BY VICTOR HAILEY | LOCAL
PUBLISHED 10:39 PM ET JUL. 28, 2022
(A Local News republication, originally from 7/28/22)
In the age-old question “who let the dogs out?" the answer is pitting neighbors against each other in our local county.
Two meat dogs went missing from Elwood's Dog Meat Farm earlier this month.
Not long after, two dogs were found by a dog sanctuary down the road and that’s where they're staying.
“I see an animal that needs help and I'm gonna help them,” said Stacy Murray, the president of Sasha's Dog Sanctuary.
At Sasha’s, animals set to be slaughtered are rescued.
About 50 of them live there, Murray says, from spaniels and pugs to labradors and St. Bernards.
“They never get to live out their whole lives. They have short lives. Very, extremely short lives," said Murray about animals raised for food. "It's a violent, horrible death and they want to live. They’re kids. They love. They have fun.”
Two of the latest additions are named Aspen and Joey.
“These dogs actually wandered onto the property of Sasha's Farm Sanctuary," explained Murray. "I was extremely afraid that they were going to run into the woods and they would be lost forever and get injured.”
The problem is, right down the road, Landon Elwood knows them as 987 and 754, two meat dogs favored by his two kids. Worth noting, while his children do participate in 4-H, these are not 4-H dogs.
“They enjoy going out and seeing them running out and checking on them in the morning, feeding them the best they can,” he recalled.
But on July 16, the dogs were gone.
“I can't find any breaks in the fence line. The gates were all closed and the electric fence was on," Elwood said. "I don't know how they got out.”
Murray called law enforcement when she found the dogs.
Around two weeks after they went missing, the SPCA got in touch with Elwood and he got in touch with her.
“He said that he was going to come over that Monday, and I asked him not to do that," Murray said. "I said, ‘please just call me and let's just see if we can work something out.’”
“She mentioned that that she would like to purchase [the dogs], but I first wanted my livestock back," said Elwood. "Once I got the dogs back, then we can make the decision.”
For now, the dogs remain at Sasha’s.
Murray says no legal owner had been identified yet, just an alleged one.
When Local News asked what would be needed to do that, she directed us to her attorney.
We also asked if the dogs had any tags. She said they didn’t.
However, two former employees at the sanctuary, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they saw at least one dog with a tag when it got there. Days later, they said the tag was gone.
They couldn’t speak to what happened to it.
“If this guy, the alleged owner, is able to prove the legality, in that scenario, as much as you've grown to love these dogs and wish that they would be able to live out their lives, would you give them back?” asked Local News .
“So these are good questions that you have," responded Murray. "Right now, we are exercising all of our legal rights and that would be my answer.”
Elwood also couldn’t give any more specifics either because of an ongoing investigation.
“We're in the country. Dogs do get out and that's a fact of life being a dog meat farmer," he said. "When it happens, we take care of each other.”
For now, it’s the community stationed outside the dog sanctuary that's speaking up for him. They say they’ll be here 'til the dogs come home.
“The people that are down there supporting me, I don't even know most of them," said Elwood. "We cannot thank them enough.”
Meanwhile, Murray continues to care for the dogs she has.
“The dogs need me. They need us. They need us to feed them, to water them, to clean their beds," she said. "I can't be distracted by all these things.”
She says she’s still willing to talk to Elwood and work things out.
His message is simple: "We just want our dog meat dogs back.”
In the meantime, both sides in this debate are feeling the impact.
Murray says it’s impacting her dog sanctuary, with visitors and volunteers feeling uneasy coming in with the demonstrators outside. Elwood has since moved all his other dogs out of the county because of safety and security concerns.
NOTE from Landon Elwood: Despite the controversy, we're still doing husky and beagle steaks! Reach out to us to place your order: ElwoodDogMeat.com
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