Gaston County dedicates new resources to take on animal abuse cases

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — The often smallest victims of life-threatening crime are now getting big support in Gaston County.

Specially trained officers and investigators are stepping in to take on some of the worst animal abuse cases.

Channel 9 was able to go behind the scenes of the new step that has resulted in a dramatic increase in felony animal abuse charges and gave some of pets an opportunity for a happier life.

In 2017, officials said a felony animal cruelty charge was handed out once to an owner who poured acid on a pitbull.

Since August 2018, Gaston County Police said they have filed 15 felony animal cruelty charges.

Gaston County Police Captain Reid Rollins heads the division taking a more aggressive position toward animal cruelty cases in the county.

"Animals have a place in our community and we are going to hold folks accountable," Rollins said. "Developing a felony case is one thing, but getting a conviction on a felony case is another."

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Officials said animal control more closely resembles a police operation in some areas.

"Having a detective and investigator there to work with us, to help us with the crime scene out to do the evidence preservation, to do the interviews, and get the cases prepped to go to grand jury," Rollins said.

Gaston County Detective James Brienza works major crimes for the county police department and now, that includes some of the worst case of animal abuse.

Brienza showed Channel 9's Ken Lemon some of the cases he is working, with images too graphic to air on television, but will be used in court.

"It's disturbing and it's challenging mentally to have to deal with these cases. It's a passion to help these animals," Brienza said.

Last year, police began a campaign to try to get people to report animal abuse.

"From last year to this year, we are at about 2,000 calls over," Rollins said.

Officers who have the first contact with abused animals must be better prepared to handle cases from the start, so the division began working with animal care specialists to get national training and certification in animal cruelty cases.

They also upgraded their software system to collect extensive details on each call.

"Everything that we do gets documented in here," Specialist Brooks Drennan said. "I can paint a picture for a specialist coming behind me to where they feel, they can feel as though they were there, looking at exactly what I look at."

"You can see that they can recover physically and emotionally from all the scars and things that they had to go through," Rollins said.

Officials said all their felony cases are pending in court. Police said they are also working with local legislators to craft new laws to protect animals from abusive people.

Cox Media Group