Monday, January 30, 2012

Bemidji woman with 50 dogs may keep seven; rest headed for shelter



By Anne Williams



Most of the dogs will go, seven will stay and a few could be returned home once they've been neutered or spayed and her house is cleaned.
That is what 63-year-old Carol Schmidt agreed to Wednesday.
"That's what I want," the rural Bemidji woman said after signing a custodial agreement with the Animal Humane Society to have more than 40 of her dogs taken to an animal shelter in Golden Valley.
Beltrami County Environmental Services Director Bill Patnaude, officials with the Beltrami County sheriff's office and Wade Hanson, an investigator with the Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley, met with Schmidt at her mobile home two days after authorities conducted a welfare check and found more than 50 dogs and some cats living inside two mobile homes on her property.
"I want them in the Cities," Schmidt said, referring to the dogs that will be taken to the animal shelter in Golden Valley. "It's good for people down there that need guard dogs for their places."
While Schmidt is not breaking any laws by having so many pets at her residence on Grant Valley Road Northwest in Grant Valley Township, the dogs are being removed because of what Hanson called "unsanitary conditions."
"She has agreed she has way too many animals," said Hanson, who according to the Animal Humane Society is an expert on animal hoarding and humane investigations. "We're going to do what we can for now. We'll be back up here once in a while to see whether or not the situation has gotten better..."  More

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