James Reich / Ignacio Dulzaides - Marion, Florida

Jun 5, 2010: Over 300 seized animals won’t be returned to owner, judge rules

By Austin L. Miller

A judge has decided to award to Marion County Animal Services the legal custody of more than 300 animals seized from a man nearly two months ago.

Judge Jim McCune ruled Friday that 64-year-old Ignacio Dulzaides is unfit to properly provide for the animals and therefore will be officially turned over to animal services.

The animals -- cattle, dogs, cats, birds, cows, horses, sheep, smaller pets and reptiles among others -- are already under the supervision and care of animal services.

Once the ruling becomes official, which should take about two weeks, spokeswoman Elaine DeIorio said the animals will either be sold or be offered for adoption. The cattle, DeIorio said, will be sold, with the rest ready for adoption.

Of the lot, the spokeswoman said 10 dogs had to be euthanized because they had diseases. Officials say none of the other animals will be euthanized unless it’s deemed necessary by a staff veterinarian..." More

May 22, 2010: Hearing on 370 seized animals is again postponed

By Austin L. Miller

A hearing to decide the fate of more than 370 animals found at home that were either neglected or malnourished has been postponed until early June, according to animal officials.

The extension is the third in as many weeks, as the first hearing was slated for May 5 in front of County Judge Jim McCune.

The second hearing was rescheduled for May 21 because the attorney for the man who had hoarded the animals, James Reich, wanted more time to get additional witnesses. The new date is June 3 at 1 p.m.

Authorities have determined that Ignacio Dulzaides, owner of the property where the animals were found at 4632 N.W. 100th St., was not the owner of six dogs, four Shih Tzus and two Pomeranians.

With that in mind, the county’s animal services has decided to return those animals to their owners...." More

Apr 21, 2010: Officials: Man hoarding animals one of 'worst'

Court records show that Ignacio Dulzaides, the man at the center of an animal hoarding case that local officials say is among the worst they've ever seen, has faced prosecution for animal neglect in the past.

In October 1995, the Marion County Sheriff's Office arrested Dulzaides on 32 counts of confining animals without adequate food after numerous ratite birds were found in poor condition at his former residence, 10651 N.W. 60th Ave.

Ratite are flightless birds such as emu and ostrich.

Dulzaides was acquitted of six misdemeanor counts during a jury trial.

The State Attorney's Office dropped the remaining 27 counts.

"That was a bunch of garbage. The charges should never have been brought. He didn't do what they accused him of doing," James Reich, Dulzaides' attorney in that case, said Tuesday.

But even Reich acknowledged that the recent situation, unlike the 1995 case, stirred something inside him.

"When I got out there and I saw what I saw, I had a natural reaction that human beings that love animals have. He had too many, I think," said Reich, the owner of a horse and a dog, who visited the property after receiving a call from Dulzaides' family members.

Dulzaides was taken to The Centers for a mental health evaluation Thursday evening, but it was unclear whether he was still in that facility's care. He did not respond to phone calls placed to his residence Tuesday. Those taken to the facility under Florida's Baker Act may be held for up to 72 hours.

Were it not for a Progress Energy employee tending to a power outage last week, Dulzaides' animal-carcass-strewn property may have gone unnoticed even longer..." More

Apr 17, 2010: Hundreds of live animals removed; 340 found dead

Austin L. Miller

Marion County Animal Services has removed more than 400 live animals and discovered more than 340 dead ones at a property at 4632 N.W. 100th Street. The live and dead animals include dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, sheep, cattle and horses, said officials.

Animal Services officials are labeling the case as one of the worst hoarding situations they have ever seen.

According to Animal Services, officials responded to the property after receiving a complaint from a Progress Energy employee who was working on a power outage in the area.

When Animal Services officials responded, owner Ignacio Dulzaides, 64, would not allow them on his property.

However, because Dulzaides was licensed to sell exotic birds, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission investigators were able to enter. When they did, they validated the report of extremely poor living conditions. Animal Services then obtained a warrant to enter Dulzaides' property and began their investigation...." More

Apr 17, 2010: Hundreds Of Dead Animals On 1 Property

Hundreds of animals have been found dead at one location in what investigators called one of the worst cases of animal hoarding ever.

Officials with Marion County Animal Services said workers removed about 750 animals, nearly half of which were dead, from a property in Reddick.

Workers said they found dogs, cats, birds, cows, horses, sheep and other smaller animals and reptiles living in deplorable conditions.

More than 340 animals were dead, some in cages right next to live animals. Workers said some were wrapped in plastic bags and placed in a freezer, while others were just in feed bags strewn around the property..." More & Video

Apr 16, 2010: Hundreds of Animals Seized From Marion Co. Property

Officials with Marion County Animal Services removed 400 living animals and another 340 dead animals from a Reddick home on Friday.

Officials say they found dogs, cats, birds, cows, horses, and sheep as well as reptiles on the property along Northwest 100th Street.

Animal Services was alerted to the issue after a complaint filed by an employee with Progress Energy who had responded to a power outage in the area.

The property's owner, 65-year-old Ignacio Dulzaides, initially wouldn't let Animal Services officials onto his property, but eventually the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission was able to get into the home and confirmed that animals inside were being mistreated.

The Marion County Fire Rescue Hazmat team also responded to the scene and declared several buildings on the property unsafe to enter without a respirator..." More

Barbara Hoffman / Fred Lulling - Marion County, Texas

Mar 12, 2010: Animals given to humane society

By Terri Richardson

The remaining animals, not including tigers and other large cats, seized in Marion County from Barbara Hoffmann and Fred Lolling were turned over to the Humane Society of Harrison County for placement Friday following a new trial.

A trial de novo was held Friday in the District Courtroom at the Marion County Courthouse to decide if Ms. Hoffman and Lolling, who represented themselves at court, should have their animals returned.

"This court is going to find in favor of the state, which proved a violation of section 821.023 of the health and safety code," said County Court Judge Phil Parker. The section of code refers to the disposition or return of cruelly treated animals. If the court finds the animal's owner has cruelly treated the animal, the animal is to go to either public sale or auction or a non-profit animal shelter. "The animals will be placed with the Marion County Humane Society, and ordered, if the Humane Society sells any of the animals, the money is to be returned to the court," Parker said.

Ms. Hoffman and Lolling left the courtroom quietly as the trial concluded about 4:30 p.m.

"This is a win for the animals. That's who won here," said Caroline Wedding, president and founder of the Marion County Humane Society. "They will be placed in the best facilities available."

Testimony in the de novo trial began at 9 a.m., with a sign language interpreter provided for Lolling, who is deaf.

Marion County District Attorney Bill Gleason began with Marion County Sheriff's Investigator Shawn Cox, who took video of the search warrant's execution.

The video included cramped conditions, and Cox's testimony included the element of smell, which he said was "pretty strong" and made him cough.

"This is the second trailer with urine and feces all over the floor of the dogs cages. There was no food there, at the time, but it looked like they had been fed," Cox said as he described scenes from the video.

Animals were also found to be living in cages and crates inside the camper where the couple slept.

"The smell in the camper was quite a bit strong. The ammonia was strong," said Cox, who described the conditions of the 51 animals cramped inside.

Ms. Hoffman concerned her questioning with issues she believed existed in the process of the Marion County Sheriff's Department's execution of the search and seizure warrants.

She continually ventured into long sequences of questioning that were objected to by Gleason as being irrelevant to the trial. Lolling, who spoke for himself during questioning, also sought answers that were irrelevant to the proceedings from witnesses.

Other witnesses for the county included Deputy David McKnight and veterinarian Carol Hedges, who has had many of the animals in her clinic and kennel since the seizure.

"In general, the cages were dirty, they smelled bad and had to be repaired with tape pretty quickly," Ms. Hedges said of the removal of the animals from the two semi-trailers and camper.

She also described the smell of the trailers as having a "very high urine-type smell and some other odors I could not identify. It was like a kennel that had not been cleaned in several days."

Hedges also testified that among others, a miniature horse she treated for a serious case of pleural pneumonia died. An iguana was also found to have mouth rot and later died. Seventy percent of the dogs were found to have heartworms with another 70 percent cross-section having tapeworms and/or hookworms.

She attributed those issues to husbandry problems.

It was calculated during Hedges' testimony that there had been 141 animals seized. Of those, 121 were smaller animals. The domestic cats were euthenized, due to rampant upper respiratory infections, and the ducks, chickens and turkeys were also euthenized as their origins were unknown, since Ms. Hoffman provided no documentation for them.

In all, 38 of the 121 died either from euthanasia or medical causes, leaving 83 animals still in question during the trial.

Ms. Hoffman was openly grief-stricken over all of the animals' deaths, and expressed a desire to leave the courtroom as she choked back tears.

"I'm glad you've forgiven me for my mistakes," Ms. Hoffman said to Parker about her lack of experience in conducting herself at court.

She proceeded to give a background of the events and said she was there to prove she was abused as well, many times detailing her arrest and time spent in jail.

"I intend to show I was severely abused through the process," she said. Though the trial was not about her rights, she continued lines of questioning pertaining to the large cats, the search warrant and other events from the day of the seizure..." More

Feb 3, 2010: Hearing set in animal seizure

By Robin Y. Richardson

A hearing is set for 11 a.m. Thursday in Marion County in the animal cruelty case of Barbara Hoffman, 58, and Fred Lulling of Jefferson.

Marion County and state officials seized more than 50 wild, domestic and exotic animals from the couple's property, 950 Lewis Chapel Road, last Wednesday after receiving a tip about them harboring large cats. Ms. Hoffman, a former circus queen, and Lulling, her business partner, was arrested for six counts of animal cruelty.

"This is a hearing to show (cause) for the JP (justice of the peace) to make a decision on the (disposition) of the animals," said Caroline Wedding, president of the Humane Society of Marion County. She accompanied the sheriff's department to last week's seizure.

"We hope the county and Humane Society will be awarded custody," she said.

Ms. Wedding said she will present in court a list of animals seized and the current medical conditions that were uncovered after the seizure.

She said one of the dogs, which she took to be groomed, is blind and at least partially deaf. She said the other dogs were basically using him as a urine pad.

"He was skin and bones and so matted," Ms. Wedding said. "He's on his way to being much better." The Humane Society president said several nonprofit organizations and rescue groups are willing to take the animals if they are awarded to the county and the Humane Society..." More

Feb 2, 2010: The "Circus Superstar" with the Foul-Smelling Menagerie, Part 1

By John Nova Lomax

While Caroline Wedding has only been running the Marion County Humane Society for about three years, she has already been on plenty of animal-cruelty raids, and has helped find better homes for hundreds of dogs, cats and exotic birds. Still, she thinks it's unlikely she will ever come across something like what she encountered last Wednesday, when she accompanied multiple East Texas law enforcement agencies on a raid that will go down in East Texas infamy.

"If you would have told me a few years ago that today I'd be feeding tigers, cougars, and leopards, I never would have believed you," she tells Hair Balls.

And those are far from the only critters now in her charge. In all, 141 animals were seized when authorities from agencies ranging from everything from the Waskom Police Department Reserves to the Texas Animal Health Commission to the U.S Marshals Office converged on the rural compound of new-in-town former circus performer Barbara Hoffman..." More

Feb 2, 2010: Former circus performer, Edinburg resident faces animal cruelty charges

By JEREMY ROEBUCK

Barbara Hoffman vowed last year to pack up and leave Edinburg for a city more appreciative of her menagerie of wild cats and other exotic animals.

Jefferson, Texas — as it turns out — wasn’t that place.

Two weeks after the retired circus performer moved her 60-animal collection into the rural town on the state’s border with Louisiana, authorities seized them all and placed her and her business partner under arrest on charges of animal cruelty.

Now, the fate of six tigers, three black leopards, one cougar, a wallaby, a monkey, and a host of cats, dogs, lizards, turtles and horses lies in a courtroom again.

"It’d be fine if she got all of her licenses," said Larry Nance, an investigator for the Marion County District Attorney’s Office. "But she just moved in here in the dead of night without the proper permits, and we’re not going to keep pushing this problem down the road."

In January 2009, Edinburg city officials gave Hoffman, 58, and partner Fred Lulling until the end of the year to remove their animals from an 8-acre tract of land just outside of city limits.

The business partners had failed to register the animals with the city, state or the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and they posed a danger to public safety, a city spokeswoman said at the time. The pair attempted to appeal that decision in court, but their lawsuit was thrown out after a judge found they had not filed it in a timely fashion.

But Hoffman — who toured in a traveling circus act for more than two decades — maintained she was more than capable of caring for such wild beasts and merely wanted to open an educational wildlife preserve for children and Winter Texans. She had previously kept them at the San Benito fairgrounds before Hurricane Dolly made the area unsafe, prompting her move to Hidalgo County..." More

Jan 28, 2010: Owner of exotic animals behind bars

By Courtney Lane

The owner of those exotic animals seized in Marion County is now behind bars herself. Barbara Hoffman is charged with numerous counts of animal cruelty.

In the meantime, the nearly 100 animals seized from her property Wednesday are recovering in county clinics.

"All the big cats are in climate controlled, secured area," said Caroline Wedding, with the Marion County Humane Society. "This cold weather coming in this weekend, they're going to be happy babies...we want their lives to be heaven."

To free them from the filth, Marion County investigators had to cut through the rusted, corroded locks.

"That's just proof that these animals have been left out in the weather forever...their feet are sore due to the fact that they're always on their wet floors, due to standing in their own urine," said Larry Nance, with the Marion County D.A.'s Office.

Now, their cages are clean. Though a temporary home, Marion County says their behavior is improving instantly.

"They're all just what I call purring...they just lay around and push their feet against you [in a] real playful mood," said Nance.

Ironically, their owner, Hoffman, is now also behind bars and under a suicide watch. She used to be an animal trainer with her late husband, but records uncover a trail of trouble since his death.

Before moving to Marion County, Hoffman was kicked out of Edinburg, Texas for the same thing: not registering the wild animals. Investigators say she was also denied a USDA license and began hoarding.

"When you've got 50 small animals in a camper trailer that smells like 18 years of rotting urine, you're not taking care of your animals," said William Gleason, the Marion County District Attorney.

For some of those smaller, domestic cats, it is already too late. Plagued with diseases, some are being euthanized. But, for most, like Hoffman's prized monkey, it is a fresh start, and, hopefully, a happy ending..." More & video

Jan 28, 2010: Animal menagerie seized; Couple faces 6 cruelty charges

By Robin Y. Richardson

Marion County's Sheriff's Office arrested Barbara Hoffman, 58, and Fred Lulling of Jefferson for six counts of animal cruelty Wednesday after seizing more than 50 animals from their home.

"We have a warrant to seize the animals and a warrant to search the premises," said Marion County District Attorney Bill Gleason, adding they were also searching for any carcasses...." More

Jan 27, 2010: Wild animals rescued from poor living conditions

By Courtney Lane

Tuesday, we told you about wild animals discovered in Marion County living in horrific conditions. The District Attorney's Office served Barbara Hoffman with a search and seizure warrant Wednesday and we were right there alongside them.

We arrived in Chopper 7 at the area where all the animals were being kept in filthy, cramped conditions. Once we landed, we searched the perimeter with the Marion County D.A.'s office, discovering foul, filthy conditions.

"I'm an ex-circus superstar," said Hoffman. "This is what we look like when we're not performing."

In the trailer were huge snakes, birds without wings, domestic cats caged and even a wallaby. The stench was so strong, you could hardly breathe.

"If you haven't got a strong stomach you'll probably lose it," said Larry Nance. "I mean, the ammonia is so strong it just burns your nose when you walk in. The filth and the smell and then you look at these cats in these cages. They're not let out to use the restroom at any time."..." More & video

Animals seized in area's largest hording case recovering

By Fred Hiers

The animals that were seized in Marion County’s largest animal cruelty case in recent memory are recovering. The animals’ former Citra owners will likely not fare as well.

Marion County spokeswoman Christy Jergens said Animal Services officials will soon recommend to the State Attorney’s Office charges against the couple that allegedly kept the 432 live animals in horrifically filthy conditions until their rescue last month.

“They have not been arrested but we are planning to go ahead with charges,” Jergens said.

“With so many animals, we’ve been trying to get them all settled in, get them vaccinated. The focus has been on that,” she said.

Along with the living animals at the 7680 NE 192 Pl. home of Ileana Verguizas and Andrew Gonzalo Perez, 15 dead animals were also found.

Some of the animals, which included dogs, cats, goats, quail, chickens, geese, ducks, sheep, rabbits, snakes, parrots and turtles, were found by county investigators to be living in filthy cages and pens, and their fur matted with feces and riddled with fleas. Of the living animals, almost half were kept inside the 2,200 square-foot home..." More

Paramedics Repelled by 400+ Animals

That was the comment of one neighbor after the Marion County, Florida, paramedics transported Ileana Verguizas to the hospital after wending off 432 animals and their accompanying stench that filled her 2,500-sq. ft. home and yards. The call came into the emergency dispatch center from a man who said that his wife had an unknown medical problem. When the ambulance arrived, the medics found that they couldn’t stay inside the house long enough to treat the woman at first because of the high level of ammonia fumes..." More & video

Officials remove 400 animals from Citra home & video