Lauren E. Noronha of 7 Boudreau Ave. is facing an animal cruelty charge after a clerk magistrate found probable cause for a complaint filed by Dudley Animal Control Officer Peter M. Preble.
According to his report, Officer Preble received an abandoned-dog call from Wesley Davis of Tanyard Road on Aug. 8. Mr. Davis said he had answered a Craigslist ad placed by Ms. Noronha, who was looking for a new home for a Labrador retriever.
She took the dog to Mr. Davis' home for an introduction. While Ms. Noronha waited outside, Mr. Davis took the Labrador into his home to see how it would interact with his dog, and it became aggressive. When Mr. Davis took the Labrador outside to return it to Ms. Noronha, she was gone, the report said.
An implanted microchip identified the dog as a 3-year-old male Labrador-pit bull mix from Marlboro, Officer Preble reported.
Officer Preble said he spoke on the phone with Ms. Noronha, who said she had adopted the dog from the city of Irving animal shelter in Texas. Mr. Preble reported this was the third dog she had adopted from the Irving shelter.
"She informed me that it was her intention to adopt dogs from this shelter in Texas to save them from being euthanized and bring them to Massachusetts to re-home them," Officer Preble reported. "Re-homing" an animal means finding a new owner for it.
Ms. Noronha asked Officer Preble to take the dog into the Dudley shelter, but he declined. He explained that Dudley does not take surrendered dogs, and the dog had been illegally imported. Ms. Noronha, he said, stopped returning his calls.
When Officer Preble called the Irving shelter, he learned Ms. Noronha had driven to Texas and adopted the dog on July 6. Irving records indicated the Labrador had heartworms. The shelter informed Officer Preble it was against its policy to release a dog for adoption to a person who will then seek a new owner for it.
In a recent interview, Officer Preble said the state Department of Agricultural Resources ordered the Dudley shelter to seize the dog and quarantine it for 10 days.
"When he was brought here, Lauren knew that the dog was heartworm positive but did not have the dog treated and did not tell the potential owner of his condition," he said.
The Dudley shelter began calling the dog "Chucho" and sought donations to pay the approximately $1,200 veterinary bill for heartworm treatments.
The shelter recently received a Massachusetts Veterinary Medicine Charity grant that will cover most of the cost, Officer Preble said, while the shelter continues to raise money to cover the remainder.
While Ms. Noronha is arraigned, Chucho will be driven to a foster home in New Hampshire.
"I found a wonderful family that is willing to bring him into their home and foster him while he undergoes treatment for heartworm," Officer Preble said.
Ms. Noronha could not be reached for comment.
(Telegram - Oct 21, 2013)
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