them by offering to give a statement in their behalf.
The “owners” of the animals who abandoned the dogs are ultimately responsible–morally and legally. It is in the landlord’s best interest to notify animal control and/or the humane society asap. For one thing, a humane society will step in and examine the animals and begin necessary treatment. For another, it gives the authorities a greater chance of finding those responsible. If this is in Cleveland Metro/Cuyahoga Co, your friend can start by contacting the APL at 216-771-4616 (available at theapl.org).
If your friend is having a problem getting assistance for the animals from local authorities, he may want to get in touch with one of the national protection organizations such as ASPCA.org or HSUS.org for advice.
BTW, people talk about fleas as if they are merely an inconvenience, but they can cause an animal–especially a smaller one–serious illness and even death. They kill both through disease transmission and through loss of blood (kittens and puppies are especially susceptible to anemia and loss of life due to blood loss from parasites) so treatment shouldn’t be put off – especially when systems like Frontline and Advantage can knock the infestation out within 24 hours all with just a few drops.
I track abuse and neglect cases all over the country and one reason is to provide case study and examples of how these matters are dealt with in various states and to help document the seriousness of these cases. Feel free to read up on similar cases which are linked from my website page at animaladvocacy.net/legacy_neglect.html.
I recently had a situation with a property that I manage as a rental. The next door neighbor who wasn’t exactly “all there” kept 20 plus cats in her home. The place reeked, but the neighbors couldn’t get any one to help, including the authorities or her family.
She was eventually evicted and left her cats to fend for themselves, coming by occasionally and throwing a bag of cat food in the door. She did that all winter, then this spring turned all the cats loose on the neighborhood.
We’ve got a volunteer shelter here, but apparently it was too much for them to deal with and the cops wanted nothing to do with it.
The joys of a small town.
The cats are disappearing one by one, thanks to a loose neighborhood dog.
Whoops! Checking back I see I wrote “significant questions” when I meant “specific questions.”
Anyway, Bare, what you are talking about goes beyong cases of neglect – in which people are too lazy or ignorant to provide adequate care for an animal or a few animals. Once the “owner” or caregiver gets more than say half-a-dozen animals and begins having care issues (fecal matter piling up, health issues, etc.), they begin being categorized as “hoarders” or “collectors.”
This is actually a mental disorder, which IIRC is closely linked to OCD. Unfortunately the disorder is very tricky because it allows the person to believe that they are helping more than hurting (they are saving the animals) and makes it nearly impossible for them to see that their actions are becoming harmful not only to the animals, but to humans through health code issues/violations. Hoarders can obsess about and collect one object (e.g. newspapers) or they can hoard many different things.
Another evident problem with animal hoarders is that their inability to adequately care for the animals can include not altering (spaying/neutering) the animals, which results in a self-perpetuating cycle. I have more info about hoarding at my website also.
Again, I can only recommend that if local authorities can’t handle it, you might contact one of the national protection groups like ASCAP or HSUS. You might also check with the Fund for Animals to see if they have a local/regional office in your area that can help. It is far better than waiting to see if a “loose dog” will take care of the problem or if you and your neighbors will wake up some morning to find one of her abandonees birthing a litter on your porch…