Halifax County Sheriff's Office narcotics agents seized pain killers and handed over to animal control eight dogs which were malnourished and chained to various items at a house on Lee Lane Road Thursday.

Officers went to the house of Harry Bynum Watson, 51, on a search warrant based on complaints and a six-month investigation into the alleged sales of pain pills, Lieutenant Scott Hall said.

They seized 59 oxycodone pills and three Xanax pills which which not prescribed to Watson.

That Watson allegedly had a profitable business is a testament to the rise of prescription medication abuse, Hall said. “It's on the rise tremendously. I would ask that parents of children, including middle school students, to monitor changes in their children's behavior that could likely be a sign of prescription drug abuse.”

Hall said Watson could have possibly been selling to youngsters. “There's no telling who he's been selling to. He has been in business for quite some time.”

Prescription drugs are being abused by children as young as middle school age. “We want the parents to know what's going on. It's big right now.”

The sellers of prescription drugs, Hall said, will lie and fraudulently get painkillers through doctors or buy them from other people who are fraudulently getting them from doctors.”

On the dogs, Hall said after the area had been secured and officers began searching the premises they noticed the condition of the dogs, which had no food or clean drinking water. “They were very under weight and unhealthy.”

The dogs were mixtures of pit bulls, rottweilers and other breeds. “We started looking around and saw how malnourished they were.”

There was no evidence the dogs were being used for any aspect of fighting, Hall said.

Watson was arrested on charges of possession of schedule IV, possession with intent to sell and deliver scheduled II, maintaining a dwelling to keep narcotics and eight counts of animal cruelty.

He received a $15,000 bond on the drug charges and an $8,000 unsecured bond for the animal cruelty.

When his wife, Latasha, 31, came to the sheriff's office to find out about his bond, she was served with warrants for eight counts of cruelty to animals and released on an $8,000 unsecured bond.

Hall said in a news release, “This search warrant and arrested is the result of at least a six month investigation of complaints from citizens and good work from the deputies in the patrol division.”