Stephens County Woman Charged with Animal Cruelty
By Charlie Bauder, WNEG Radio, Toccoa
Investigators wear haz-mat suits as they remove over 20 dogs and puppies from a home on Holly Springs Rd Tuesday
Authorities have released the identity of a woman charged with animal cruelty after authorities searched her Stephens County home Tuesday.
According to Stephens County Sheriff Randy Shirley, 53-year-old Zina Cobb of Toccoa was arrested on Tuesday.
According to the Sheriff, his office received a tip about multiple dogs running loose on Holly Springs Road.
“An anonymous tip came into 911 that dogs were roaming around, a lot of dogs, down on the lower end of East Silver Shoals Road,” said Shirley. “Once animal control and investigators arrived, they noticed a decomposed dog inside the mobile home.”
Shirley said authorities then proceeded to get a search warrant to go through the residence and the property.
“As we entered the house, it was deplorable conditions, actually not a house that was inhabitable in my estimation,” said Shirley. “The dog that was decomposed looked like it had been decomposing for a month and a half or two months.”
Zina Cobb is charged with 21 counts of animal cruelty in Stephens Co.
Shirley said that a total of 21 dogs were taken to the Toccoa-Stephens County Humane Shelter.
Shelter Director Jeff Roberts said 13 of those dogs were adults and the other eight were puppies.
“They are being held,” said Roberts. “We are going to bring in a vet to do an examination of all the animals and then we will wait for the outcome from the Sheriff’s Office side of things. We are trying to get the owner of the animals to surrender ownership because we do not have any space to really house them.”
Sheriff Shirley said that one of the dogs was turned over to a family member of Cobb after it was checked.
As for the rest of the dogs, Roberts said the animal shelter is making room for the time being.
“We are already at full capacity for dogs,” said Roberts. “We basically put these dogs in a small outside run area for a short time, but we can not house these dogs for an extended time period.”
The Georgia Department of Agriculture issued a plea for help to other local animal shelters to take some of the dogs.
Shirley said, meantime, that Cobb is charged with 21 counts of misdemeanor cruelty to animals and one count of felony aggravated cruelty to animals.
The Sheriff said those charges will be merged into one felony count and he said the investigation is ongoing.