CALIFORNIA --Riverside County Animal Services on Friday, June 21, cited the woman who left 30 dogs behind when she was evicted from a Jurupa Valley house.
The fines for the citations total $12,000, Animal Services spokesman John Welsh wrote in a news release. The impound fees for caring for the dogs have already reached $8,000, Welsh said, and Patricia Hellyer, 57, will be responsible for those as well.
Hellyer was cited for failing to vaccinate each dog for rabies, failure to license each dog and failing to microchip each dog, a requirement within the city of Jurupa Valley.
She was also cited for failing to have a proper kennel permit, a requirement any time a dog owner has more than four dogs within unincorporated Riverside County and some cities that contract with the county, such as Jurupa Valley, Welsh said.
Animal Services will take steps to collect the minimum $20,000 if Hellyer does not pay the money. She could also reclaim the animals.
A contractor refurbishing the house in the 5500 block of Tilton Avenue in the Rudiboux neighborhood on June 12 discovered the dogs, mostly Chihuahua mixes, many of them penned up in the kitchen. They had water, but the house was filthy.
“These animals were left behind like trash,” Animal Services Director Robert Miller wrote in a news release. “It was shameful. But we have legal ways of making those who think they can just walk away, be held accountable. Not only can they not walk away, they'll eventually have to pay.”
[This is cruel confinement, Robert Miller! The animals were abandoned - this is a crime. The animals look sick and have untreated illnesses - this is a crime. The animals were left to live among trash and feces and locked inside an ammonia stench-filled house. THIS IS A CRIME!]
Animal Services employees did not actually hand the citations to Hellyer.
They received a tip that she worked at Preston & Simons mortuary on Mission Inn Avenue.
Employees there told Lt. Chris Mayer and Sgt. Cynthia Lee that they didn’t know her.
“Something didn't seem right, so we stuck around,” Mayer said.
A few minutes later, a man got out of a recreation vehicle that was parked behind the mortuary and approached the officers. The man identified himself as. Hellyer's son and had a driver's license with a last name of Hellyer. The officers issued the citations to him and made him sign a document that indicated he received the citations.
(Press Enterprise - June 21, 2013)
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