Soldier's Father Continues Dogfight With County

Fayetteville, N.C. — A Cumberland County man met with zoning officials Thursday night in a continued fight over the two dogs he has been keeping for his son, who is serving in the Army in Iraq.

The Cumberland County Board of Adjustment decided not to act on Henry Carroll’s case.

Carroll, a 45-year-old Army veteran, owns three dachshund-poodle mixes, and he took in two others when his son, Pvt. Adam Carroll, deployed eight months ago from Fort Campbell, Ky.

"These dogs are family dogs. I gave them to Adam," Carroll said in March. "He went to Sanford (and) said, 'I'm going to join the Army, Daddy. ... You have to keep my dogs.'"

Cumberland County limits residents to owning three dogs. Anybody with more than three dogs needs a permit to operate a kennel.

Cumberland County Animal Control allows a resident to have up to eight dogs, which prompted county attorney Granger Barrett to ask the zoning board not to hear Carroll’s case until further study is done on the laws.

Soon after Carroll took in the dogs, a neighbor complained and said the animals often barked late at night.

Cumberland County officials have given Carroll until May to find accommodations for two dogs or pay a $500 a day fine.

"We're going to enforce the ordinance. We always have, and we don't really have a choice," Deputy Cumberland County Attorney Harvey Raynor said in March. "We're going to give him 60 days to comply before we take any kind of enforcement action."

Raynor said county officials took Adam Carroll's deployment into consideration. Usually, residents are given only 30 days to comply, he said.

Carroll said he has a friend in Sanford who can take two of the dogs. He insists though, that he will be caring for his son’s dogs.

Carroll spent $100 to schedule the meeting with the zoning board. He read a letter from his son and brought his landlord Mike Urian who told WRAL Carroll was a “perfectly good tenant.”

“No problem whatsoever,” Urian said about his tenant. “In fact, he asked me if he could do it when he found out his son was going overseas.”

Though he didn’t get a decision from the board Thursday, Carroll is hoping to schedule another hearing.