Shouldn't happen even to a dog

Sympathy is fine. But empathy — truly understanding another's thoughts and emotions — is part of the big equation that makes all of us human.

Not everyone experiences empathy when confronted with another person's suffering. There's something about the suffering of an animal, however, that can shoot our and nearly anyone else's blood past the boiling point.

We can't tell you precisely what Burke County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Anthony Bennerman was thinking or feeling last Nov. 2 when he started conducting a welfare check at a house south of Waynesboro, Georgia. But we can make a good guess.

Bennerman called in Sgt. Jerry Jones to help him determine if the home's resident, Martha Falaro, was OK. Apparently she was. The dogs in her fecesstrewn house most certainly weren't.

The veterinarian who later examined all nine dogs found them starving, riddled with parasites and dehydrated. One dog, only a puppy, had an old injury to an eye that left such severe damage that it had to be removed. Another puppy's punctured, infected hind leg needed immediate treatment.

Other adult dogs were closer to a puppy's size. According to a veterinarian, many of the dogs were treated so shabbily that it likely stunted their growth.

Nine dogs meant nine arrest warrants. After a fourhour trial March 14, Falaro was convicted on seven counts of cruelty to animals. State Court Judge Jackson Cox sentenced her to 200 hours of community service; $2,700 in fines; $16,522.40 to be paid to the county for the dogs' boarding and medical care; and 12 months of probation for each count. So, seven years back-to-back.

What about the dogs? The folks at Old Fella Burke County Animal Rescue helped arrange for the dogs to be sent to the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem, Mass., to be housed and cared for until they're adopted — which shouldn't take long at all.

Burke County has been making admirable strides in how it approaches animal welfare, and it's all great news.

The county's full-time animal control director is getting trained at the Georgia Police Academy so he can be made a certified Burke County deputy — which would give him the power to issue citations and even make arrests in animal cases.

There also are plans in the works for a new animal control shelter. The Burke County Board of Commissioners already approved the funding. And an updated set of animal control ordinances is scheduled for a second reading before commissioners in April. If they're approved then, they go into effect immediately.

There still is a long way to go to relieve the entire human race's worldly suffering. But it's being accomplished a bit at a time, and it's reflected partly by how we extend extra compassion to the pets who love and depend on us.