The city seized and sealed her Port Richmond house, removed 21 dogs and cats she said she had rescued from the streets, and hauled out trash piled six to eight feet high.
Yesterday, after insisting she did nothing wrong and then refusing to divulge her new address, 70-year-old convicted "animal hoarder" Virginia Wetzel was off to jail for six to 12 months.
"I've never hurt any animal in my life," Wetzel, a state welfare caseworker, told Municipal Judge Karen Yvette Simmons. "I have never intentionally even killed a roach."
But Simmons cited evidence from the nonjury trial in which she convicted Wetzel of 25 counts of animal cruelty: 12 flea-ridden cats, 9 dogs, and 4 decomposing, mostly skeletal, cats found Sept. 30 in Wetzel's malodorous, trash-filled Monmouth Street house..." More
The "Dog Lady" got bit by Lady Justice yesterday.
Virginia Wetzel, who last month was convicted of 25 counts of cruelty to animals for hoarding 21 live and four dead pets in her squalid Port Richmond home, was sentenced to six to 12 months in jail.
Wetzel, 70, formerly of Monmouth Street near Belgrade, must report to jail in 30 days, but was briefly held on contempt charges after refusing to provide her current address to Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge Karen Y. Simmons.
The judge also ordered Wetzel to serve probation for four years and pay $32,300 in restitution to the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
She also can't have pets for 15 years, Simmons ordered.
Wetzel, a widow with no children, earned her nickname from weary neighbors who complained about animal odors wafting from her home. She told the judge that she never harmed any of the animals.
Evidence from her case paints a different picture. PSPCA officers entered her two-story home on Sept. 30 after receiving a tip on the agency's hot line.
In addition to finding a filthy brood of 12 cats and nine dogs, the officers discovered the skeletal remains of four other animals, two of them under Wetzel's bed.
It took the officers two hours to clear a path through ceiling-high debris to reach the animals...." More
Oct,1, 2010: 21 animals -- some dead, others alive -- rescued from filthy Port Richmond home
By DAVID CHANG
For Port Richmond residents, it was the smell that hit them first.
“It smelled like something was dead, that’s how I could describe it. About last week it smelled like something died and I couldn’t figure out what that smell was,” said Joseph Lisacchi.
The disgusting odor came from the home of 70-year old Virginia Wetzel. After complaints from various neighbors, the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PSPCA) received a search warrant to enter the woman's home Wednesday.
The house was covered in trash and feces and there was no running water or bathrooms, according to officials. Yet the most shocking discovery of all was the 21 animals that resided there. Nine were dogs, 12 were cats, and four were dead.
“It took us two hours to clear a path to get to the animals,” said SPCA official George Bengal. “One of the upstairs middle bedrooms housed about five cats and to walk in the room, the feces was over a foot deep in that bedroom.”
Wetzel was charged with animal cruelty back in 2004 for placing kennels outside of her house. She was also wanted on a bench warrant for not appearing in court. Investigators say that instead of getting rid of the kennels, Wetzel moved the animals back inside..." More
