Police Chief Richard Lee said criminal charges have not been filed but could be forthcoming after Petrina Newcomb agreed to hand over the animals on Saturday.
The dogs are currently in the care of Animal Rescue League in Bedford, N.H. Two of the dogs had to be euthanized, and the conditions of the rest vary, said Monica Zulauf, president of the rescue league.
Some of the dogs have neurological issues and are unable to walk, others have untreated sores, at least one is blind and another has water on the brain. A mother dog and her three-week-old litter were among the animals surrendered.
“They are not what I would consider well taken care of dogs,” Zulauf said. “When we see this kind of neurological impairment, that is a really bad indicator.”
Andrea Conger, an animal rights advocate from Grantham, said she has been attempting for the past year to get authorities to investigate the care Newcomb was providing the dogs.
Conger said she was concerned because she previously had adopted three Chihuahuas from area shelters that Newcomb previously had surrendered — two of those dogs have seizure disorders, and the third has neurological trouble and is unable to walk. Conger said she heard Newcomb again had several dogs in her care.
After Lee approached Newcomb on Friday and she agreed to surrender the dogs, he contacted Conger, who went with her husband and another woman on Saturday afternoon to Pine Hill Road, where Newcomb and her daughter handed over the animals. Conger said they didn’t let anyone inside the one-story raised ranch home, where no one was living at the time.
“I started looking at them and my heart just sank; it was a lot worse than I imagined,” Conger said of the dogs’ conditions.
Newcomb eventually handed over nearly two dozen animals, which were loaded into crates and taken to the Congers’ home.
Conger said she contacted several shelters and humane societies, but many were reluctant to take in the animals. So all of them spent Saturday night with the Congers.
“They cried all night,” she said. “A lot of them were suffering.”
Eventually, Animal Rescue League agreed to take the animals.
Lee confirmed Saturday wasn’t the first time Petrina Newcomb and her husband, Richard Newcomb, who now lives in a nursing home, have had to surrender Chihuahuas.
The police chief estimates the Newcombs surrendered more than 80 Chihuahuas between 2007 and 2011.
And Conger said she believes the couple surrendered dogs in 2013 and 2014 as well.
Attempts to reach Petrina Newcomb were unsuccessful.
In an interview on Monday, Lee said he wasn’t oblivious to the fact that there likely were animals suffering under Newcomb’s care in the years since he first received complaints. But without a sworn statement or “fresh information,” Lee said, police weren’t able to apply for a warrant to enter the Newcombs’ residence.
“It is awful to see something like this and you can’t do a damn thing about it,” Lee said.
The Chihuahuas have been with the rescue league since Sunday. Once all of the dogs have been assessed, Lee and an Animal Rescue League investigator will meet to discuss the case. Lee said criminal charges are possible.
FOR AT LEAST TEN YEARS (LIKELY MORE), THE NEWCOMBS HOARDED ANIMALS, FORCING THEM TO LIVE (AND DIE) IN SQUALOR
In 2007, police received a report from someone who purchased a Chihuahua from the Newcombs and said several animals were living in deplorable conditions.
Lee said police, at that time, didn’t have the grounds to launch an animal welfare case. There was, however, a child living inside the home, so the state Department for Children and Families was contacted and the Newcombs were told to clean up conditions in their home.
The couple did, Lee said, and also surrendered 50 of 72 Chihuahuas that were living there at the time.
And in 2014, Lee said, the Newcombs were cited with 48 infractions for not having rabies or licenses for the 24 dogs in their care. That case has been adjudicated and the couple was ordered to pay reduced fines, he said.
Petrina Newcomb also is currently facing a charge in a Newport courthouse for selling dogs without health certificates, he said.
On Monday, Conger said she was traumatized by Saturday’s experience and hasn’t really slept since. “It was the worst thing I have ever seen in my life,” said Conger, who runs the nonprofit Chelsea’s Footprints, which supports animals with disabilities.
And while she’s concerned more dogs remain suffering inside the Pine Hill Road home, she expressed relief in knowing the dogs that have been rescued are in good hands.
“I am grateful that they are now being taken care of,” she said.
Anyone who wishes to donate to the dogs can do so by visiting http://www.chelseasfootprints.org/ or http://www.rescueleague.org/
(VNews.com - November 8, 2016)
