Puppies stolen from shelter, beaten to death
Grants Pass, OR (US)

Incident Date: Friday, Aug 22, 2008
County: Josephine

Disposition: Not Charged

Persons of Interest:
» Harley D. Hopkins
» Jacob Goodboe
» Holly Hopkins

Case Updates: 5 update(s) available

The Josephine County Sheriff is looking for the people who kidnapped eleven dogs from the county's animal shelter Friday night.

Four puppies are dead, three found their way back to the shelter and four are still missing. Now locals can't believe this level of violence reached their community.

The cries of the few dogs left at the Josephine County Animal Shelter can still be heard from the street.

But, the rest of the dogs were either kidnapped or taken by volunteers from the shelter for safety.

Volunteers say the suspects came in through the back, then picked the most defenseless dogs.

Brad Tally, the supervisor at the shelter, says he's shocked this could have happen.

"There's a lot of issues that we deal with, neglect, abuse and cruelty in this county...I've lived here my whole life and I've never seen or heard of anything to this magnitude being done to an animal," he says.

There are two layers of fencing the suspects had to cut through after breaking into the facility before they pulled each 11 dogs from their cages.

Some like Seth, a gold adult dog have been found wandering around the area. Others are still missing.

The sheriff says four of the puppies were found dead on Pleasant Valley Road near the 700 block. Not run over by cars but beaten to death then purposefully laid out on the street.

Sheri James lives close and she says she couldn't imagine this happening in her neighborhood.

"That's terrible, this world these days...I've lived here for 15 years and I can't believe that would happen," she says.

Now the nearly deserted shelter is hoping the community will help find the missing dogs and help catch the people who did this.

Tally says this is the sixth time since January the shelter has been broken into. He says he has requested more money for tougher security, but he says there's just not enough money in the budget.

Anyone with information on this case is asked to call the sheriff's office at 474-5123.

Case Updates

References

• « OR State Animal Cruelty Map
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