Lawmaker-DVM wants abusive owners to forfeit pets

COLUMBUS, OHIO — A veterinarian who is also a state lawmaker plans to offer an amendment to pending animal-protection legislation that would take pets away from abusive owners.

Rep. Shawn Webster, DVM, a Republican who represents the Hamilton area near Cincinnati in southwest Ohio, says he will add that clause to a bill already halfway through the General Assembly. The bill, requiring a hearing within 21 days in cases where a live animal is being held as evidence, stems from several dog-fighting arrests earlier this year in the Hamilton and Middletown areas. In many instances nationwide, dogs rounded up in raids on fighting venues often are held several months in shelters at considerable expense while the cases plod through the legal system. The Ohio bill and others like it are aimed at speeding up the hearing process to reduce the time the animals are held.

Webster's amendment to that bill would prohibit judges from returning dogs to owners in cases of torture, poisoning, beating, deprivation of food and water and other abuses. (Neither the main bill nor the amendment would directly impact DVMs.)

He was asked by a Butler County official to draw up the amendment after two dogs were found with their tethers embedded in their necks.

One spent five months in a shelter before a judge ruled the dog be returned to its owner, who had pleaded no contest to animal cruelty and other charges. The owner was fined $1,000, ordered to reimburse the county more than $1,500 for surgery and other costs, prohibited from keeping the dog tied outside and required to read a book on dog care.

The other dog, found with a cable embedded in its neck, spent less time in the shelter because its owner, who was fined $100 for cruelty and placed on probation for two years, signed papers transferring ownership to an animal-welfare group. The dog was later adopted.

Middletown, Ohio, recently enacted an anti-tether law, prohibiting anyone from leaving a dog tied up more than 12 consecutive hours. Animal-welfare officials in the area are calling for similar laws throughout the state.

Webster, who has been a small-animal practitioner more than 30 years, divides his time between the legislature in Columbus and his practice, Lodders Plaza Animal Clinic, near Hamilton.