Arrest warrant issued for absent animal rescue operator, Gabrielle Ganter, who had dead, emaciated dogs at Dumont house

NEW JERSEY -- Police were searching for the owner and operator of a Newark non-profit animal rescue charged with having two dead dogs and a half-dozen emaciated canines at her Dumont home after she failed to show up for her court hearing yesterday.

An original hearing scheduled for two weeks ago was adjourned to yesterday after Gabrielle Ganter, who operated Pit Bull Kisses Rescue out of Newark, requested an extension in writing from a Central Municipal Court judge so that she could hire an attorney, courthouse sources in Hackensack told Cliffview Pilot.

Ganter, 30, didn’t show up yesterday, however, and the judge issued the $5,000 bench warrant.

As Cliffview Pilot reported exclusively, Bergen County SPCA investigators early last month filed 26 charges of animal cruelty and neglect against Ganter following an investigation that included necroposies.

The complaints include not providing food, water, proper shelter or veterinary care under Title 4:22-17.

Police alerted SPCA investigators after finding the dead animals in plastic garbage bags in the house and the live dogs — as well as a starved cat — chained in the yard without proper shelter.

“They were were extremely thin,” one law enforcement official told Cliffview Pilot, adding that conditions inside the house were “horrid.”

Bergen County Animal Control removed the carcasses and live animals from the Brook Avenue residence on May 13. An investigation leading to the charges against Ganter followed.

The live dogs and cat continued to be held at the Bergen County Animal Shelter pending the closure of the case, after which authorities said there could be adoptions.

(Cliffview Pilot - July 1, 2015)