Dad's fight to keep dogs continues
Here's an update on a story we posted a few weeks ago. Mr. Carroll is still fighting to keep his son's two dogs while the young man is in Iraq.
From the Fayetteville NC Observer.
Dad's fight to keep dogs continues
By Nancy McCleary
Staff writer
Henry Carroll, who was ordered to get rid of two of his five dogs because of a county ordinance, plans to take his case before the Board of Adjustment on Thursday.
Three of the dogs are Carroll’s, and two belong to his son, Adam, a soldier in the 101st Airborne Division who is deployed to Iraq.
Before Adam left, he asked his father to care for his two dogs, Carroll said.
County planners told Carroll in early March that he was violating a land-use ordinance by having five dogs. The regulation says anyone with that many dogs must be licensed as a kennel.
“I’ve got preparations made to get rid of two dogs,” Carroll said Friday. “I think I’m fighting a losing battle.”
The county told Carroll he could appeal the decision to the Board of Adjustment, but he had only 60 days to make arrangements.
Offers to care for the dogs came from throughout the Cape Fear region and as far away as Texas and Alabama.
Carroll, 45, is an Army veteran who is disabled by a heart condition. He said a friend in Sanford has stepped forward to take care of two of the small mixed-breed dogs until Adam returns. He is scheduled to come home in December.
Carroll said that if he is forced to give up two dogs, they won’t be his son’s. He said he will honor Adam’s request to keep them.
“I have to hang onto his dogs until the end of his tour,” Carroll said.
The Board of Adjustment meets at 7 p.m. in the old Cumberland County Courthouse.
Staff writer Nancy McCleary can be reached at mcclearyn@fayobserver.com or 486-3568.
