Marlborough Code Enforcement Officer Pam Wilderman said the five Maltese dogs taken out of the home at 658 Stevens St. were covered in feces and urine. The home's interior was filled with trash and debris, she said. Police said Monday they will be filing animal cruelty charges against the owner of the home, 80-year-old Margaret Gardner.
Gardner told state inspectors the dogs were owned by Kim LeMaire, the woman police found with 19 dogs in a Red Roof Inn motel room last month. Gardner, who authorities believe is now living in a hotel, told inspectors last week that she was caring for the dogs. LeMaire had lived in Gardner’s home briefly in 2009, Wilderman said.
Wilderman was joined at the home Monday morning by city Environmental Health Specialist Dierdre O’Connor, Assistant Animal Control Officer Pete Nikitas and city police and firefighters.
Standing outside the home Monday morning, Wilderman characterized the conditions inside as "absolute filth." O’Connor said it appeared as though there was a "few years' worth" of trash and debris that had built up.
O’Connor said that feces and urine were all over the walls and floor of the home, with the waste eating into the floorboards in the bedroom.
It appeared as though Gardner had stopped living in the home several months ago, although the dogs had been left behind, Wilderman said. Wilderman said utility accounts for the home were up to date, but they showed little activity over the last six months.
After first telling investigators there were no dogs in the home, Gardner told state officials last week that five of LeMaire’s dogs were there. That admission cleared the way for the city to obtain an administrative warrant to inspect the home.
Gardner told inspectors she visited the home twice a day to care for the animals, but Wilderman said she believes the dogs may have been left unattended for long periods.
"I’m going to take a wild guess and say that from the condition of the house that it’s been a while," Wilderman said. "There’s enough food there for several days and the Sunday paper is there so she wasn’t there today or yesterday, at least."
Police Chief Mark Leonard on Monday said the officers who were at the home described the scene as "deplorable."
"The house was in very poor condition," he said. "Obviously, there were health concerns there."
Leonard said the officers believe the conditions in which the dogs lived amounted to animal cruelty and that the department will seek charges against Gardner. Officials aren’t sure where she is staying, however.
Wilderman said city officials have been trying to access the home and offer help to Gardner for years. City officials first became concerned in 2009 when police responded to a parking complaint and found trash and debris outside the home and odors coming from inside, raising their suspicions of a health hazard.
Wilderman said she went to the home with a police department counselor and the former head of senior services, but Gardner refused any help until last week when she admitted the dogs were in the house.
After the inspection Monday, the home was deemed uninhabitable. As of Monday afternoon, the five dogs had been taken to the Foster Hospital for Small Animals at the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. Wilderman said the dogs would be kept there overnight, but a longer term solution is still in the works.
(The MetroWest Daily News - Aug 20, 2013)
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