(Proceedings begin at 10:37 a.m., Monday, February 16, 2009.)
THE COURT: All right.
MR. BAUER: Ms. Arrington, if you would stand up please and state your name for Judge Wilson.
MS. AMANDA ARRINGTON: Amanda Arrington. I'm the North Carolina State Director for the Humane Society of the united States. And our concern is that the only offer of help has been from Best Friends, but they are not offering to take these dogs.
THE COURT: They are not offering to take the dogs?
MS. AMANDA ARRINGTON: They are offering to assist. That is their language that they used. That means it would still be the county's responsibility. And in their own words, it costs about $190,000 per dog to rehabilitate them.
THE COURT: $190,000 to rehabilitate
a dog?
MS. AMANDA ARRINGTON: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: That's what Best Friends says?
MS. AMANDA ARRINGTON: Yes.
(Brief Pause.)
THE COURT: why is this the so-called humane thing to do?
MS. AMANDA ARRINGTON: To euthanize?
THE COURT: Yes, ma'am.
MS. AMANDA ARRINGTON: For the dogs themselves, I think, because of the way that they were bred. I think it is an unrealistic expectation for us to ask these dogs that have been bred generations for fighting to become regular pets. And it's an even bigger thing to ask people to take on that responsibility and the county to take on both the financial burden and the liability.
You know, we could be a couple years down the road and one of these dogs could do something, and I
think it ultimately could come back on the county of Wilkes.
(Brief Pause.)
THE COURT: Sir, did you want to add something?
MR. CHRIS SCHINDLER: I'm Chris Schindler. I'm the Deputy Manager, Animal Fighting Law Enforcement, Humane Society of the United States. Your Honor, basically agree with all the things that everyone else has said. These dogs have been bred for generations upon generations for a single purpose of animal fighting; the puppies included.
They all have been bred to display those traits of gameness and these things that dog fighters look for. People don't come from all over the world to obtain dogs from Ed Faron because, you know, they are just a regular pit bull. They come to obtain dogs from him because they are known for their capabilities in fighting.
You can't -- you know, even the puppies, you know, as you have heard, have been displaying those -you know, those tendencies to start fighting with each other, and that's something you are going to see as they grow older.
Most of these dogs, you won't know their true capability until they are at least 18 months old. These guys don't even test them for fighting purposes until they are 18 months old. So the likelihood of being able to hold these dogs until they are almost two years old to find out how dangerous they may be is unrealistic. I mean, housing them just for now has cost, you know, maybe more than $60,000, just to hold them until now, to this point.
I mean, these dogs, they are not on the same level. You know, people speak about the Michael Vick dogs. Those dogs have not even been rehabilitated.
(Brief Pause.)
(Proceeding concluded at 10:52 a.m.)