The path to hell is paved with good intentions

by | Thursday | March 11, 2010 | 23 comments

The local news has been buzzing for the last day with the news of a local woman arrested on suspicion of felony animal neglect. According to the animal control officers on the scene, she had about 60 dogs in a 750 square foot 2 bedroom house.

Now here’s where it gets fuzzy: this wasn’t your typical animal hoarder situation. The woman in this case runs a rescue out of her house, and by all indications was genuinely trying to rehabilitate and adopt out the animals. In fact, the reason animal control found her was due to a tip by a person who had tried to adopt from her.

March 10, 2010 | Photo by K.C. Alfred

The comments following the article are heated; some call her vile and scream for her head. Other people who have interacted with the woman defend her as a person who poured her heart and soul into helping these pets and was doing the best she could. The animals (mostly boxers and chihuahuas) were living in crates and had not been under the care of a veterinarian for their many health problems. They were not being cared for appropriately.

I do not for a minute doubt she truly was trying to help. A person doing all of this by themselves, with no outside help or other volunteers to share the burden, could very easily become overwhelmed- especially these days when relinquishments are at an all-time high. Many rescues can’t bear to turn a pet away, and she seems to have been no exception.

As we all probably know, anyone can designate themselves a “rescue”. They run the gamut from well-funded, organized groups to one-man operations like this one. Somewhere along the way, this woman lost sight of the fact that she was in over her head. She neglected to realize her limitations, and the pets paid the price while awaiting a new home.

Despite all of this, even while listening to the animal control officer detail the conditions of the house, I felt a deep pang of pity at the sight of this woman being led off in handcuffs. I have heard and seen horrific stories of animal hoarders, pets ankle-deep in feces, covered in parasites, with dead animals rotting in the corners of the room. This was not the case here.

The pets had respiratory infections, skin infections, and suffered from lack of attention and care. Bad? Yes. Did they need to be removed? Yes. Did she need to be removed in handcuffs, with cameras rolling? I’m having trouble with that one.

It’s easy to speculate without all the details, so I concede there may be a lot of missing information. Maybe because I see people like this every day-on a smaller scale, but the principle remains. Good people who have gotten in over their head with their pets, who are unintentionally neglecting them while trying to do the right thing, who need a little guidance to get back on track.

I feel terrible for the animals, who have gone through a whole heck of a lot already and are now in the process of being dispersed to local shelters. But I can’t help but feel for her as well, someone overextended who might have done OK had she scaled back a bit more, paraded on the local news like a common criminal.

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  • Sarah

    This is a toughie…I confess it’s hard for me to understand how someone could have 60 dogs in their home…diseased, crated (how much exercise could she possibly give them??) unwell, UNHAPPY dogs and not ask for help.
    Animals don’t understand intentions. They only know if they are fed, loved, have an outlet for their energy, have shelter, etc. They don’t know if the person “cares” or doesn’t. The result is the same:(

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      I agree, it was a very bad situation and they needed to be removed. So sad all around.

  • Tamara

    I find it sad all around when these kinds of things happen. I rescued one of my cats from a ‘rescue’ who had 60+ cats that she couldn’t care for either. I, too, believe she was doing her best and had simply been overwhelmed, but I can’t help but think my little Emma is one lucky kitty to have gotten out of there. She’s now 11 years old, and at 9 weeks (when I rescued her) was facing certain death. All of her litter mates died within weeks of me taking her home, and the rest of the animals eventually died or were removed and taken to legitimate local shelters. Not sure what happened to the woman, if anything.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      So sad. :(

  • http://AboutVetMed.com AboutVetMed

    Sad story all around. I can’t comment on the handcuffs, but I WILL say that I am glad for the person who spoke up here. It is sometimes easier to look the other way and wash your hands of a bad or neglectful situation. Reporting sometimes takes both effort and guts, and ultimately is the most caring thing to do for the animals. I have called animal control several times. They will handle reports anonymously if needed.My hope is that stories like this will help people identify cases of neglect and abuse in their neighborhood and know how to report it to authorities.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Agreed. I’m sure it was tremendously difficult and they absolutely did the correct thing, with the end result these animals getting the care they need.

  • CAROLE

    I understand that Lady very well. There was a time when I could barely take car of my own animals. I did not hoard any others by I fell way behind on upkeep. Thank God I managed to always feed and water them regularly and well also. They also got good exercise since they where all in an opened area. I am now back on my feet and everything is now going well. And of course now I have poeple telling me : welll why did you not tell us. Well now I don’t need anyone…Next time ask me when I’ m down…..

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      See, that is exactly why this whole thing felt wrong to me. I completely understand the need for intervention, but I feel it could have been done more constructively given her history.

      I am glad to hear you are doing well and are back on your feet!

  • http://dearprudie.wordpress.com Ashley

    This is the exact reason why my gut is telling me the animal cruelty registry that California is trying to pass may not be the best idea. It’s that little sliver of grey in a black and white situation. That woman was trying her hardest to do something good, to make lives better and she just made the mistake of executing it the wrong way and not realizing she was in over her head. It really makes me upset that they hauled her away in handcuffs to the tune of a camera in her face. It’s obvious what she was doing was being more harm than good and that the decision to take the animals was a right and just one, but she could have been handled a bit better than she was.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Stated perfectly.

  • Nicole

    This reminds me of when we visited a home-based no-kill shelter (with quite a good reputation) looking for a dog. It was a wee bit cramped, but the dogs were all in great shape, and the lady was administering medications daily to a couple of epileptic Italian Greys and even funded an amputation for a dog that came in with a leg totally shattered in a car accident. Obviously, they were not needing rescue from their rescue. But she told me (and she sounded so sad) that she was so afraid of taking in any more, because what if the donations stopped coming in? What if she got laid off? And because she’d already had the animal control people out on hoarding calls (which were both found to be uncalled-for, considering the condition of the animals).

    I agree that this is a complicated situation. I hope everything works out the best way possible, even though I’m not sure what that is =/ Agree with Ashley about why this makes me leery of an animal cruelty registry.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      And in that case, she did the right thing- she gave herself boundaries.

  • http://breakfastwiththebennetts.blogspot.com Karen Bennett

    I have two boxers and have a hard time keeping them under control sometimes, how on earth would she do that with 60? I applaud her for trying but she was not doing it correctly. She needed to have funding and foster homes if she wants to have that many dogs.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Oh, absolutely. She was not helping these animals by taking them from a bad situation and putting them in another bad one. I think people lose sight of that sometimes with their desire to help.

  • Arwen

    You see this a lot in the horse world – check out http://fuglyhorseoftheday.blogspot.com/ if you haven’t already, she features them with depressing regularity.

    I figure at the point that you are no longer improving the health of the animals you get in your care you stop being a rescue and start being a hoarder. If you don’t NOTICE it because you have too many animals to care for, you are *definitely* a hoarder. No matter how good the intentions are, if your standard of care declines that far and you fail to get help, you are mistreating animals and I have little sympathy.

  • Pikachu

    This is Sad Story that unfortunately goes on in a lot of places , I have always had a dream that I wish I could save all the animals in the world. Its not a one person job and its not realistic. But I do what I can with shelters I know . Your story title is so apropo. I disagree with the handcuffs but agree with the animal control actions.
    3 pups are a handful but totally maneagble I cant imagine having 60 plus in a small house.

  • Kim

    We adopted Sommer through a “rescue” that was the most disgusting house we’d ever been to. They were a family of smokers (even the teenagers) and they had about 40 cats. As we carried Sommer away (eyes crudded over from an allergy to the smoke no doubt) we thought how we were rescuing her from the rescue. We treated her for worms, ear mites and a GI issue that took a few years to resolve. We were happy she was given a chance but the circumstances weren’t exactly ideal.

    I think Sarah was dead-on that animals don’t understand intent. Rescue is supposed to help animals get a better life. It sounds like she subjected them to horrible conditions. If she weren’t a rescue and if she were a BYB, I think we’d all support her going away in handcuffs.

  • Dr. Sarah

    Actually, there is more to the story. We got an e-mail today from SD animal support, which helps a lot of rescue groups. It sounds as though the woman knew she was in over her head and had been pleading with every local resource she could find for help with her situation.

    At the time, I didn’t actually know what they were talking about because I don’t watch the news. Now I do. How utterly sad. :-(

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Oh, dear. Thank you for sharing that. The truth is seldom black and white, no?

      • Dr. Sarah

        No, it certainly isn’t. The thing is, from what was said it sounds as though she didn’t make it clear just how dire the situation was. I get the feeling there is some guilt going around in the animal rescue community at the moment. There is going to be a meeting later this month to bring together all the reputable local rescue groups to discuss how to stem a situation like this and keep it from happening again.

        My impression from what I’ve read is that she became overwhelmed due to all the animals being given up with this economy. :-( Everyone who knows her only has kind things to say, but this is a case where she needed to acknowledge she was only one person. Idealism can only take you so far…

        • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

          I don’t doubt it. Maybe my own experience with the local animal control has flavored my response somewhat but I’ll just leave it at that.

          I imagine you have some firsthand knowledge of the pressures especially given your work with HSTJ. I should have you do a guest post! :D

      • Dr. Sarah

        I’d be happy to. :-) We’re in a pretty dire situation right now in terms of fosters — it’s really hard to do this right and isolate animals for at least a couple of weeks after coming over the border when we don’t operate out of a facility. Volunteer groups like ours experience a tremendous number of challenges with respect to making sure things are done well, especially when facing such a burden as the plethora of street animals in Tijuana.

  • Lisa W

    So very very sad for all involved. Especially as she had reached out for help, I hope the legal system goes easy on her.