(July 2017) North Carolina: In separate cases, Elijah Hansley and Jasmine Goodman are arrested and charged with animal cruelty for dead pets

NORTH CAROLINA -- Animal Services served two warrants on Elijah Bernard Hansley for mistreatment leading to the death of his dog; one warrant was for felony animal cruelty and one was for misdemeanor failure to vaccinate.

Postmortem tests on Hansley's dog confirmed injuries, lack of proper vet care and an untreated heartworm infestation contributed to the dog’s death.

Hansley was arrested at his residence at 106 Blount Drive in Wilmington on Saturday, July 29. Hansley was issued a $10,000 secured bond. His first appearance was in court on Monday at 2 p.m.

In a second case, Animal Services served a warrant to and arrested Jasmine Atoinette Goodman for felony animal cruelty.

Animal Services believed Goodman failed to provide food and medical treatment for “Rocky,” her Yorkshire Terrier; the dog was found dead at Goodman’s apartment on July 21. A postmortem examination of Rocky revealed the cause of death was starvation.

Goodman was arrested on Friday, July 28 and issued at $25,000 secured bond; she appeared in court on Monday at 2 p.m.

(Port City Daily - July 31, 2017)

Indiana: Sixty-eight dogs seized from Martha Crosley, 68, who was hoarding animals in former Vanderburgh Co. church

INDIANA -- Sheriff's deputies and animal control officers seized 68 dogs from a former church on Hillview Drive in Vanderburgh County.

Sheriff Dave Wedding says animal control learned about a woman - Martha Crosley, 68, - hoarding the animals in January.

The sheriff says when animal control officers went to check on her, she told them she had started an animal sanctuary but it had not been kept up.

When animal control officers went to check on her again, they say it looked like the conditions had gotten worse and the dogs were starting to become more endangered.

When animal control contacted the sheriff's office, a search warrant was obtained.

Deputies say they found dogs in very small crates and lying in feces and urine. We're told some of them were not fed properly and were underweight.

Many of the dogs taken that day reportedly had to be treated for heartworms.

Wedding says the dogs will be examined by a veterinarian and the cost will be offset by the Spirit Medical fund.

We're told there could be charges filed against the woman. Her name has not been released yet

(14news - February 28, 2017)

Canada: Hearts of the North rescue accused of adopting out sick and vicious dogs

CANADA -- Despite what foster organization Hearts of the North claim, many in the pet community say dogs brought by the organization have heartworms —and it's not as benign as advertised.

"We fostered, in total, three dogs," said Andy Penner, who used to volunteer for the group. "All three had heartworms."

"I was educated that heartworms is not transferable to other dogs."

Endemic to United States 

The worm is a non-endemic parasitic roundworm that causes long-term health effects.

Hearts of the North saves dogs on death row in the United States, where the worm originates from, by finding Maritime homes for them.

Volunteers say the amount of dog lives saved using their method is in the thousands.

Earlier this week the organization came under fire after two cases of dog bites came to light. In one a woman's lip was bitten by a Plott Hound Boxer mix. In the second case, a pit bull mauled a larger Husky. The rescue group didn't euthanize the pit bull; instead, they "rehomed" it to a volunteer.

 

 

 

 

 

VICIOUS DOGS NOT BEING EUTHANIZED. INSTEAD, THE RESCUE IS SENDING THEM OFF TO NEW HOMES

Vanessa Volpe lives in Oromocto with her Siberian Husky, Mya.

While Mya was resting in Volpe's front yard late last month, a pit bull terrier — brought into the province from Hearts of the North — attacked the husky.

"I saw it running across the neighbour's yard," she said.

"It came right at her and attacked her. I tried to use my hands to pull his jaws open."

Volpe said her neighbor had to choke the Hearts of the North dog, Bob, to force it to stop attacking Mya.

She said, if she hadn't received help, Mya might have died.

"The rip was quite big," Volpe said.

"You could almost fit your whole hand in the wound."

In the end, Mya had to undergo surgery. She's still recovering.

"They had to put her under twice because they found a few more wounds on her."

Volpe no longer knows where THE PIT BULL is, as the organization found a home for him with an organization volunteer.

Squires also said she didn't know where THE PLOTT HOUND BOXER MIX is, but heard he was renamed and given a new home after the attack.

Marc Milewski lives in Prince Edward Island and said after picking up a dog to foster, it attacked his great Pyrenees dog.

"It latched onto my dog's throat and it took me five minutes of wrestling to get the dog off," Milewski wrote in an email.

Marc Milewski and his Pyrenees

"It is months and months since this happened, and my arm is still not the same as I pulled almost every muscle wrestling the dog off my dog and holding him down till he cooled off."

That same day, the same dog clamped onto Milewski's hound's neck "and cut him so deep he required stitches."

"The pit bull viciously tried rip off my dog's neck and was shaking and twisting as my dog yelped and screamed in what was a noise I never heard a dog make before."

Milewski's hound's neck

Milewski said he later went to investigate what had happened to his pit bull and found the group had reposted the pit bull's availability, trying to find a new home for it.

MEDIA SCRUTINY FORCES GROUP TO "PAUSE OPERATIONS"

The organization posted on Facebook Dec. 28 it was pausing operations to reflect on the recent allegations.

On Friday, even more cases surrounding attacks from these dogs came to light, as well as alleged discrepancies in paperwork accompanying dogs crossing the border.

"I'm just so upset because we've now had to put down dogs," Melissa Britton, a spokesperson for Hearts of North Friday.

The worm, which burrows into the dog's heart, greatly reducing its strength, is spread through feces and mosquitoes.

While dogs are the primary carriers, coyotes and other animals can also have the disease.

On their website the organization  says many of their dogs have the disease but says it isn't contagious.

"It is impossible for dogs in Canada to get it," the website said. "Heartworm is NOT contagious."

The website cites the New Brunswick climate as the reason why. It claims temperatures are not hot enough or long enough for the mosquitoes.

HOTN admits false claim

Britton recognizes that's not completely true and it is plausible for an infection to spread in New Brunswick, but she said it's unlikely and that Hearts of the North are not the only ones that transport heartworm positive dogs.

"If a heartworm positive dog has never been treated," Britton said, "it is entirely possible that a mosquito could bite that dog and transfer those eggs."

But, she said it has to be a specific type of mosquito: a female mosquito that lays near dormant water.

"It is possible, but it's highly unlikely that it would create any sort of epidemic because we don't have a massive population of the type of mosquitoes that they have there," she said.

Vet experts disagree

But, according to two animal experts, that simply isn't true.

Sheila McGowan, a veterinarian from Hampton, and Mandy Hamilton, a veterinarian technician in Florenceville, said there have already been cases of New Brunswick dogs, that have never left the province, contracting heartworm.

"That is evidence that we have a climate that supports the transfer of the disease," said Hamilton, who started a petition to stop the transfer of dogs with the parasite across the border. "There's some misinformation being spread around."

"Maine is endemic for heartworm," McGowan said.

Hamilton said after a mosquito bites a heartworm positive dog, it only takes two weeks to incubate, meaning the Canadian summer gives plenty of time for the worm to spread.

There are two ways to treat the parasite, the fast and the slow treatment.

The fast treatment kills the worms all at once, but is both dangerous and expensive.

McGowan said the slow treatment, the treatment used primarily by Hearts of the North, is not a viable method for medical professionals.

"(It's) just not recommended."

McGowan doesn't think it's impossible to fix now, but says there's a worry the worm will become endemic to the region, just like in the southern United States.

Previously, volunteers told CBC reporters these dogs are assessed in the U.S. by veterinarians and experienced handlers and staff and considered adoptable.

Mislabelled case

But Rachel LeBlanc from Moncton said when her friend received her dog, the organization mislabelled the age. They told her it was 10 months old instead of three years old and didn't have heartworms. LeBlanc now owns the dog.

She later bought the slower medicine, paying for it out of pocket, but is concerned her dog was untreated when she received it and the disease could have spread.

"They misinformed my friend," she said.

(CBC.ca - Dec 31, 2016)

Indiana: Posey County Woman Shelly Dossett (aka Shelly Davis) Going to Jail on Animal Cruelty Charges

INDIANA -- A Posey County woman is headed to jail in an animal cruelty case.

41 year old Shelly Dossett has been sentenced Tuesday to 120 days behind bars and 1 year probation.

-- with "good behavior" she'll only have to serve 1/4 of her sentence, which comes out to be 30 days in the county jail. She may already have time served -- in which case, she may not have to serve any jail time at all.

Shelly Dossett starved and neglected nine animals. Two of these animals couldn't make it until they were all rescued - and died at the hands of Shelly Dossett aka Shelly Davis.

She was facing 6 counts of animal cruelty after authorities went to her Mt. Vernon home last February.

They say the house smelled of feces and urine and there was little food and no water for several animals in the home.

Animal control officers took possession of four malnourished dogs and three cats.

Authorities say they also found two dead dogs on the property -- one of them was in a sack in the kitchen. The other was in a car.

A pathologist says one of the dead dogs was starved, had a fractured liver, and heartworms. The other dog was dehydrated and extremely emaciated.

 

(WIKY - Oct 4, 2016)

Earlier:

• Indiana: Shelly Dossett (aka Shelly Davis) charged in disturbing animal cruelty case

Louisiana: Damion Daigle, 20, is accused of agreeing to pet sit for a friend and instead, starved the dog to death

LOUISIANA -- A Union Parish man has been arrested by sheriff’s deputies accused of letting a friend’s dog die from lack of nutrition.

Damion Bryant Daigle, 20, of 532 Loch Lomond Rd., Sterlington, was arrested May 2 and charged with simple cruelty to animals. He was released the same day from the parish detention center after posting bond of $1,500, Sheriff Dusty Gates said.

Gates said the investigation started in September when the dog’s owner reported it dead. The owner had to leave the dog at her estranged husband’s residence and he left town on his job leaving Daigle to care for the residence and dog.

Deputies advised the owner, Carla White, to have an autopsy performed on the dog. The results were recently returned showing the dog had heartworm disease but also suffered from severe malnutrition/starvation.

The autopsy showed there was no fecal material present in the rectum and the bladder was empty, indicating the dog had not received food or water several days prior to its death.

Daigle had claimed to deputies that he fed and watered the dog regularly and thought the dog had died from a snakebite.

(NBC 10 - FOX 14 - May 6, 2015)

Massachusetts: Luaren Noronha is accused of driving to Texas, adopting a sick dog, then abandoning it at a stranger's house

MASSACHUSETTS -- A 21-year-old Marlboro woman is to be arraigned Tuesday in Dudley District Court for allegedly importing a diseased dog from a Texas shelter and then willfully abandoning it in Dudley.

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)

Alabama: AKC breeder Bonnie Lieberman charged with animal cruelty after leaving dog carcass in yard

ALABAMA -- Helena Police say a dog breeder is facing animal cruelty charges because she left a dead Doberman to rot in her backyard for a month.

Bonnie Liberman is charged with animal cruelty, failure to dispose of an animal, and operating a business without a license.

Neighbors say the dog had heartworms and it eventually starved itself to death.

Will Nall, 11, first discovered the dead dog when Liberman’s kids allegedly showed it to him.

“I mostly saw a dead dog and bones and organs laying out on the ground,” Will said.

Will’s mother took pictures of the Doberman nestled behind the Liberman’s air conditioner unit. Kellie Nall is furious her son was exposed to something like that.

“They told Will they wanted to show him something but not to tell me and they took Will into the backyard where the dog was dead and the youngest boy actually urinated on the dog,” said Kellie Nall.

Nall says she didn’t know what to do so she called police.

“We know the police were out here four times to tell them to get the dog up out of the yard because it was visible from the street,” Kellie said. “They finally did get the dog up but we have no idea what they did with it but I do know they made the oldest daughter clean the dog up and I think that’s terrible too.”

Helena Police Sgt. Chris Rowland says Liberman has two websites selling poodles and Doberman dogs. On those websites Liberman claims to be a breeder registered with the Animal Kennel Club.

FoOX6 contacted the AKC and they sent us this statement:

“If a written, signed, and substantiated complain regarding the care and conditions of a dog is received or if someone is charged by law enforcement and it violates the AKC’s inappropriate treatment of animals policy then the AKC would pursue the matter.”

FOX6 also contacted Liberman. She told us over the phone the allegations are not true. She says there were no dead animals in her yard.

Helena Police say their investigation isn’t over and they’re also looking into living conditions at the house since children live there.

(WBRC - April 27, 2012)

Florida: "The overriding feeling of people in the community is she's disturbed" - Vikki Kittles, charged with 22 counts of animal cruelty, continues to hoard suffering animals

FLORIDA -- Quiet little Astoria, Ore. hasn`t been the same since former Broward resident Vikki Kittles arrived in town.

Vikki Rene Kittles (also known as Susan Dietrich, Rene Depenbrock, and Lynn Zellan), 45, is the woman arrested in 1985 at her mother`s Wilton Manors home on animal cruelty charges after police discovered the women's roommates were two horses, 37 dogs and three cats.

She left Broward County in 1988 only to draw attention again last month on the rural, northern Oregon coast with 117 dogs, four cats and two chickens squeezed into a school bus.

Now Kittles -- arrested on April 16 near Astoria, population 10,000 -- is charged with 22 misdemeanor counts of animal neglect.

The quiet and normalcy of Astoria has been disrupted by Kittles` appearance.

"She`s starting to lose it," said Clatsop County Sheriff`s Deputy Ed Rhoads. "She came in our parking lot (on Friday) and was ranting and raving."

Dan Carter, managing editor of the Daily Astorian, said, "She`s left four or five messages on my voice mail -- just rambling thoughts, really."

Such actions are familiar to those who encountered Kittles in Broward. She had several volatile enounters with police, claimed people were conspiring to kill her animals and routinely fired lawyers who represented her.

Kittles left South Florida in 1985 rather than go to trial on the animal abuse charges. She took her mother, Jean Sullivan -- and a lot of animals -- with her.


When Kittles was re-arrested in Manatee County in 1987, she returned to Broward to face animal abuse and other charges. Sullivan has never been heard from again -- a mystery that still baffles police, who think she is dead.

Kittles` sister-in-law, Carol Kittles of Kendall, hired a private detective to try to find Sullivan. The detective failed. Vikki Kittles has adamantly refused to discuss her mother with police.

Carol Kittles said she will not try to question Vikki Kittles about Sullivan, who if alive, would be in her late 70s.

"There's nothing I can do," she said. "She won`t speak to me, anyway."

Kittles could not be reached for comment. Directory assistance in Astoria has no telephone listing for her and it could not be determined where she is living.

Kittles spent about a week in jail on the Oregon charges before being released. Her animals were placed in a county animal shelter and a private kennel pending the outcome of her trial.

"We've gotten a lot of calls from people wanting to come down and adopt them," Rhoads said. Others have donated food and money.

Oregon authorities said Kittles picked up most of the dogs from a Mississippi shelter, supposedly" so they would not be killed". Then she drove to Colorado and Washington before ending up in Oregon.

"We`re finding out dogs died along the way," Rhoads said. One witness in Washington saw Kittles set the carcass of a dog on fire, he said.

Since her Oregon arrest, Vikki Kittles has fired three court-appointed attorneys. Now she must act as her own lawyer or hire one at her own expense.

She also has been banned from the animal shelter because she caused a ruckus during an earlier visit. At least two of her dogs have died from illnesses, and others have heartworms.

It is perhaps ironic that Kittles, the self-styled animal lover, is staying in Astoria. The town is named after John Jacob Astor, the fur magnate who established a fur trading post in the area.

"The overriding feeling of people in the community is she's disturbed," said Carter, the newspaper editor. "People aren't really amused by this whole thing. But she has had some supporters."

Kittles' next court appearance is scheduled for Friday, when she is expected to ask a judge to force the animal shelter to preserve the bodies of any of her animals that die in its custody.

(Sun Sentinel - May 3, 1993)

Florida: Despite having no real explanation as to why she waited until her dog looked like a skeleton before seeking vet care, Dorcas Boze, 71, convinced a jury she was just a little old lady who would never hurt an animal

FLORIDA -- Charged with animal cruelty after her emaciated, sickly Doberman Pinscher named Kaiser was seized, Dorcas Boze, 71, denied starving the animal to the verge of death as she was accused.

Although media outlets love to tell readers what the maximum sentence is, 99.9% of people never go to jail for animal cruelty. This lady, being 71, would never have been sent to jail even if she had slit puppies' throats. Nevertheless, the Sun-Sentinel announced that Boze was facing "up to a $5,000 fine and a year in the county jail".

Yes, Boze finally got around to seeking vet care and yes the dog was diagnosed with heartworms and hookworms, but why did she wait until it was a walking skeleton before she did this???

That is where she committed a crime. She waited until the dog was on death's door before seeking veterinary care for him.

Of course this didn't matter to the jury. They simply saw an old lady and felt sorry for her. The came back within an hour and declared her not guilty.

Family members shouted for joy when the clerk read the jury's decision. Boze hugged public defender Elinor Wilkov and cried.

"I'm happy," she said leaving the courtroom of County Court Judge Dale Ross. "I knew I wasn't guilty."

The episode, family members said, was the result of a neighborhood dispute at the Silver Oaks trailer park in unincorporated Broward near Davie.

Complaints of a barking dog first brought Broward sheriff's deputies to Boze's home in August, shortly after she said she took in Kaiser from a nearby businessman who planned to have the dog euthanized when he closed the business.

"She didn't take in a show dog," her attorney told the jury. "She didn't take in a dog that was going to win a blue ribbon. She took in a dog that was going to be put to sleep."

In October, Boze said she noticed Kaiser was losing weight rapidly and took him to a veterinarian who prescribed medication for heartworms and hookworms. It cost her $88, she said, all the money she had left at the time from a small monthly Social Security check.

A week later, the day Boze said Kaiser was due to return to the veterinarian, a sheriff's deputy returned to the trailer and despite Boze's attempts to explain about the dog's health problems, cited her for animal cruelty and took Kaiser away to the Broward County Animal Control shelter, she said.

If she used all the money she had in her bank account, then how was she going to afford to take the dog back to the vet the very next week? How convenient that she says "the day he was supposed to go back to the vet, they took him!" Yeah right.

The problem is that Boze waited until the dog was nothing but a bag of bones wrapped in some fur before finally bothering to seek vet advice.

"They acted like she committed murder when you've got killers out on the street," said Boze's daughter, Jackie Anderson.

Well, Jackie, why didn't you give your mother the money to take the dog to the vet before it got so bad that the dog was seized and she was charged with cruelty??

Local animal experts said Kaiser was among the worst cases of apparent animal neglect they had seen.

Prosecutor Morgan Rood argued that illness alone could not have been responsible for Kaiser's condition.

"That dog didn't just suddenly become emaciated," he said. "From day one, that dog was denied proper sustenance and proper shelter."

Kaiser lasted in the pound until earlier this month. But before he was put to sleep Boze delivered cans of dog food to the animal control shelter because she was worried he would not eat the dry dog food at the pound, she said.

In November, Boze stopped going to the pound when she suffered a heart attack.

"It was worrying about him that caused me to have a heart attack," she said.

(Sun Sentinel - January 24, 1987)