Dogs rescued in West New York kennel cruelty case recovering

NEW JERSEY -- The quivering poodle’s urine-stained fur had been so heavily matted that feces had become caught in it and her face was almost entirely obscured.

But on Friday, following her removal from a grooming business in West New York, the docile, 12-year-old poodle now called Lamby was looking like a new dog: Freshly shaven and cleaned, her fur white again, she glanced up at a veterinary tech at the Ridgefield Park Animal Hospital in an apparent gesture of appreciation.

“You should see the before-and-after pictures,” remarked Geoffrey Santini, the West New York animal control officer.

Lamby was one of eight dogs seized from Puppies Haven, a grooming and breeding business on Kennedy Boulevard that police and animal control officers raided Thursday.

The authorities allege they found large quantities of tranquilizer drugs and 97 used needles as well as mouse droppings and filthy rags in the business’s back room.

The owner, Monica Giraldo, 48, of North Bergen has been charged with nine counts of animal cruelty for failing to provide the dogs with adequate food and water and two drug offenses related to the possession and use of the tranquilizers, Santini said. Giraldo did not have a license to administer the drugs and also had not renewed her certificate to operate with the town’s health department, he said.

Giraldo told police she brought the tranquilizers from Colombia and that she sedated some dogs while grooming them, authorities said.

However, in an interview with The Record, she denied using them and said the dogs were all well-fed, though she acknowledged that some of the animals, including Lamby, had not received a lot of care.

“Some of them were really good, some of them really bad,” Giraldo said. “I know that.”

Three of the dogs were taken to the Ridgefield Park clinic on Thursday and tested for diseases.

Lamby appears to have an ear infection and a 7-year-old Shiba Inu has a deep red rash around her neck where a harness had been tightly secured, said a veterinary technician. Both dogs need dental care, but a playful 2- to 3-year-old English bulldog, named Arnold Schwarzenegger, checked out okay, he said.

The other five dogs, four Yorkshire terriers and a Chihuahua, were taken to the Bergen County Protect & Rescue shelter in Cliffside Park. The terriers’ coats were severely matted and will have to be shaved, said Michele Shiber, animal control officer with Bergen County Humane Enforcement, which assisted in Thursday’s raid.

Giraldo surrendered the dogs to the town of West New York. After they are treated, they will be made available for adoption by the Ridgefield Park and Cliffside Park shelters.

Two other poodles found in the business were returned to their owners.

Giraldo said two of the terriers had belonged to her and she took the rest in after they were abandoned at her store. She said she was not breeding or selling them, but was trying to find them adoptive homes.

“I would ask, ‘Do you have a house, do you rent, you allowed to have dogs?’ That’s it,” she said of her adoption process. “I don’t ask so many questions, not like the shelters.”

But Giraldo, who has operated the business for 10 years, said she had taken on more than she could handle.

“I have problems with my shoulder, and I don’t know, sometimes maybe I was tired to help so many dogs,” she said. “They didn’t belong to me.”

The business owner said she acquired the tranquilizers long ago with the intent of using them on aggressive dogs, but had never done so.

“Years ago, I think I can use it to help with the difficult dogs, but I never use it,” Giraldo said. “Just be patient with the dog and that’s it. Just ask my customers.”

But Santini, the town’s animal control officer, said all 97 syringes had been used and were scattered in different locations in the store, some of them on the floor.

Jodi Murphy, a nationally certified dog groomer in Sussex County, said she had never heard of a business using tranquilizers, because they can be dangerous and a huge liability problem. She won’t even take in dogs whose owners provide her with prescribed sedatives, noting one time when a sedated dog nearly died on the grooming table.

“I don’t do it, I don’t let dog owners do it,” Murphy said. “If they need to be tranquilized, go to a veterinarian with a groomer on staff, because the dog needs to be monitored.”

(North Jersey.com - Aug 29, 2014)