Foster 'parents' sought for 2 dogs
This story is so sad. It just shows you how laws are making it hard for people to keep dogs, even when it's a father trying to keep two little dogs for his son in Iraq. Even when he's under the pet limit, the zoning law where he lives is going to force him to give up his son's two dogs. Because a neighbor complained. Whether you support this war or not doesn't matter, his son doesn't have any choice now about leaving his dogs behind. And neither he nor his father wants them to go to the animal shelter where they could be put to sleep. Even if adopted, it would mean that his son wouldn't get his dogs back.
It breaks my heart to read a story like this. I hope someone will foster the two dogs for a couple of months until his son comes home.
From the Fayetteville (NC) Observer
Foster 'parents' sought for 2 dogs
By Nancy McCleary
Staff writer
Henry Carroll keeps a photo of his son, Adam, on his refrigerator. Adam is stationed in Iraq. Staff photos by Marc Hall
According to county zoning rules, Henry Carroll has too many dogs at his home now that he’s taken in two more while his 22-year-old son, Adam, is stationed in Iraq. Staff photos by Marc Hall
Henry Carroll had no problem taking in two dogs belonging to his son, a soldier who is deployed to Iraq.
No matter that Carroll already had three dogs of his own in his Fayetteville neighborhood. He said he just wanted to help out 22-year-old Pvt. Adam Carroll, who is in the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell, Ky.
But because of what he said he believes was a neighbor’s complaint, county zoning officials are telling Carroll he must get rid of at least two of the dogs in the next 56 days or face the consequences — a penalty of up to $500 per day for each violation.
Carroll doesn’t want to give up his son’s dogs but he can’t afford the penalty.
He’s hoping someone will step up and offer to be a foster family for his son’s two small mixed-breed dogs until Adam comes home later this year.
“I can’t understand it,” said the 45-year-old Carroll, an Army veteran, who sports dark hair that hangs below his shoulders and a beard that’s nearly the same length.
“I want to keep the dogs. A GI shouldn’t have to worry about it,” he said.
Carroll received a letter Wednesday from Cecil P. Combs, the deputy director of county Planning and Inspections. It says that Carroll is in violation of the county’s zoning ordinance by having more than three dogs at his home, which is in an area zoned for residential use and not for businesses, including kennels.
The ordinance defines a kennel as “any premises where four or more dogs which are five months old are kept commercially or as pets.”
But that’s different from the Animal Control ordinance which allows ownership of eight or more dogs, depending on the ages, as long as the owner has an annual privilege license.
That means pet owners must list animals annually for property tax purposes. They pay for the privilege license through that tax, the ordinance says.
Carroll said he listed the five dogs for property tax purposes, thinking he did “the right thing.”
Combs agreed that the issue is confusing.
“In essence, the two definitions of ‘kennel’ are for two different situations,” Combs wrote in the letter.
The Animal Control ordinance addresses sanitary issues while the zoning law dictates land use, the letter said.
Carroll, who is on disability because of heart problems, said he would have to get more information before deciding whether or not to appeal.
Carroll doesn’t know exactly who complained, only that it centered on the noise made by the dogs.
The dogs are small, spirited and cute. One is a dachshund while the others are half-poodle and half-dachshund, Carroll said.
The dogs gather in the large window at one end of Carroll’s home, yipping frantically as people walk up the driveway.
The yipping doesn’t last long. Inside, Carroll puts the five on a table for a picture.
The dogs are well-behaved as they pose — thanks to the lure of bologna.
Later, Carroll opens up a door and the five scurry out to a fenced yard. They line up at one end of the fence and bark, perhaps at a small cat that is strolling down the street.
Carroll doesn’t want to give his son’s dogs to the animal shelter. He’s fearful they will be euthanized.
He said he’d rather keep them, but it doesn’t look as if that will happen.
So Carroll is hoping that someone will be kind enough to help him, his son and the dogs.
Anyone wishing to volunteer to care for the two dogs should contact staff writer Nancy McCleary at mcclearyn@fayobserver.com or 486-3568.
