A couple on the run from Arkansas, with charges also in Missouri, were picked up and appeared in court today in Vermont. Tammy Hanson, 42, and her husband, William, have been ru
nning since convicted on several counts of animal cruelty and evidence tampering in 2006.
Acting on a tip in 2006, Baxter County, Arkansas authorities found approximately 600 abused and neglected dogs, many dead, on the Hanson’s property. At the time this was described as the largest animal cruelty case in U.S. history. Many of the dogs were victims of Hurricane Katrina. Supposedly the Hanson’s went to New Orleans and brought back dogs with no way of taking care of them. People turned them over to them thinking the dogs would be taken care of. Not even close.
Although Tammy says that “things got out of hand” I just don’t buy it. You don’t let 600 dogs suffer and die because things "got out of hand
". I hear that excuse a lot from breeders that run “dog breeding facilities of substandard conditions”. (I keep getting yelled by breeders for saying the term “puppy mill”….if anyone knows a better word for these canine hell holes please let me know). At the time of the search warrant Mr. and Mrs. Hanson were running an establishment called Every Dog Needs a Home (EDNAH). How sad. Miss Hanson was also wanted in Missouri on several counts of animal theft for stealing even more dogs that had been rescued by Baxter County and other Katrina rescue groups.
This is obviously a case of hoarding carried out to an extreme, although the outright abuse doesn't really even fit into that definition. Neglect yes, it definitely fits. These people are “with it” enough to run from the law, change their names and their identities, and h
ide out for 3 ½ years. No one can tell me that they didn’t know that taking the trust of people in a tragic situation like Katrina and then neglecting their promise, much less stealing more dogs that were already being cared for by other agencies wasn’t just wrong. How can you just watch a dog die of neglect in a cage. That comes from a dark place in the person..." More
