Marshfield Man Charged With Cruelty to a Dog That Had to be Euthanized Due to Chronic Starvation

Friday, April 19th, 2024 -- 11:00 AM

(Karen Madden, Marshfield News-Herald) A 31-year-old Marshfield man charged with being cruel to a dog that had to be euthanized due to chronic starvation pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Wood County Circuit Court.

According to Karen Madden with the Marshfield News-Herald, Larry D. Williams faces a felony charge of mistreatment of an animal and misdemeanor charges of failure to provide food and drink to a confined animal and providing improper animal sanitation standards.

Ashley K. Scott, 28, of Marshfield, faces the same charges. She has not yet entered a plea to the charges. Both are free on $1,000 signature bails. According to the criminal complaint, on Sept. 29, an officer requested help from another officer looking at a dog.

Someone had reported a dog inside a home that was skinny, mangy looking and not healthy. The dog also was reported to have worms and a wound on its right leg. The two officers went inside the home with Scott, one of the dog's owners.

They saw a small yellow dog inside a wire crate. Scott said the dog, Nece, had worms, goes outside to go to the bathroom, has food and has a sore, according to the complaint. Scott said she was out of town last week and the person watching Nece did not let the dog out.

An officer reported seeing urine and feces in the bottom of the crate along with a metal dish that had a small amount of food inside it, according to the complaint. The dog had an open wound the size of a dime that was pink and a little red around the edges.

The officer could see Nece's rib bones, spine and back hip bones protruding from her skin. The dog's fur was matted on the back of all four legs, which could have been from laying in its own waste, according to the complaint.

An officer told Scott that Nece's condition was severe and Scott said, "Yes, I know. I don't have the money for a vet right at this second. I'm not neglecting my dog." Scott asked the officer if the dog was going to be taken away and the officer responded that it was being considered.

Scott told the officers to go ahead, according to the complaint. Scott said Nece had worms since they got her about 1⅟₂ years earlier. Scott then left the home momentarily and came back with her husband, Williams.

Williams said they had just gotten the dog back from another person at the beginning of the year. Williams said the wound was from Nece chewing. When the officer asked about the urine and feces in the crate, Williams said he was going to clean it out but both he and Scott had been busy that day.

Williams admitted the waste inside the crate was about two days worth, according to the complaint. Williams said they left Nece in the crate because they didn't know how she would do around the other animals and their youngest child.

He said he would let her outside, leave her out for sometime, but she would go to the bathroom as soon as he let her back inside, according to the complaint. The officers seized Nece and took her to the Marshfield Area Pet Shelter for care.

Nece weighed about 11 pounds. The next day, the shelter texted an officer and said Nece had two seizures in the morning while staff was working with her. The staff was giving Nece fluids when she had the two 10-second seizures.

The staff said seizures are common with end-stage starvation, according to the complaint. Nece was taken to a vet in Eau Claire to get checked out because of the seizures and the dog had more of them on the way.

The vet said Nece could have long-term brain damage because of the seizures. Nece was not responding to anti-seizure medication and the vet did not feel Nece could recover. The decision was made to humanely euthanize Nece, according to the complaint. A necropsy was performed on Nece.

The report indicated Nece was emaciated and had lesions consistent with chronic starvation, according to the complaint. Nece's ideal body weight was estimated to be between 28 and 40 pounds. The examination did not find the internal parasites that Scott and Williams talked about.

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