Worst Pet Owners Ever? SC Animal Control Officer's Story Makes One Wonder

It's the kind of story guaranteed to make animal lovers cringe — and seethe.

Nicole Hubbard, an animal control officer in the Oconee County Sheriff's Office, made news this week when she snapped a photo of a SUV driver towing a small dog behind the vehicle in a crate on a sweltering hot day — and dangerously close to the vehicle's exhaust pipe.

According to an account in the N.Y. Daily News, Hubbard said she was in Georgia on Interstate 95 returning from a Florida vacation when she spotted what she believed to be a Beagle mix locked in a small airline pet crate and being towed behind the speeding SUV.

Hubbard said she called Georgia authorities, who never responded to what Hubbard believed was a clear-cut case of animal cruelty. It wasn't until she crossed into South Carolina that she was able to get a dispatcher to call a S.C. Highway Patrol trooper, who pulled the SUV over.

It was unclear if the driver was issued a summons, but Hubbard said South Carolina authorities were "wonderful." After Georgia authorities said they couldn't respond, Hubbard indicated she and her boyfriend had followed the SUV for a couple of hours into South Carolina in hopes of seeing justice done. 

Hubbard, who said the dog had no water in the crate, though the temperature was 94 degrees and climbing when spotted, said the driver's action were unconscionable.

“I was just amazed that somebody could be that uneducated of the dangers with that dog being there,” she told the Daily News. “Hopefully, they learned something from it.”

Read the full story here.