Up to $5,000 Reward Offered for Tips on Who Abandoned Over 50 Dogs at Hammertime Dog Park

For Immediate Release:
July 23, 2024

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

PETA is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction on cruelty charges of the person(s) responsible for abandoning at least 54 dogs at Hammertime Unleashed Dog Park in the Beaver Bluffs Conservation Area outside Belvidere on July 14. The dogs—all of whom appear to belong to the same breed, making it likely that they were being used in a breeding operation—were apparently left at the park overnight during a thunderstorm and discovered soaking wet by a park visitor early in the morning on July 15. The Boone County Sheriff’s Office and Boone County Animal Services captured 49 of the dogs on July 15, and several others were caught with humane traps over the following days. All the dogs have since been transferred to local animal shelters and rescues.

No leads or suspects have been identified, so PETA is asking for the public’s help.

Credit: Boone County Animal Services

“Dogs and cats depend on humans to keep them safe, yet someone cruelly dumped these dogs next to a busy road and left them to fend for themselves in the middle of a storm,” says PETA Senior Vice President Colleen O’Brien. “PETA asks anyone with information to come forward immediately and urges everyone never to buy animals from breeders, who treat them as nothing more than money-making machines.”

A worker at a local dog rescue reports that more than 30 other dogs were similarly abandoned in Illinois and Wisconsin last week. PETA points out that around 70 million cats and dogs are homeless in the U.S. at any given time and that all breeders contribute to the companion animal overpopulation crisis by pumping out more and more animals into a world already bursting at the seams with them. Everyone can help by always adopting dogs and cats from shelters, never buying them, and always having their animal companions spayed or neutered.

Anyone with information related to the case should contact the Boone County Sheriff’s Office at 815-544-9322 or Boone County Animal Services at 815-547-7774.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.