The following "Discovering Alabama" program deals with a very difficult issue.

In "Discovering Alabama's" almost 40 years of travel showcasing the beauty across our state, we keep encountering a very ugly problem; The problem of domestic animal abuse.

So a warning, this program contains images and content that may be disturbing for some, especially maybe younger children.

Viewer discretion is advised.

[Announcer] This program is supported by grants from the Solon and Martha Dixon Foundation.

"Discovering Alabama" is a production of the Alabama Museum of Natural History.

(calm music) When we feel love for our animal friends, do they feel love for us?

When we speak to them revealing our thoughts, do they respond with real thought in return?

To most animal lovers it seems obvious that our special companions do feel the emotion of love and do have the capability of actual cognitive thought.

But not everyone views animals this way, and how we humans perceive the animal world determines how we treat them, especially animals like livestock and domestic pets that are so often a close part of our lives.

Many people make every effort to care for their animals, providing the essentials for humane treatment, food and water, ample shelter and comfortable living conditions together with sufficient kindness and attention to nurture general wellbeing.

But sadly, it's only too easy to find countless cases of animal mistreatment.

All the kinds of abuse so often documented by animal welfare groups.

Treatment in ways that are stressful and harmful to animals.

Ways that seem void of compassion and cause us to wonder about the role of humankind in relation to other living creatures.

They are age old questions.

Do animals experience actual emotions?

Are they capable of actual cognitive thought?

And what is the proper order, the proper relationship of humans to animals?

I'm Doug Phillips, come along with me as we examine these questions and consider the situation with animal welfare in Alabama today.

(calm music) This program is about a land unknown to many people.

A land that in many ways has maintained its native natural wonders.

A place of bountiful back country, forest, streams, and wildlife more diverse than can be found in much of the inhabited world.

Come along with me as we explore the wild wonders of this land.

come along as we discover Alabama.

Welcome to "Discovering Alabama", and welcome to a topic that's sorta different than most we've done.

The human relationship to animals is a complex subject involving matters of science, law, philosophy and morality.

Going back even to the old Testament chapter of Genesis in the Bible, where God said of man, "And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth.

And over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."

As we know, some have taken this biblical mention of dominion to mean that we can pretty much treat animals as we care to.

That we can use them or discard them as we wish.

But that whole idea has come under challenge, biblical scholars today tell us that the Genesis reference to dominion is really telling us that we are stewards over nature.

And with stewardship comes caring and responsibility.

Historian, Dr. Wayne Flynt, a nationally distinguished scholar, is also an ordained Baptist minister.

What I was taught, by my understanding of the Bible is that the Bible, like any piece of literature was written within a certain context.

And if you feel that as humankind, you have dominion over everything else, the natural order of the universe is gonna be a tragic natural order, 'cause we're going to exploit it for our own self-interest.

The idea that we fast forward to a world where animal species are disappearing, are becoming extinct in large numbers.

We need human society to save what we had dominion over, dominion meaning caring for it, not just exploiting it.

And science too is challenging old ideas about the human relationship to animals.

The global warming.

[Doug] Dr. Frans de Waal is a biologist who conducts animal research at Emory University.

We have for a long time thought we can do whatever we want with this earth.

We can mess it up anyway we want, because we're gonna be okay, we are the masters of the universe.

We are not really the masters of the universe.

Everything feeds back to us, and so we have to be very careful.

And so that attitude that we are separate from nature, which I think is largely a religious attitude, has also had its destructive consequences.

In fact, today, human exportation of nature is having serious consequences for animal species globally.

And some of the more important insights about animals are being affirmed by a scientist close to home.

Alabama native and famed biologist, Dr. E.O Wilson.

But now probably far more importantly for the future of the world, the whole world, is how we treat animals and what they constitute as a part of the earth's ecosystems.

The challenge of slowing and halting the destruction of the rest of life, or the 10 million more other species living on this planet, is going to become a major issue.

Our increasing knowledge about the natural world is helping us understand the grander significance of our connection to it.

And when we look more specifically at animals themselves, what are we finding?

So I can tell you that over probably the past 50 years, scientists have gone from believing that animals maybe are just very simplified creatures with very few emotions, to very complicated, complex thinkers, with a lot of different emotions, with empathy, the ability to deceive, the ability to interact in different ways, to pass on knowledge socially and potentially culturally.

All of these things tell us that animals are a lot more complicated than we thought they were, and they're probably a lot more similar to us than we thought they were.

My work on the primates is mostly about how there's continuity in intelligence between us and them, and in emotions, and the whole psychology of humans and animals is very similar.

[Doug] Dr. de Waal is one of the world's top authorities on primates.

Dr. Heidi Lyn is a leader in animal research at the University of South Alabama.

She also studies primates as well as dogs and dolphins.

Her findings about animal intellect, emotion and empathy are very similar to the findings of other experts.

Early assumptions held that there are three key differences separating the intellect of humans from animals.

The human ability to use tools, to understand language, and to think forward or backwards in time.

Modern research has shown that in fact none of these three are exclusive to humans.

Apes that I have worked with can understand language at the level of a two and a half year old child.

They've actually been tested against a two and a half year old child; Given a sentence, like, put the keys in the refrigerator, and they can follow that.

They can use a keyboard to request things themselves.

So they can say, "I wanna go outside, or I wanna go to this specific location and get food."

We know that dogs can memorize English words for different objects.

We've seen a couple of dogs who have the ability to do up to 1000 words with one specific dog.

And then the second part of language is putting those words together in longer sequences.

That's been studied in dolphins in particular with an artificial language system, where they had things like ball fetch basket versus basket fetch ball, and they can follow those pretty easily.

[Doug] We've known for a half a century that primates can use tools.

Now we know that many other animals have that ability, elephants and octopuses, birds and rodents, and dolphins too.

We even know that dolphins seem to be using tools.

They use sponges that they carry on their noses to actually protect themselves from foraging in rocky reefy areas and things like that.

[Doug] And more recently we're learning that animals don't just live in the moment, they can use past experience to anticipate future actions.

Planning ahead, we always think animals live in the present, they're captives of the present, but actually we know from research on all sorts of animals now, they can think back to specific events and they can think forward to things that they are planning to do.

[Doug] One short-term example is something called spatial memory.

The spatial memory task with dogs, basically is like the shell game.

Okay.

[Doug] But it can be much more complex.

As in a case Dr. De Waal recalls of a primate who carried a rock to crack a cashew nut, a 15 minute walk away.

Now think about this; It's not just the tool used that is interesting, because we know already for 50 years that chimps and bonobos can crack nuts with stones.

But it is that 15 minutes before she even had the nuts in her hand, she was already planning this whole thing.

And one more thing about the question of whether animals have feelings, emotions, a question once thought to be outside the reach of scientific measurement.

Now, by matching animals to MRI brain patterns linked to emotions in humans, researchers have verified a range of animal feeling states.

Pigs can feel optimism, a wide variety of species experience grief.

So love and attachment you'll find in all the mammals, you'll find it also in birds actually.

We also know that dolphins love to play.

We also know that apes play with each other.

Apes tickle each other, they also laugh.

We find even a sense of fairness in the primates, we find empathy, they empathize with others, they react to the distress of others.

So all of these emotions, the very basic ones, but also sometimes very complex ones like forgiveness and empathy and so on, we can find in other species.

And I think it has moral implications in the sense that if you assume that animals are very intelligent, which some animals certainly are, or that they have emotions like us, you cannot do everything you want with them.

There are certain limits on what you can do.

Of course, different people sometimes react differently to the pronouncements of science, especially in regard to animals.

Still for most of us, the more is learned about animals, the greater the justification we realize for ethical stewardship and their treatment.

And the fear of justifications can be claimed for the kinds of ignorant abuse that is all too prevalent.

And that abuse is particularly true for the animals closest to us, the ones with whom we share homes.

And nowhere is that truth more evident than in our own region, our own state.

And when we delve into it, the degree of neglect and abuse is absolutely shocking.

Probably the most infamous case of animal abuse in modern Alabama memory occurred in Mobile in 1994, when, Gucci, a chow mixed puppy was hung from a tree, beaten, then doused with lighter fluid and set on fire.

A disgusting torture that drew sensational TV coverage around the nation.

A more recent case got front page attention, when a dog named Remi was found in a Tuscaloosa neighborhood with a gunshot wound to her face.

We really don't know what happened other than someone shot her and left her to suffer.

Martha Hocutt is the county deputy sheriff assigned as animal abuse investigator.

We are seeing more gunshot wounds now.

In the four years that I've been doing this job I've seen an increase in gunshots.

Deliberately shooting a domestic animal is a heartless act of cruelty.

Often done from a mindless urge to pull trigger.

as my own dog, Old Boss, can attest.

Boss was out for a stroll along the edge of my farm one day, when an irresponsible hunter on the adjoining property shot his leg off.

A few years ago we treated with one Dr. Phillip's dogs, Bosco, for a left front leg injury.

After applying a tourniquet and stopping bleeding, we could determine the leg was not salvageable.

The shot was meant to kill Boss just because he had wandered in view of the man's hunting area.

Some people are that way, so uncaring as to shoot a domestic animal for such a silly, trivial reason.

You know, there's a difference between a accidental injury and a non-accidental injury.

Obviously a gunshot is a non-accidental injury.

The only intent is to harm that animal.

And unfortunately, we see it more often than we would like.

Another particularly egregious form of cruelty is dog fighting.

Most people think of it as rare in our region and our state.

It is not rare.

It is widespread, well-organized, and profitable.

These are people who are intentionally breeding dogs, acquiring dogs with the intention that they're going to inflict harm on other dogs and kill other dogs.

And they're going to derive financial gain from that.

[Doug] Mindy Gilbert is Alabama state director for the Humane Society of the United States.

Since 2008, she's been involved in investigating and prosecuting dog fighting groups.

There are levels of dog fighting; There are street level, amateurs and professionals.

There are professionals that, you know, are creating their own line of game dogs that have very high dollar value.

It's very widespread.

I would say that there are, I don't know of any communities where it doesn't happen.

And people, I think have a concept, a profile of what somebody looks like who is engaged in animal fighting.

And I'm here to tell you they're every level of society, and people who engage in that walk amongst us; They may be professional people, they may be doctors, certainly.

I mean, I hate to bring up Michael Vick, but there you go.

He got caught in dog fighting, a celebrity sports hero.

In fact, there may be cases where the practice is so well connected that the powers that be just look the other way, or worse.

There was a dog standing inside a pen surrounded by rotting carcasses.

[Doug] Tammy Tierce is the founder and director of the Tuscaloosa based Canine Compassion Fund, a mostly volunteer rescue group.

She was contacted by a resident of a rural Alabama county who happened upon a nearby property with an animal living in particularly inhumane conditions.

We ended up investigating this on our own, trying to bring in law enforcement, and come to find out, that was the dog catcher's home.

Someone did come out and tell us that there was a pit, a dog fighting pit, actually on the dog catchers property.

Dog fighters typically don't begin to game check their dogs till they're about two years of age.

And then they will give them short rolls or short bumps with a conditioned dog to see what their game response is.

And if it's not there, they'll discard them.

They're sometimes shot, sometimes electrocuted, sometimes, you know, they're injured enough that they're not gonna survive on their own and they're thrown out on the side of the road.

I mean, it's horrible.

Much more common than purposeful abuse is neglect, which at its worst can be just as horrific.

Starvation is something that we see a lot of and sometimes we bring them out and sometimes we can't.

One of my first cases when I came over to animal control was a puppy, a pitbull puppy, and he was chained to a tree.

And when I got there he was dead and had been dead for at least 24 hours.

And when I confronted the owner, he told me he had fed the dog the night before.

That one got to me.

We talk about general neglect and it just doesn't sound horrible.

But when you work at a shelter or you work in animal control, I mean, most of us, many times a year end up responding to a call or acquiring an animal that's an animal that's been tethered in which a collar, or a chain, or a cable, has grown into the neck to the extent that it has to be surgically removed.

But imagine that doesn't happen overnight.

Imagine, you know, living your life 24/7 having your air cut off, having a wound develop.

Think about the dog tied up in the middle of summer that has a wound like that, and what happens to that wound.

Recently, probably our most recent case was a dog where the leg had been wrapped in a tether, and even though it was unwrapped, it wasn't still on it, the tissue died and the entire leg basically sloughed off.

We see them put them out and they wind around trees or stumps.

They get their limbs caught in the tether, and that's what cuts off circulation and causes the tissue to decay and rot.

Well, we had one case where we brought six dogs in and one of the dogs weighed, I believe she weighed 12 pounds when we brought her him.

The chains she was tethered with would have held me at my current weight and size, and she weighed 12 pounds.

So, you know, we see a lot of that, we see a lot of 12 pound dogs on chains that would hold cars.

These might be the most extreme examples, but others that differ only by degree are unfortunately all too common.

The most common thing we see is people not feeding their animals properly.

We bring puppies in that have horrible, I call it rickets, it's from poor nutrition, poor living conditions.

Big dogs living in small kennels, dogs living in filth.

Again, dogs, cats, horses, any animal living in filth, not being fed properly.

Those are the most common things that we see, that I work with every day.

A lot of times their attitude is it wasn't me, I didn't do anything.

I have had one person who told me in no uncertain terms, the animal deserved it.

We do see a lot of, you know, they're not people they're just animals.

You know, I've been told more than once, it's none of my business.

And unfortunately it is my business.

Animal abuse and neglect and callous forms of exploitation, such as puppy mills for example, seem to go hand in hand with a certain mentality.

We are told regularly, mind your own business, go to hell, you're not coming on my property.

[Doug] Tammy Tierce's Canine Compassion Fund has been operating for several years, during which she's seen cases of animal abuse from across Alabama.

She's come to believe that a large part of the problem is due to the attitudes that come out of a particular culture and mindset.

So in the south, we seem to have a majority attitude of it's just a dog or it's just an animal.

Stray dogs are seemingly a part of the Southern landscape.

I've been seeing them as long as I can remember.

Mainly during my time in Alabama, I've lived in other states, Colorado, Florida.

Someone told me not too long ago that you've got to accept, in rescue work, that there's a contingent that you're not going to be able to reach.

They're resistant to help, they don't want you there, they see it as an intrusion.

They see their dog as personal property, and you're not going to tell them what to do with the dog.

It's discouraging to see how often it happens.

It was shocking to me when I first got involved in rescue work to see how much abuse and neglect was going on.

So it's a problem of attitude, a mindset, particularly widespread in our state.

You might wonder, isn't there a law against it?

Yes, we can find a few statutes on the books intended to help, but for most of Alabama, folks just don't have ample means for enforcement, and thus there's little effect.

So you might ask, what about education?

Yeah, what about education?

Why is there no adequate program of humane education for the general public in Alabama?

And by the way, why is there no organized program for humane education at some level in Alabama schools?

These are legitimate questions that warrant serious analysis and close public attention.

But for now I'll just say you're probably aware there could be strong political opposition against anything we propose an Alabama for stronger humane treatment of animals.

And when such political realities combine with a lack of public awareness, well, Alabama is open territory for animal abuse.

That's not to say there's no progress being made.

Indeed, hats off to the many dedicated people fighting the uphill struggle for the cause of animal welfare in Alabama.

You met some of them in this show, and the hope is to do a future show celebrating the work of all of these good folks.

Meanwhile, our wonderful state of Alabama remains shamefully degraded by an animal abuse problem of disturbing depth and breadth.

Of course, most Alabamians care very much about the welfare of our animals, but there's some people who don't care about this at all.

Some who don't even think we should care.

There's some people even who might be offended or resent that I present this unhappy truth about our state.

So let me close on a personal note; I certainly hope no one's offended by this show because with the problem of animal abuse occurring so widely across Alabama, and frankly being so often ignored, I think this is degrading not only to our state, I think it's degrading to us as Alabamians.

And I think we should all be actively concerned about the problem, for the sake of our animal friends and for the sake of the very character of our state.

(calm music) [Announcer] "Discovering Alabama" is produced in partnership with Alabama Public Television.

"Discovering Alabama" is a production of the Alabama Museum of Natural History.

This program is supported by grants from the Solan and Martha Dixon Foundation.