Dogs Dumped, Tortured, Killed in Field

HOUSTON - It's called the Corridor Of Cruelty. Next week, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office and Crime Stoppers will team up to shut down an area where hundreds of dogs have turned up, dumped, tortured and killed.

"Here we're seeing some bones," said Roger Haseman, an Environmental Prosecutor for Harris County, as he walked along the edge of the lot, near the intersection of Highway 59 and Little York. "I think they saw a few animal carcasses down here on this side of the street."

Haseman and assistant district attorney Belinda Smith have been eyeing the area for the past year when a woman named Deborah Hoffman, founder of a group called "corridor rescue," brought it to their attention. Hoffman coined the term "corridor of cruelty," and has rescued 140 dogs from the area since she discovered it.

Hoffman, along with her volunteers, have snapped pictures of dogs found stabbed to death and burned, but no one has ever been arrested.

"We're not able to identify the individuals who are dumping the live animals or even dumping the carcasses and unless we're able to identify them, we're not able to prosecute," said Smith.

"To make a case we would need some type of suspect," said Haseman. "Maybe there's a witness around here that might have seen some dumping."

Prosecutors hope people living in the area will jot down license plate numbers and other identifying information.

Location is another problem. Half of the corridor of cruelty is in the city limits. The other half is in the county.

And while, there's no doubt some of these animals have been tortured, there is a question of which law enforcement agency is responsible for stopping it.

"A lot of the animals out here are scarred up and injured from dogfights," said Smith.

For now, Hoffman's group provides the only help these dogs get. Hoffman has been working with SNAP Houston, a non-profit group that spays and neuters the dogs in hopes of giving them a better chance of getting adopted.

-- Spay-Neuter Assistant Program Website: http://www.snapus.org/site/PageServer