Animal cruelty case puts strain on dog shelter

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - Ten dogs are recovering in the care of the Jefferson County Dog Shelter.

They were taken in last Friday as two Watertown men were charged with a dozen counts of animal cruelty.

The dogs were discovered when the city constable was in the process of evicting 61-year-old Steven Whitford and 33-year-old Mark Whitford from 512 Stone Street.

Animal control assisted city police in rescuing 11 dogs and a ferret from the home.

One dog was euthanized. The other ten dogs will go up for adoption.

“We usually deal with one-ies, two-ies. To get 10 or 11 all at once, it puts a stress on everything. We have different systems we have to log them in. We have different checks we perform on the dogs. Some of these actually had to be bathed and get them into a little bit better condition,” said Joe Plummer, director, Jefferson County Dog Shelter.

Learn how to adopt the dogs here.

The ferret was taken to the Jefferson County SPCA.

The Whitfords are due in court on April 19.

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