Morgan Glenn researched the boarding facility thoroughly before leaving her two huskies, Pneuma and Melo, there in April. She visited the property, met the owner, and toured the facility. She thought she had done everything right.

Pneuma and Melo died of starvation while she was away.

Four women, including business owner Tiffany Dawn Jourdain, have been charged in connection with the deaths. Necropsy results showed both dogs had no food in their bodies and were severely dehydrated. Staff allegedly held the dogs in a shed at the back of the property when customers were absent. One of the women charged allegedly washed Melo's remains days after he died to destroy evidence.

The investigation also revealed something no amount of research could have helped Glenn find: Inner Knowing Canine Connections was not licensed by the state of North Carolina. And under current law, it did not have to be.

North Carolina requires boarding kennels to be licensed and inspected annually. But a loophole exempts businesses that offer boarding as part of training from that requirement. Inner Knowing Canine Connections offered both. The loophole swallowed the protection. "That's an obvious gap in the animal welfare system in our state," Glenn said.

The licensing gap is part of a broader problem. North Carolina has no statewide minimum standards of care for companion animals. When animal control officers respond to reports of neglect, there is no state-level floor to point to. "We're one of the only states that don't have any kind of flat line regulations or anything," said Rep. Stephen Ross, a primary sponsor of Duke's Rescue Act. "So when animal control gets a call, and they go out into these areas, there's no real teeth through state law. There's nothing to back them up as far as being able to enforce."

Duke's Rescue Act (HB 657) would establish those minimum standards and give law enforcement something to act on. It is currently stalled in the legislature.

"Some of these places that do these board and trains, they withhold food to make the dogs motivated to work for food during training sessions," said Calley Gerber, founder of Gerber Animal Law Center in Raleigh. "So you'll see dogs in a board and train for three weeks, and they'll die."

We are calling on the North Carolina General Assembly to pass Duke's Rescue Act this session and to close the boarding-as-training licensing loophole so that any facility housing animals overnight must be licensed and inspected regardless of what other services it offers. The legislature should also pass the animal abuse registry legislation that has been introduced and stalled since 2019, so that pet owners, boarding platforms, and licensing bodies can identify people with prior cruelty convictions before they are trusted with animals again.

Pneuma and Melo are gone. The law that failed them is still in place. Sign to demand the North Carolina legislature fix it.