Dogs shot in the neck, stabbed to death, allegedly beaten with bat. Why is KC so cruel?

They initially thought the stray dog had been hit by a car. But Kansas City animal shelter staff soon found a bullet lodged in her neck. After a day of intense emergency care, she died on Thanksgiving night.

Rocky was luckier, though not by much and perhaps only by providence. The stray dog had suffered a wound so deep that his spinal cord was showing, inflicted by what doctors believe may have been a machete. He lived — but obviously not to tell of it, or of his tormentor who has slipped into the concealing dim of anonymity.

These are but two of a handful of utterly shocking wounds suffered by dogs in Kansas City in just the past few weeks, a spate of injuries that has tested the shelter staff’s abilities and sensibilities and raised questions about our own.

“It’s just been kind of a horrendous few weeks,” says Tori Fugate, chief communications officer for the nonprofit KC Pet Project that runs the shelter. “When these cases come in, it’s just hard.”

The shelter’s dedicated staff and volunteers regularly see more mayhem than they likely let on about, but “nothing like this,” Fugate said.

At least two other dogs with stab wounds were also brought to the shelter by the city’s animal control department, one of them dying from multiple punctures.

It may be that one or more of the dogs were stabbed in the defense of another animal, according to Gerald Countz, acting manager of the city’s Animal Health and Public Safety division. Either way, the damage is done, and the shelter is left to pick up the ghastly pieces.

While those cases were not prosecutable, Countz said another recent one was — in which a dog was allegedly beaten with a baseball bat for jumping on the family couch and nipping at the angry owner. Countz said a cruelty to animals citation has been issued in the case, which could result in a municipal fine of up to $500 and up to six months in jail.

What’s going on? Fugate notes holiday bustle, cabin fever and spikes in general societal violence.

What can be done?

Well, for one thing, President Donald Trump recently signed into law a bipartisan bill making intentional animal cruelty a federal crime that calls for punishments of up to seven years in prison. U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri Timothy A. Garrison’s office was noncommittal on whether it would use the law on any cases such as those tormenting the Kansas City animal shelter. We certainly hope it does.

Animal control, which has written more than 2,800 municipal abuse/neglect citations this year, also can refer the worst cases to state court.

As KC Pet Project gets set to take over animal control duties from the city early next year — contract negotiations are still in progress — Fugate promises the agency will be focused on prosecution.

The city’s new animal shelter, which will nearly double capacity when it opens later this month, also will have space for teaching young people about the humane care of animals.

“We really want to try to start raising a new generation on what it means to respect animals and what it means to have them as part of your life and your family,” Fugate says.

Clearly, and deplorably, that can’t happen soon enough.