Reported By: Carolyn Scofield
Photographed By: Christina Hendricks
Mark Hawthorne says he simply wanted to save lives.
Fourteen pit bulls were scheduled to be put down at the St. Lucie County Humane Society. Hawthorne, a volunteer with the Homeless Pet Foundation in Georgia, offered to take the dogs.
“I saved the lives of 14 dogs and I took them to an operation that was a safe place for these animals, where he was going to put them in proper homes and I have no control of them following that,”
A court order from February says the pit bulls were to be placed in a no-kill shelter.
Hawthorne says he turned the dogs over to an Okeechobee man.
Ft. Pierce Police discovered two of the pit bulls during a drug raid three weeks ago. The rest were found scattered about St. Lucie and Okeechobee Counties, including 5 at a Seminole Indian reservation.
Hawthorne says he never promised to take the dogs out of state.
“I didn't feel any need to take them Georgia if I could find a decent environment for them in Florida,” says Hawthorne. “Why would I?”
Thirteen of the pits bulls are now back at the Humane Society.
One is still missing.
Hawthorne says he considered coming to get the dogs again, but his attempts to save them already caused too much trouble.
“I'm not really in any concern where they animals go,” says Hawthorne. “I hope they go to good homes, but it's better than them being put in trash bags and put in the St. Lucie County landfill and that's where they would be had St. Lucie County today still had possession of those animals, they were going to euthanize them that day.”
The Humane Society says they’re now trying to find homes for all of the dogs.
Read more about this story in Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers.
