McNeill — When Pearl River County supervisor Sandy Kane Smith went to the abandoned gas station in McNeill, nothing in his life prepared him for the sight and smell of the dead and dying dogs abandoned there.

“I have seen a lot of things in my life, especially on my grandmother’s farm,” said Smith, “But I have never seen anything like this. Just to see those dogs tied up the way they were, well, there are not words to describe it.”

A total of four dogs were found dead behind an abandoned gas station in McNeill last week. The owner, Alicia Goynes, has been charged with six counts of animal cruelty. Goynes has defended herself, saying she had been on vacation and had left the dogs in the care of a woman she has not named.

Smith, promising to study what options the Board of Supervisors has to enact laws that would have more bite to them against people who commit acts of animal cruelty, said even the process they had to go through in order to save the lone surviving dog was arduous. “We couldn’t just take the dog out of there, we had to get a (seizure) warrant and that took all day,” Smith told the other supervisors on Monday.

The dogs’ situation came to light last week when a sheriff’s deputy was alerted to the possibility of dogs that had been abandoned behind the U.S. Highway 11 property. Tied in various locations around a small travel trailer parked behind the closed gas station the deputy discovered a dead pit bull and a dead puppy. Three puppies were still alive, but had begun to cannibalize the dead puppy. Another pit bull was also alive.

With limited seizure powers, the deputy found himself faced with what to do in order to save the remaining puppies and adult male dog. Arriving at the Picayune SPCA at 11 pm Wednesday night, the deputy asked the shelter for help, but they were also bound by legalities.

“I was at the shelter and one of the deputies drove up and said he could not get anyone to go pick them up,” said SPCA president Maria Diamond. “(Frank) Graves could not pick them up because he works for the county, not the sheriff’s department.”

Graves could only pick up stray dogs that are without collars or tags, Diamond said and then she turned to her district supervisor, Sandy Kane Smith to see if the county could help. “I can’t say enough good about him,” Diamond said. “He worked all day to get the warrant on the case.”

Smith said his part in the rescue began with the call from Diamond on Wednesday morning. Promising to do something, he went out to the property with supervisor Hudson Holliday to see about retrieving the lone surviving male pit bull for the SPCA. The three puppies had been brought to the shelter the previous night by a good Samaritan.

Once there, it became obvious the dogs had died a very slow and painful death. “That had to be a slow, hurting death,” Smith said. “It was during all that heat we were having, and they had some shade, but it was not enough for all day.” According to the National Weather Service, the high temperature that day was 95.

Advised by the county administrator Adrian Lumpkin that a seizure warrant had to be issued, Smith then went to the courthouse in Poplarville to request the warrant from Justice Court Judge Nell Cowart. That process, because court was already in session, stretched out the signing of the warrant until after 4 pm.

Smith said that when they returned to the property after obtaining the warrant, the remaining dog was found at the end of a very heavy chain, in a tunnel, where it had dug a hole to escape the summer sun and heat. “It didn’t want to come out at first,” said Smith, noting that everyone had to use caution not knowing the disposition of the pit bull. “The chain was a very heavy chain,” said Smith. “I could have used it to pull a truck with. It wasn’t any ordinary chain.”

When they got back to the property with the warrant Smith “thought (he) was too late.” He said they eventually were able to coax the emaciapated dog out his hole. “He was as nice as it could be,” said Smith. “But you could see its ribs.” Smith helped take the dog to the animal shelter in Picayune.

As for the dog’s future, Diamond said that at this point it is recovering from the ordeal he’s been through, but that the adoption process is in the air due to the charges against the owner have not yet been resolved. “We are in limbo as to what we can do legally,” Diamond said. “Normally we do not adopt out pit bulls, especially if we do not know their backgrounds. But in exceptional cases, we will check out the people, do a home check and all, to adopt them out.”

Diamond said the SPCA has been working to get the legislature to enact tougher animal cruelty laws because Mississippi is one of only four states where animal cruelty is still a misdemeanor, not a felony.

“We have a petition at the shelter people can sign,” Diamond said, and added that people can report animal abuse, and do so with anonymity. “We want people to know to not just ignore it; they can call it in anonymously.”

As for the county’s part, Smith said that he was going to actively start seeking ways to enact tougher animal cruelty laws and make it easier to seize animals that have been abandoned or abused.

“I am going to start working on this,” Smith said He said Sheriff David Allison has asked the board of supervisors to include funding for an animal control officer in its budget this year. “We are going to start working on our budget soon,” said Smith. “There has to be a way to do this.”

Both Smith and Holliday said they wanted the message to get out to the public that those found guilty of animal abuse would face harsh penalties and fines. “We want people to get the message that we will do what we can to stop this,” Holliday said. “Animal cruelty will not be tolerated in Pearl River County.”