Connecticut: Foul odors emanating from Elizabeth Schultz's home -- and her refusal to let the dog warden inspect it -- prompted police to arrest the convicted animal abuser this week

CONNECTICUT -- Foul odors emanating from Elizabeth Schultz's home -- and her refusal to let the dog warden inspect it -- prompted police to arrest the convicted animal abuser this week.

Schultz, 56, was arrested on a charge of violation of probation. She was convicted in 1993 of cruelty to animals after she was found harboring 56 dogs in feces-soiled cages.

Schultz received a one-year suspended sentence and 30 months' probation in the 1993 case. If convicted of violating her probation, she could be forced to serve the one-year jail term.

Schultz, who is free on bond, appeared in Enfield Superior Court Thursday, and her case was continued to Aug. 25. She declined to comment as she left the courthouse.

In two sworn affidavits seeking a warrant for her arrest, Enfield Animal Control Officer Fred Provencher said he repeatedly tried to inspect the inside of Schultz's Lox Lane house after neighbors complained of the conditions there. Under the terms of Schultz's probation, she must allow police officers to inspect her house.

On July 20, Provencher said, Schultz fled the house through the front door while he was knocking on the back door.

On July 21, Provencher and probation officer Cynthia Agyemang could hear more than one dog barking in the house, and could smell ``an overwhelming stench of ammonia/urine and feces'' emanating from the house, the affidavit says. The temperature was about 82 degrees, the doors were closed, all the windows were boarded up and no working air conditioner could be seen.

When police arrested Schultz Wednesday, firefighters had to air out the house so police could search it, but no dogs were found, police said.

In the 1993 case, Schultz was initially charged with 60 counts of cruelty to animals after her dogs were found in houses in Enfield and Windsor Locks. Police also found a total of nine dead dogs in freezers and a refrigerator in the two houses.

Under the conditions of probation, Schultz is allowed to own two dogs, and they must be spayed or neutered. She must undergo psychiatric counseling, refrain from breeding her dogs, and was required to donate $100 to the Windsor Locks dog pound and $150 to the Enfield dog pound.

(Hartford Courant - July 28, 1995)