The Red and Black

Issue date: 10/3/07 Section: News

COUNCIL

A University student who worked at the veterinary hospital and is accused of beating seven puppies to death said Tuesday the act isn't anything she would do.

"Whatever happened was unintentional," said Ashley Rose Council, a junior from Ellenwood, in a telephone interview Tuesday with The Red & Black. "This isn't anything I'd do."

Council, 20, was arrested and charged with seven felony counts of animal cruelty on Thursday - nearly a month after a litter of puppies was found in a dumpster off Lexington Road.

She added, "This is so bad. Everything is messing up. I didn't do anything."

Council, who said she has three dogs at home, would not comment on the charges.

She is scheduled to appear in Athens-Clarke County Magistrate Court on Oct. 23.

In the meantime, Tom Jackson, vice president for public affairs, said College of Veterinary Medicine Dean Sheila Allen plans to suspend Council from employment pending investigation.

Council's part-time job at the University's Veterinary Teaching Hospital entailed only clerical work, said Tracy Giese, public relations coordinator for the vet school. She did not have contact with any animals, Giese said.

ACC Animal Control Superintendent Patrick Rives said Tuesday the saga began Sept. 8 when his department received a call from an employee at the Golden Pantry on Lexington and Cherokee roads. The employee found a cardboard box full of seven dead black puppies in a dumpster behind the store, he said. On top of the box rested a metal pipe, according to the incident report. A label on the box showed it once contained a JCPenney comforter shipped to Council's address in Ellenwood.

An animal control officer responded to the scene and snapped pictures of the puppies, whose abdomens were bruised and had red marks, the report said.

"They were about 6 to 8 weeks old and too young to tell their breed," Rives said.

Their bodies were taken to the University vet school for the necropsy of one puppy and the storage of the other six bodies. He said he was unable to share the preliminary results because of medical confidentiality laws.

Rives said officers traced the puppies to a call from a woman earlier that morning inquiring if there was a limit of animals she could surrender to animal control. She told animal control she had seven puppies she wanted to put in the shelter. An officer told the woman there was no limit if she was an ACC resident and recommended she spay the adult dog, the report said.

"It just seemed to match the description from the call," Rives said.

Officers then linked the phone number from the call with Council's earlier adoption application for a dog. Rives said the two-year-old black and tan Dachshund Council adopted from ACC Animal Control on June 5 is spayed and unrelated to the puppies. The address listed on her application is less than a mile from the dumpster where the puppies were found.

Rives said he then contacted ACC Police.

On Sept. 25, a judge issued a warrant for Council's arrest. Two days later she was in ACC jail and since has been released.

Efforts to reach ACC Police Det. Rebecca Taft, who investigated and is prosecuting Council, were unsuccessful Tuesday. Savannah Hembree, an ACC Police human resources technician, said police would not comment and do not have a report on the investigation.

If convicted, Council faces up to five years in prison and a $15,000 fine per felony count.


- Carolyn Crist contributed to this article.

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