Dog is ‘living her best life’ after meth addict abused her. But will he go to prison?
Edward Allen Bailey was known to law enforcement as a meth-addicted serial shoplifter before he was charged last year with aggravated animal cruelty for biting a dog’s neck, breaking its leg, taping its muzzle shut and leaving it with multiple lacerations.
When Columbus Animal Control called police Oct. 21 to Bailey’s Rosehill-area home in the 300 block of 29th St., officers found the dwelling soiled with the dog’s blood and feces, and saw no food or water had been provided for the pet, a female American bulldog estimated at 10 months old, prosecutors said.
Bailey at first told investigators a table had fallen on the dog’s leg, but later admitted “twisting” it, causing what police reported to be a compound fracture inconsistent with Bailey’s claim the injury was an accident.
He acknowledged that he bit the dog, claiming the dog bit him first.
Though nothing still bound the dog’s muzzle, the abrasions from what was believed to have been duct tape or a similar adhesive were obvious, officials said.
Bailey, 53, went to jail, where he’d been many times before, on less serious charges.
The injured dog went to Columbus’ nonprofit Animal Ark Rescue, where she was given the name “Annie.”
“Despite everything this defenseless animal has been through, she still loves people!” Animal Ark posted to its Facebook page on Oct. 22. “She still wags her tail for people!”
After surgery and other treatment for fractures, cuts and infections, Annie gradually recovered, and a new owner adopted the dog a month later.
Bailey, meanwhile, remained in the Muscogee County Jail, facing two felony counts of aggravated animal cruelty.
Plea deal for animal cruelty
On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to one of those counts in Judge Bobby Peters’ courtroom. The second charge was dropped in a negotiated plea.
Addressing the judge, Bailey gave a new account of how he broke Annie’s leg, saying he threw the dog across the room.
Peters sentenced him to five years with three to serve, but those three years will be suspended if Bailey successfully completes a nine-month Residential Substance Abuse Program at the Appling Integrated Treatment Facility in Baxley, Georgia.
The wait to get into the program takes four to five months, and Bailey will remain jailed until then, said prosecutor William Hocutt IV.
Hocutt said Bailey has a mental illness and a record of arrests for forgery, drug possession, burglary and shoplifting. He apparently has been using methamphetamine for years, the prosecutor said.
“This is the best we can do for him,” Hocutt said of the treatment program.
“My client has a severe drug problem,” said defense attorney Marie Pardue.
Bailey’s record reflects a pattern of erratic behavior.
Court records show that in 2010, he in two days shoplifted beer from two Columbus Circle K stores even though he already had three prior shoplifting arrests from the years 2000, 2004 and 2008.
Sentenced to probation plus drug treatment in 2011, he tested positive for meth use in February 2016.
On April 21, 2016, he broke into a Victory Drive storage facility and took $6,700 worth of tools and appliances belonging to a local realty company. He pleaded guilty in 2017, and was sentenced to five years with two to serve.
He was ordered to undergo more drug treatment, but tested positive for meth again in May 2019.
The following June 12, his probation violations led to his being diverted to Columbus’ Day Reporting Facility, a program in which participants continually are tested for drug use, but not jailed.
Bailey got kicked out of that program after his arrest for abusing the dog, authorities said.
Update on abused dog named Annie
Sabine Stull, founder and director of Animal Ark Rescue, said Annie recovered quickly, after emergency treatment at Benning Animal Hospital in Columbus and orthopedic surgery at St. Francis Animal Hospital in Marietta.
The full cost of her care likely topped $10,000, Stull said.
The crisis that brought Annie to Animal Ark might have saved her life, Stull said: Else the abuse might have worsened, had it continued.
Stull said the dog was adopted Nov. 21 by a veteran who, like Annie, had to recover from a serious leg injury, his caused by a roadside bomb explosion. The pair seemed to bond instantly, and today Annie remains in a loving home, in the company of another dog the soldier adopted from Animal Ark, one that recovered from three broken legs after being hit by a car in 2018, Stull said.
“She’s doing fantastic,” Stull said of Annie. “She’s living her best life.”
This story was originally published February 4, 2020 at 5:49 PM.