For immediate release:
October 13, 2022
Contact:
Lauren Kent 202-483-7382
Rockdale County, Georgia. – PETA has sent an urgent letter to Rockdale County District Attorney Alisha Johnson, urging her to file animal cruelty charges against Deputy Eric Tolbert of the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office (RCSO), who has admitted to three American bullies having locked himself in – one breath-disabled breed (BIB) – in a shed while temperatures reached 95 degrees with a heat index in excess of 100 degrees, resulting in her prolonged death.
BIBs are twice as likely to suffer heatstroke as other breeds, and according to RCSO’s research Tolbert admitted knowing that “American thugs can’t pant normally to cool down like normal dogs” and so on “They don’t do well in the heat”— yet he kept Luke Cage, Storm, and LaLa in boxes in a shed without adequate ventilation or climate control. The first dog died on June 13, the other two he apparently left in the shed when he went to work the next day and they also died. Investigators also found two other dogs — including Tolbert’s assigned state-owned K-9, Aegis — left unattended and caged in filthy, fecal-strewn outdoor enclosures in nearly 30 degrees Celsius and noted that Aegis have not received necessary veterinary care since 2019 would have. The RCSO removed him, demoted Tolbert from his position as K-9 leader and recommended charges of animal cruelty — but a Rockdale County Superior Court judge reportedly refused to review the evidence, apparently because the department was investigating one of its own deputies .
“These dogs needed Tolbert’s protection, but he made them suffer and die in a sweltering shed,” said Daphna Nachminovitch, PETA’s senior vice president of Cruelty Investigations. “Sheriff’s deputies are not above the law, and PETA is asking District Attorney Johnson to ensure that Deputy Tolbert is held accountable for the suffering and agonizing death of these dogs like any other citizen would.”
More information about heat stroke in dogs can be found here. PETA – whose motto is in part that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – opposes speciesism, a worldview that puts humans first. For more information, please visit PETA.org or continue to follow the group Twitter, Facebookor Instagram.
