Nevada: Here we go again. Desert Rescue Animal Sanctuary raided, more than 400 animals seized - 103 had to be euthanized

NEVADA -- Two women are facing criminal charges after investigators found more than 400 animals living in unsanitary conditions at a nonprofit sanctuary the women ran out of their home in Cold Creek, a tiny community about 50 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Donna Mead, 51, and Dawn “Lakota” Spoolman, 54, are due in court in December. Each faces three felony counts of malicious torture and two dozen misdemeanor code violations.

 

The Desert Rescue Animal Sanctuary had been operating for nine years and is registered with the state. A story about the sanctuary, which appeared in a View newspaper last year, said its mission was to take in abandoned wild animals and rehabilitate them back into their natural habitat.

According to an arrest warrant for Mead, issued in August, 103 animals recovered from the sanctuary had to be euthanized after medical examinations.

A total of 428 animals were recovered from the property.

Las Vegas attorney Don Green is representing Spoolman and declined to comment, except to say that the case was “anything but routine.”

‘EXTREME’ ANIMAL HOARDING

Investigators from Clark County Animal Control and the Metropolitan Police Department’s animal abuse unit first went to the property to investigate a tip in April. Mead’s arrest warrant described the matter as an “extreme case of animal hoarding.”

In a detached garage on the property, detectives found dozens of cages containing rats, rabbits, guinea pigs and pigeons “drenched with urine and feces.”

They also found a coyote in a cage in the garage.

In the front room of the four-bedroom home, cages and debris on the floor made it hard to move around. Reptile cages were stacked 5 feet high against one wall and 7 feet high against another. They went up to the ceiling against another.

According to the arrest warrant, none of the cages contained clean water, and they all contained feces and urine and even molted skin.

Another coyote was “running wild through the living room and the rest of the house,” the warrant said.

In the game room, investigators said, there were dogs in crates – without food or water or room to move – under a billiards table. On top of the dog crates were even more reptile aquariums.

One bedroom had cages of cats, ferrets and rabbits that covered the walls and the floor space. The laundry room was full of overflowing litter boxes.

An owl had been locked in the hall bathroom. In the bathtub was a kit fox in a wire crate held together with chicken wire. The fox’s paw was caught in the chicken wire, preventing it from moving.

The animals outside were not faring much better, according to Mead’s arrest warrant. Two horses in the rear of the home did not have clean water or a proper pen, and one of the horses’ hooves needed medical care. Six goats were wandering the property without proper shelter or clean water.

And two wolves were included on a list of seized animals in the arrest warrant.

HOUSE ARREST

Mead and Spoolman were booked into the Clark County Detention Center on Tuesday and have been released on house arrest until their preliminary hearing in December. A judge has barred them from owning any animals.

Although detectives went to the Cold Creek home and animal sanctuary in April, charges against the women were not filed until Aug. 1, Las Vegas Justice Court records show.

It's likely that they were trying to get the women into compliance - transfer many animals to other rescues, get veterinary care for sick/injured animals, provide clean water and humane living conditions, etc. When they failed to do this - or things got even worse - they probably moved forward with charges.

Las Vegas police could not provide further details about the investigation.

A letter sent in July to Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo by the advocacy group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals encouraged police to pursue criminal charges.

“It’s critical that animal hoarders, regardless of their intentions or excuses, be prosecuted and that sentences include bans on having contact with or owning any animals, long-term psychiatric treatment, and routine inspections to ensure compliance,” wrote Teresa Chagrin from the group’s cruelty investigations department.

The letter referenced a 2011 estimate that a quarter of the 6,000 new animal hoarding cases each year involve rescue groups. That means 1,500 rescue groups were found to be hoarding and abusing animals rather than "rescuing" them.

LIST OF ANIMALS REMOVED AND EUTHANIZED

1 chicken
2 cockatiel birds
1 exotic cockroach
2 coyotes (both had to be euthanized)
1 Doberman Pinscher
8 cats (1 had to be euthanized)
1 dove
6 ferrets
1 finch
1 fox (had to be euthanized)
9 gerbils
1 German Shepherd
1 Great Dane
12 guinea pigs (6 had to be euthanized)
1 hedgehog
1 hummingbird (had to be euthanized)
5 iguanas
1 Italian Greyhound
11 lizards (2 had to be euthanized)
3 lovebirds
2 Manchester Terriers
1 opossum (had to be euthanized)
1 owl
1 parakeet
1 Parson's Russell Terrier
2 pheasants
9 pigeons (all 9 had to be euthanized)
1 Pug
37 rabbits (9 had to be euthanized)
1 raccoon (had to be euthanized)
183 pet rats (54 had to be euthanized)
1 Savannah cat
1 Shih Tzu
17 snakes
8 squirrels (all 8 had to be euthanized)
1 sugar glider
2 tortoises
14 turtles (1 had to be euthanized)
1 Welsh Cardigan Corgi
2 wolves

GRAND TOTAL 419 ANIMALS REMOVED

(Las Vegas Review Journal - Oct 20, 2016)