Mail Online: Cute dog that died after being locked in the kitchen for a week, now owner's ex boyfriend reveals 'she told me she couldn't cope'

PLEASE read the ENTIRE article and see all the photos on the Daily Mail UK website.

Pictured: Cute dog that died after being locked in the kitchen for a week, now owner's ex boyfriend reveals 'she told me she couldn't cope'

This is the cute dog that suffered a slow and agonising death at the hands of a female solicitor who 'couldn't cope' with the responsibility of looking after her.

Katy Gammon, 27, abandoned five-year-old boxer Roxy while she stayed with her mother, leaving the dog to spend six days clawing at the door until she went blind, slipped into a coma and died.

Gammon and her former boyfriend Adam Taylor, 24, adopted Roxy together but split up soon after, with Taylor saying his ex-girlfriend later contacted him to say she was struggling to look after the dog.

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Cute: Five-year-old boxer Roxy suffered a slow and agonising death at the hands of solicitor Kay Gammon who 'couldn't cope' with the responsibility of looking after her

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Cruel: Katy Gammon  (right) abandoned five-year-old boxer Roxy (left) while she stayed with her mother. She left the dog to spend six days clawing at the door until she went blind, slipped into a coma and died

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Horrific: Roxy the five-year-old boxer died a long, painful death after being locked in the kitchen by trainee medical negligence solicitor Katy Gammon, 27. She was only found when a neighbour saw swarms of flies

When Gammon returned from her mother's home a week after abandoning Roxy, the stench through her letterbox was so strong that she could not face going inside.

She then returned to her mother for another nine weeks.

Roxy's dead body was only discovered when a neighbour saw a swarm of flies at the kitchen window, and was so decomposed that an RSPCA inspector had to scrape her body off the floor with a shovel.

 

More...

• Dog left to starve by owner was 'most emaciated' vet with 30 years’ experience had ever seen
• Woman who 'performed c-section on dog with a steak knife before using glue to close the wound' faces five years in jail for animal cruelty

Gammon, is now facing prison after admitting two cruelty charges, and has lost her job with leading Bristol law firm Lyons Davidson . She will be sentenced on April 9.

Mr Taylor said he was shocked and horrified at hearing how Roxy died - and could not understand why his former girlfriend had failed to get help. 

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Affectionate: Roxy (pictured with Adam Taylor) originally belonged to a friend but developed anxiety problems after being left alone all day

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Adorable: Adam Taylor worked evening shifts and Gammon worked in the daytime, so they thought that between them someone would always be around to look after Roxy

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Punishment: Gammon, is now facing prison after admitting two cruelty charges relating to her treatment of Roxy.  She has lost her job with leading Bristol law firm Lyons Davidson and will be sentenced on April 9

Gammon had appeared to dote on the dog during the time they were together, he told the Bristol Evening Post.

Roxy originally belonged to a friend but developed anxiety problems after being left alone all day.

As Mr Taylor works evening shifts and Gammon worked in the daytime, they thought that between them someone would always be around to look after Roxy, so agreed to adopt her in December 2012.

But five months later the couple split up - with Gammon saying she would take on the sole responsibility of looking after Roxy.

Mr Taylor says that within a few months, Gammon contacted him to say she was struggling to cope and was looking for a new home for Roxy.

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No explanation: When the RSPCA showed Gammon, pictured leaving Bristol Magistrates' Court, the horrific photographs of her dog's body she told the inspector: 'I don't know what you want me to say'

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Abandoned: Adam Taylor says that within a few months of them splitting up, Gammon contacted him to say she was struggling to cope and was looking for a new home for Roxy

When they spoke a short time later, Gammon told him the dog was now with her sister.

Mr Taylor said he then heard nothing until police contacted him in November 2013 with the news that Roxy had been left to die.

During a hearing at Bristol Magistrates' Court, Gammon admitted she last fed the dog at the end of August.

The animal welfare charity, which prosecuted Gammon, described the case as one of the worst it has ever dealt with.

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Pet: Gammon had appeared to dote on Roxy, her ex-boyfriend Adam Taylor claimed

Horrified RSPCA inspector Chris James had to remove the dog's body with a shovel.

He said a stream of maggots had crawled from the kitchen down the hallway - to where there were tins of dog food on a table.

When shown photographs of the scene Gammon added: 'I don't know what you want me to say.'

Gammon pleaded guilty to one count of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal, and another of failing to prevent causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.

The two offences each carry a maximum sentence of six months in prison and possible fines of £20,000.

'I had no idea about the extent of what happened - the police only told me part of it,' Mr Taylor said.

'Katy was great with the dog when we were together, that’s why I’m so confused. She played with toys, treats, and we took her out for walks together the odd time, although granted I did it most days.'

'Katy and Roxy used to be cuddled up in bed and on the sofa together all the time. I would walk in from work to find them both cuddled up on sofa watching telly. When we were together she was great to the dog.'

'I had a feeling something was up when she said she couldn’t cope with her anymore - I just wish I could have done more.'

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Offender: Gammon, who Bristol Magistrates' Court heard was sorry for her actions, pleaded guilty

Mr Taylor claims he had no idea that Gammon locked the dog in the kitchen each day, as before he left the dog was behaving better.

He added: 'I don’t know why Katy didn’t ask for help - she’s got lots of family and friends in the area.

'She told me her sister had the dog and she lied to her family, telling them I had her.

'I want to make it clear that I had absolutely no idea what was happening to Roxy - if I’d have known I would have stepped in straight away.”

Gammon is due to be sentenced on April 9.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2586120/Pictured-Cute-dog-died-lawyer-locked-kitchen-week-ex-boyfriend-reveals-She-told-cope.html#ixzz36frj9dRk
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Wayne State University’s Inhumane Dog Experiments: Queenie’s Story PCRM obtained shelter and veterinary records through the Michigan Freedom of Information Act for Queenie, a Dalmatian mix who was used in one of the experiments conducted at Wayne State University. These records show that Queenie suffered immensely. Queenie was found stray in early 2009 by residents of Gratiot County, Mich., who kept her for weeks before surrendering her to the Gratiot County Animal Shelter on June 15, 2009. After 10 days at the shelter, she was transferred to R&R Research, a Class B “random source” animal dealer. Queenie was sold to Wayne State University, and veterinary staff noted that she was “curious, gentle, [and] friendly” when she arrived on Sept. 16, 2009. Lab personnel renamed her “Lafayette,” and she was assigned to the experiment “Integrative Cardiovascular Control During Exercise in Hypertension.” She began treadmill training on Sept. 23, when she was noted to be “distressed. Queenie remained “spooky” during her presurgery treadmill training, even jumping off the treadmill when one of the experimenters entered the room. She had to be given a bath on Oct. 15 because she had “fecal material all down [her] left side.” Her training continued until Dec. 1, when she had a left thoracotomy—a major surgery in which her chest was opened to implant devices in her heart. After surgery, Queenie had to wear a jacket, t-shirt, and cervical collar so she would not pull at her stitches or at the foreign objects now in her body. Her face and paws were swollen, she was “whining [and] vocalizing a bit,” and she vomited immediately after being placed in her cage. By Dec. 8, she was back on the treadmill. As Queenie healed from her first surgery, she experienced irritation, scabbing, leaking fluids, and other ill effects. She seemed “agitated,” “intent on cleaning feces from [her] rear,” and was “whining for attention.” On Dec. 15, she underwent another procedure—this time, experimenters placed catheters in Queenie’s neck and behind her abdomen. Queenie’s recovery was more difficult after the second experiment. The next morning, Queenie was found lying on her floor and “reluctant to get up out of [her] cage,” vocalizing when laboratory technicians tried to assist her out of the cage. Queenie did not want to move, and lab technicians placed a muzzle on her to stop her from making noise and attempting to nip. Queenie’s incisions constantly seeped large amounts of fluids. After relentless licking, sores appeared on her paws and right hip. She was forced to wear an even larger Elizabethan collar to stop her from further aggravating the sores. Queenie was forced to run on the treadmill again. Initially, the experimental devices were not turned on so she could serve as her own experimental control. When the devices were later turned on, constant problems with the devices’ electronic signals occurred, which prevented the experimenters from collecting data. Still, according to her veterinary records, Queenie was forced to run on the treadmill, and experimenters gathered data when they could, dodging bites from this once-friendly dog and frequently stopping the experiment to clean up feces. By March 2010, Queenie was hypertensive. In April, she was noted by one lab technician to be “acting very timid – like she can’t get [up]…shakes while getting up (back legs)… won’t get up for me.” That same day, she underwent treadmill experiments again. Two days later, Queenie’s leg became caught in the treadmill and she stumbled. For the next two weeks, Queenie was seen “tip-toeing” and limping, but she was still forced to run. Queenie was used until June 2010, when experimenters accidentally cracked one of the devices implanted in her while “packing up probes” after a treadmill training session. They attempted to fix the device, but it broke again, retracting into Queenie’s body. On June 29, 2010, more than one year after she arrived at the Gratiot County Animal Shelter and more than nine months after she arrived at the Wayne State laboratory, Queenie was killed. Queenie was just one of the hundreds of dogs used in experiments at Wayne State University. Please take action to end these experiments before even one more dog has to suffer:

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
5100 Wisconsin Ave., N.W., Ste.400, Washington DC, 20016
Phone: 202-686-2210     Email: pcrm@pcrm.org

The above article is © Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

What Happened to Queenie? Dog Experiments at Wayne State Queenie was described as curious, gentle, and friendly when she arrived at Wayne State University on Sept. 16, 2009. A young Dalmatian mix, Queenie had been a stray and was turned in to a Gratiot County, Mich., animal shelter. Rather than being adopted by a new family, Queenie was transferred to a Class B “random source” animal dealer, who, in turn, sold her to be used in heart experiments at Wayne State in Detroit. There, experimenters implanted devices into her heart and blood vessels to induce hypertension and forced her to run on a treadmill while recovering from surgery. In a complaint filed with the state of Michigan in December, PCRM argued that these experiments violate Michigan’s cruelty statute. In a separate action, PCRM filed a Petition for Enforcement with the federal government, arguing that the experiments are inhumane and violate at least four requirements of the federal Animal Welfare Act. The Pain Cascade Queenie’s veterinary records show the pain and distress she went through. As the experiments proceeded, her restlessness and pain turned to depression and eventually self-mutilation. “In my experience, no matter which pain-relieving agents were used, dogs undergoing these procedures would be in constant pain,” said Mel Richardson, D.V.M., a veterinarian with more than 40 years of experience, after reviewing the experimental protocol and Queenie’s medical records. “Queenie was living for almost seven months with catheters inside her arteries and veins, catheters which initiated the pain cascade with every bump inside the vessel wall.” PCRM has received medical records for three dogs used in Wayne State laboratories. Charlie, a brown-and-white hound and Labrador mix, was noticeably frightened when she began treadmill training. As the experiment continued, she showed more and more severe anxiety. After her first major surgery, Charlie’s temperature climbed to 106.6 F, and after hypertension was induced, Charlie showed signs of kidney damage, and eventually she became so sick that laboratory personnel decided to terminate her life. Jessie, a grey-and-brown husky mix with white paws and chest, was hesitant and tense when she was first forced onto the treadmill. After undergoing major surgery to implant devices into her heart, Jessie woke up lethargic and had fluids leaking from her body. Six days after her surgery, she was found dead. Her necropsy revealed a possible rupture of a coronary artery that may have caused a heart attack or sudden cardiac death. Wasted Money, Wasted Lives Queenie, Charlie, and Jessie are three of the hundreds of dogs used in Wayne State’s heart experiments funded with millions of dollars from the National Institutes of Health. R&R Research, the animal dealer that sold Queenie to Wayne State, has been cited 11 times since 2007 for Animal Welfare Act violations. A senior U.S. Department of Agriculture official has requested that R&R Research’s license be revoked, but the company remains in business while the USDA investigates. PCRM’s complaint urges Michigan prosecutors to charge Wayne State with felony animal cruelty for forcing hundreds of dogs to endure lengthy treadmill tests after multiple major surgeries. Help Dogs like Queenie, Charlie, and Jessie Please take action to end these experiments before even one more dog has to suffer. Take action at PCRM.org/WayneState. The above article is © Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Who did this to Queenie?  Wayne State University, while conducting "medical research" by  Donal O’Leary, Ph.D

Cruelty Exposed at Iowa Factory Farm

• by Alicia Graef
• February 25, 2012
• 11:32 am

 

Undercover video footage exposing animal abuse at Hawkeye Sow Centers (HSC), a pig breeding factory farm in Leland, IA, was released last week by the animal advocacy group Compassion Over Killing (COK).

The video was taken by a COK investigator who worked undercover to document the miserable lives that sows and piglets are forced to endure, ranging from immobilization in gestation crates that don’t allow sows enough room to even turn around to piglets who underwent castration and tail docking with no painkillers and sick and injured pigs being left with no veterinary care, among other atrocities.

“Piglets born at this Iowa factory farm will be slaughtered at around six months of age, and as our investigator was told, some of their meat will be marketed under the brand name Hormel. While Hormel recently issued a statement that its company-owned facilities will be phasing out gestation crates, it did not commit to extending this new policy to the hundreds of independently-run facilities that ultimately supply Hormel, like HSC, which comprise the majority of Hormel’s pork,” according to COK.

This isn’t the first time the pork industry has come under fire for abuse in Iowa, which is the largest pork producing state in the U.S. Last year a Mercy for Animals investigation showed even worse abuses, and now Iowa is once again pushing for Ag Gag legislation that would make investigations like this illegal and sweep abuse under the rug.

Undercover investigations have played an important role in educating the public about abuses that occur on farms and have also drawn attention to standard industry practices that are inhumane. In some cases, investigations have lead to criminal charges being filed and new laws being enacted.

TAKE ACTION!

Please sign the petition asking Iowa legislators to oppose Ag Gag legislation and to hold agribusiness accountable.

Related Stories: 

Utah Considering Ag Gag Legislation

Six Butterball Workers Arrested After Turkey Abuse Exposed

Undercover Investigation Shows the Horrors of the Pork Industry

Read more: ag gag, animal abuse, animal cruelty, compassion over killing, iowa, pork, undercover investigation

Photo credit: Thinkstock

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/cruelty-exposed-at-iowa-factory-farm.html#ixzz1sboWpWpK

Wayne State research triggers accusations of animal cruelty

Published: Sunday, January 08, 2012

By Dustin Blitchok
For The News-Herald

Click to enlarge

The veterinary records of Queenie, a Dalmatian mix used in medical research at Wayne State University, describe the dog’s grim final months and have sparked complaints to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Wayne County prosecutor.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine filed a petition for enforcement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in October that accused the university and Donal O’Leary, Ph.D. , of Animal Welfare Act violations.

Five Michigan doctors, including two from Oakland County, signed the petition.

The Washington, D.C., group opposes the use of animals in research, and sent a letter Wednesday urging the Wayne County prosecutor’s office to investigate the university and charge it with violating a state felony animal cruelty law.


The protocol for the experiment Queenie was used in includes treadmill training, where dogs are exercised on treadmills and their responses measured after high-blood pressure or heart failure are induced.

When an implanted device receded into Queenie’s body, the dog was euthanized, as are all dogs used in O’Leary’s experiments.


The experiments date back to 1991 and have received public funding from the National Institutes of Health.


In a statement sent to The Oakland Press, WSU spokesman Matt Lockwood said the university denies the group’s allegations of abuse.


“Wayne State University is committed to ensuring that all research and teaching protocols using live animals are designed and carried out in a humane manner that complies with all laws, policies and guidelines,” the statement said. A request for an interview with O’Leary was denied.


In the letter to the prosecutor’s office, the animal rights group’s director of academic affairs, Dr. John Pippin, and its associate general counsel, Mark Kennedy, allege that the university has violated the state law by “cruelly working hundreds of dogs, by forcing them to endure lengthy treadmill tests after multiple major surgeries.”

In a phone interview, Kennedy said, “We tend to file this kind of complaint when something seems really outrageous.”


The letter reads that O’Leary is “conducting inhumane experiments by causing dogs ... unrelieved pain and distress without undergoing proper scrutiny required for such experiments.


“Dogs in these protocols undergo multiple major surgeries to have medical devices implanted in their bodies, and are then forced to run exhausting treadmill tests for months before they are finally killed. Up to 25 percent of the dogs die during the surgeries or the experiments.”


A publication of the university’s Division of Research titled “New Science” said that O’Leary is “investigating what causes the reduction of blood flow to muscles and the heart during exercise in patients who suffer from heart failure.”


O’Leary is quoted in the literature: “It is well known that exercise can have extreme responses to heart failure; however, how these responses occur remains unclear.


“Our objective is to shed new light on the mechanisms responsible for these responses, which is the first step in identifying treatment regimens.”


A USDA inspection of O’Leary’s laboratory, which occurred after the administrative complaint was filed, found no violations, Lockwood said.


The USDA confirmed that the inspection came up clean.


David Sacks, a USDA spokesman in Riverdale, Md., said: “We look into every complaint that comes in.”


Wayne State “has not been cited for anything the (group) is contending,” he said.

The inspection report, dated Nov. 2, said, “No non-compliant items (were) identified during this inspection,” and provides no further detail other than the titles of the people present during the inspection.


However, the animal welfare group’s Pippin points out: “What you get in a USDA inspection report is a picture of what you see (at the lab) on the day you show up. The incontrovertible truth is in (Wayne State’s) veterinary records.”


Pippin said he believes that if the USDA’s inspector had seen dogs with the surgery or instrumentation that Queenie had, the inspector would have found the lab in violation of the Animal Welfare Act.


Queenie was one of five dogs purchased on Sept. 16, 2009 from a Class B animal dealer, R&R Research of Howard City, Mich.


The animal dealer obtained Queenie from the Gratiot County Animal Shelter through a process known as pound seizure.


All of the dogs mentioned in the animal rights group’s complaints came to Wayne State via Class B animal dealers. The National Institutes of Health released a memo earlier this year detailing a plan to move away from using dogs bought from Class B dealers in federally-funded research.


The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain Wayne State’s daily progress reports for Queenie. There are 15 noted instances in the document of the dog defecating and/or having diarrhea on the treadmill during experimentation.


In the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s guide for the inspection of research facilities, “excessive (frequent and voluminous) diarrhea and/or vomiting” is listed as an example of direct noncompliance.


“Defecation on the treadmill shows an extreme fear response and (inability) to control the bowels,” said Dr. Melvyn Richardson, a California veterinarian who consults with advocacy groups and as an expert witness.


Richardson reviewed the records on Queenie, and said “the medication they were giving her was not adequate to control her pain.”

The group’s administrative complaint to the USDA contended that dogs used in O’Leary’s experiments show signs of unrelieved pain, and thus are wrongly classified with the USDA. The protocol for O’Leary’s experiments labels them as USDA Category D, which covers “animals used in research, experiments, or tests where appropriate anesthetic, analgesic or tranquilizing agents are required to avoid pain or distress.”


The animal rights advocates said in the petition for enforcement that the Wayne State experiments should instead fall under USDA Category E, which includes animals used in research where the investigator “is unable or unwilling to administer anesthetic, analgesic or tranquilizing agents.”


According to the protocol form for research that the university must file with its Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee,  experiments in USDA Category E must “identify the condition that places the animals in Category E and provide scientific justification for withholding alleviation of pain/distress.”


“I don’t know how anyone could look at (the daily progress report) and not see that this animal was in pain,” Richardson said.


 He also said that records indicate Queenie was given Rimadyl for pain relief, which Richardson said was once used as an over-the-counter pain medication for humans. “They didn’t want to give her anything that would change her ability to run on the treadmill,” such as a narcotic, he said.


In his written analysis of the veterinary records, Richardson said, “while the amount of pain control used pre- and post-operatively appears adequate, the use of Rimadyl for the level of pain and trauma Queenie was experiencing is not.”


Richardson said the chest cavity is a sensitive area, and that the surgeries in O’Leary’s experiments open the chest, in a procedure known as a thoracotomy, to clamp arteries and veins, and tunnel under the skin, leaving “eight to nine tubes hanging out of the dog.”


O’Leary’s research protocol shows that up to five surgeries might be performed on dogs in the course of an experiment. 


“Chest tubes are very painful,” Richardson said. “To maintain one for that long — I don’t know any other word but cruel.”


One local doctor who signed the complaint sent to the USDA said she fundamentally opposes animal testing. “I think we’ve reached a point in current Western medicine where the use of animals can’t teach us anymore about human physiology,” said Dr. Jennifer Giordano, a Farmington Hills psychiatrist.


Another Oakland County doctor, Joyce Feldman, Ph.D., of Rochester Hills, is also named on the petition for enforcement sent to the USDA, but did not respond to Oakland Press calls seeking comment.


Wayne State’s statement responding to the complaints against O’Leary said the professor has “been funded continuously by the National Institutes of Health for more than 20 years, he has an international reputation as leader in cardiovascular research, and he serves on the editorial board of major scientific journals. Because his research involves animals, it is subject to surprise inspections, veterinary oversight, and intense scrutiny by the United States Department of Agriculture; his record is exemplary.”


But veterinarian Richardson disagreed.


“It seems like the only people benefiting from this are the researchers getting paid to do it,” he said.

 Follow Dustin Blitchok on Twitter @SincerelyDustin

For the Web:

Queenie vet records: http://bit.ly/vLNJT0

Research protocol: http://bit.ly/s1D7cK

WSU’s response: http://bit.ly/swAMtY

Complaint to Wayne County prosecutor’s office: http://bit.ly/rIJQKr

Complaint to USDA: http://bit.ly/tqcSKX

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