UGA Student Held in Puppy Beating

A UGA student has been arrested on charges she beat a litter of puppies to death.

The investigation is centered at the Athens-Clarke County Animal Control Center, less than a mile from the convenience store where two workers found the bodies of the puppies, huddled together in a cardboard box inside a dumpster.

Amanda Sunley said she and a friend were stunned to find seven puppies dead inside a dumpster behind the Golden Pantry store where they work.

"There were seven of them in there, they had dog food in the box, and there was fresh feces," Sunley said. "They were all dead."

The puppies were all seven to eight weeks old.

Animal control investigators said the puppies appeared to have died violently -- possibly beaten with a pipe that was found on top of the box.

Police matched a shipping label on the box to Ashley Council, a 20-year-old part-time clerical worker at the university's veterinary teaching hospital.

Council is now charged with seven felony counts of animal cruelty. The animal control superintendent said that hours before the bodies were found, a woman called the center, saying she had seven puppies she didn't want.

"We were able to trace back that telephone call and telephone number, and we were able to match that name from the shipping label and the adoption application," said animal control Superintendent Patrick Rives.

Sunley said she wonders why whoever did this felt compelled to do it.