Bakersfield, California – A month after shocking video surfaced of an individual allegedly placing an injured dog near a dumpster in East Bakersfield, advocates claim no one has been held accountable for the dog’s abandonment.
Animal rights activists rallied Saturday morning in Southwest Bakersfield to demand action to address the excessive amount of animal abuse in Kern County.
“Too many animals have been harmed, with no consequences for the perpetrators,” said advocate Ivette Carles. “We demand an investigation again with a necropsy so we can know exactly what happened to this poor little girl, Rusty Rose.”
On Monday night, May 5, a graphic video released by Kern County Animal Services allegedly shows an injured dog abandoned inside a dumpster in the 3300 block of Niles in east Bakersfield. The dog would later die, prompting animal rights activists in Kern County to seek justice.
“The animals don’t have any voice, so we have to be their voice,” Carles informed us. “We need to fight for them. We must come and explain every situation and case in order for the county and city to take action, because the animals cannot go over there and say, ‘Hey, we’re being abused, hurt, killed, starved, and there’s no water in the middle of the arches. So, like Rusty Rose, we are the poor animals’ voices.
Fighting alongside fellow advocates, Bakersfield Animal Care Center Veterinarian Nicole Eller says she has lived in Bakersfield for three years and has never seen so many abandoned, abused, or dead animals.
“I feel like we need to have a voice out here and help people be aware that these things are happening,” Eller told me. “This dog was put into a dumpster alive and suffered there for nine hours.”
She believes that the high levels of human violence in Kern County are linked to animal abuse.
“Think about the fact that there’s a link between animal cruelty and human violence,” Eller told the crowd. “And we have a lot of human violence in Kern County and Bakersfield, so it’s all connected. We sometimes feel more empathy for our own species. They do not speak our language. Sometimes you have to look a little harder, a little deeper.
With mounting frustration, advocates claim that higher-level officials are not doing enough to end animal abuse in Kern County.
“They’re not being enforced,” says advocate Heidi Shubin. “The laws aren’t being enforced, so nobody’s being held accountable, so they just don’t the people that do this feel like they can get away from it.”
“We are paying them to do their job, and it’s not being done,” Carles replied. “It’s all blah, blah, blah, but we’re in the same position. Why can’t they just enforce the law that already exists? That’s all we ask.
Animal rights activists are working to ensure that Rusty Rose’s legacy is not forgotten. Her investigation is still pending. This is an ongoing story; stay with Eyewitness News for more information.
