From 11Alive.com:
A UGA student has been arrested on charges she beat a litter of puppies to death.
The investigation is centered at the Athens-Clarke County Animal Control Center, less than a mile from the convenience store where two workers found the bodies of the puppies, huddled together in a cardboard box inside a dumpster.
Amanda Sunley said she and a friend were stunned to find seven puppies dead inside a dumpster behind the Golden Pantry store where they work.
“There were seven of them in there, they had dog food in the box, and there was fresh feces,” Sunley said. “They were all dead.”
The puppies were all seven to eight weeks old.
Animal control investigators said the puppies appeared to have died violently — possibly beaten with a pipe that was found on top of the box.
Police matched a shipping label on the box to Ashley Council, a 20-year-old part-time clerical worker at the university’s veterinary teaching hospital.
Council is now charged with seven felony counts of animal cruelty. The animal control superintendent said that hours before the bodies were found, a woman called the center, saying she had seven puppies she didn’t want.
“We were able to trace back that telephone call and telephone number, and we were able to match that name from the shipping label and the adoption application,” said animal control Superintendent Patrick Rives.
Sunley said she wonders why whoever did this felt compelled to do it.
Earlier in the day the puppies were found, Ashley Council called animal control to ask about giving them up. She was told she could bring the puppies in. She was told all she had to do was live in Clarke County and it wasn’t a problem.
Council had been employed as a clerical worker at UGA’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital since last August. She was suspended from her job Monday, pending the outcome of the investigation.
Athens-Clarke County Police Detective Rebecca Taft said the puppies were covered with bruises and open wounds and she believed, “they suffered.”
According to Council’s Facebook Internet profile, “Animal Planet” is among her favorite shows and she belongs to a group called “Animal Rights.”
Ashley, if you really didn’t do it I sincerely hope you are fully exonerated.
If you did do this, I would like to volunteer to beat you with a pipe until you are dead.
puppies, Athens-Clarke County, Ashley Council
