Petition: Police Took a Dozen Dogs From One Mount Pleasant House. The Town Is Rewriting Its Law Right Now.

In July, Mount Pleasant police removed a dozen dogs from a house in the town. Investigators described animals living surrounded by urine and faeces. A woman identified as Audra McCall was arrested and charged with twelve counts of ill treatment of animals.

What happened next is the unusual part. Rather than the case passing through the courts and out of the news, the town’s Police, Judicial and Legal Committee opened a review of the animal ordinance itself, and Mayor Will Haynie, who chairs it, framed the purpose plainly: the goal is not just to increase penalties for abusers, but to give law enforcement the tools to intervene and prevent systematic neglect before it reaches that point.

That review is live right now. A draft ordinance has already gone before the committee, officials say a final version is still months from adoption, and the town is actively gathering public feedback while it is being written.

Sign the Petition

Most animal petitions shout at a door that is already shut. This one arrives while the thing is being drafted, which is a materially different proposition and the reason it is worth two minutes of anyone’s time.

The town’s existing ordinance does what most municipal animal codes do: it prohibits cruelty and neglect, sets out responsible ownership, and handles nuisance complaints. All of which operates after somebody has already reported a problem. The changes under discussion go the other way. Licensing and annual inspections for animal breeders. Explicit provisions for extreme weather. Language that addresses hoarding, which currently has no clear definition in the code. Clearer standards for what adequate care actually means, so officers have something specific to enforce rather than a judgement call at a front door.

Mount Pleasant is working on it with the South Carolina Animal Welfare Alliance, whose Sandra Connell has said she hopes the town can work out why this keeps happening and become an example other municipalities follow.

Add Your Name

One thing should be said clearly, and Haynie said it himself: the town’s authority here is limited, because South Carolina state law governs much of animal cruelty enforcement. A municipal ordinance can set care standards, licence breeders and give officers grounds to act earlier. It cannot rewrite what counts as a crime in South Carolina or what sentence follows a conviction. Anyone signing this should understand they are pushing on the part of the system a town council can actually reach, which is real but partial. The alternative is pushing on nothing at all. Our coverage of what adequate animal care actually looks like is the sort of thing an ordinance has to turn into enforceable language, and that translation is where most of these documents either work or quietly fail.

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