SAN BERNARDINO - Self-described animal activist Charlotte Spadaro says she rescues animals and keeps them as pets, saving them from being euthanized in shelters.
She's gone to great lengths to continue her cause, moving from city to city and across county lines, sometimes facing criminal charges and police raids along the way.
This year, she took it a step further and filed restraining orders against San Bernardino County and a kennel owner, claiming she was being harassed for keeping more than 160 dogs on the site of a troubled animal boarding facility in San Bernardino.
But San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Christopher Warner lifted those orders Monday, saying Spadaro can't operate the Sixth Street kennel without a license.
"She has failed to demonstrate that she has the ability to operate an unlicensed kennel," Warner said.
Spadaro, who has been charged with animal cruelty regarding a kennel she operated in Rialto, is still wrangling with the courts over that case. And San Bernardino County Animal Control officials say they plan to recommend criminal charges be filed against Spadaro regarding five dead dogs found at the kennel she operated on Sixth Street, the former site of West Paw, Inc.
Spadaro expressed disappointment in the judge's decision Monday.
"What is at risk here is the lives of 160 animals, and if the courts pull the restraining orders, those animals will be dead in three to four days," Spadaro said.
County animal control officials say that's not true, and that they will continue monitoring the care of the dogs, but won't seize them unless they are in imminent danger.
Animal control employees have been inspecting Spadaro's property and her dogs several times a week. Her dogs have been on the site since April.
But because of the restraining order, county workers have been unable to take any of her animals unless they find an obvious health and safety code violation, such as a dying or dead dogs.
"It's a legal quagmire," said Brian Cronin, division chief for the San Bernardino County Animal Care and Control Division.
Five dog carcasses have been removed from the property in the past two months, Cronin said. Necropsies by the California State Veterinary Medical Laboratory revealed three of the dogs died of parvovirus and two died from fighting.
"I have no idea if it's true or not," Spadaro said Monday following the civil hearing. "I have not seen the necropsy report."
The District Attorney's Office will decide whether the deaths resulted from neglect.
Meanwhile, Angelo Rivers and Nancy Burns, the owners of West Paw, Inc., are trying to figure out how to rebuild their lives. Their property on Sixth Street is currently in foreclosure. They surrendered their license to operate a kennel in the county about two months ago. They are surviving on money made from an animal grooming business.
Rivers, a Lake Arrowhead resident, said he complained to animal control after seeing the way Spadaro's animals were being cared for on his property.
He said he saw seven dogs being kept in 5-by-7 rooms, a space he normally reserves for one dog. Rivers saw dogs with parvo, mange and other illnesses. He even saw dogs cannibalizing the dead dogs.
"She says she's trying to help these animals," he said. "She does more harm than help."..." Link