Hundreds of cats seized from western Pa. shelter

Rescue workers have removed about 400 cats from a shelter in western Pennsylvania.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says it has removed the animals from an animal sanctuary in St. Marys, about 120 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

The cats are being taken to an undisclosed emergency shelter for treatment.

The ASPCA says rescue workers removed the animals from Animal Friends of Elk and Cameron Counties on Thursday.

Officials say the cats were living in overcrowded conditions on the first floor of a two-story building.

The telephone number at the sanctuary was not working Thursday and officials there could not be reached for comment..." More

Animal Hoarding Conference July 28, 2010- Pennsylvania

Hoarding Task Force

Symposium Wednesday July 28th, 2010
This ground-breaking symposium, hosted at Bucks County Community College Newtown campus from 10a.m. to 3p.m., brings together the leading academic and intervention experts in the fascinating field of animal hoarding, and an audience of first responder agencies (public safety, fire, building codes), health department, Children and Youth Services, Mental Health, Area Agency on Aging, humane society, veterinary, County Animal Response Team, and others. This will be profoundly informative, provocative, and is designed to explore collaborative interagency resource-development for earlier and more successful interventions and outcomes for the people and animals who suffer through this disorder.

Seminar Goals
Gary Patronek and Jane Nathanson will work with attendees to eliminate stereotypes and increase the baseline level of awareness of this behavior among those involved in caring for animals, public agencies, and those involved in health and safety, emergency response, municipal authorities, public health and the legal system. It is the goal for these various groups to then come together collaboratively and develop an effective team response to, treat, and prevent the effects of animal hoarding on all involved. Learn more about the issue of hoarding.

Who should attend?
Veterinarians, Vet Techs, social workers, mental health workers, emergency responders, municipal officials and anyone who deals with animals who have been the victims of hoarding, individuals struggling to overcome their animal hoarding disorder, those who must negotiate the system to deliver services to homes where hoarding occurs or who must protect those who can be victimized by a hoarders actions (neighbors, family, etc). Register now.

Agenda

Wednesday July 28^th, 2010 at Bucks County Community College Newtown Campus

10:00a.m.	Introduction
10:30a.m.	Animal Hoarding Overview	Dr. Gary Patronek
11:30a.m.	Interventions; what constitutes unsafe/uninhabitable? Housing code checklist	Jane Nathanson
12:45a.m.	Lunch; case scenarios
1:45p.m.	An Intervention Illustrated, laws	Anne Irwin
2:15p.m.	Developing more resources: panel discussion	Anne Irwin, Jane Nathanson, Dr. Gary Patronek

Link to additional information & registration

Lin Marie, Tiger Ranch - Frazer, Pennsylvania

Jan 9, 2009: Cat 'sanctuary' owner sentenced for animal abuse

By Paula Reed Ward

The image that Lin Marie presented to the animal rescue community of her cat sanctuary was one of love and success. She described "Tiger Ranch" as "the land of milk and tuna," where hundreds of cats were taken in and adopted back out each month.

But prosecutors yesterday, in asking an Allegheny County Common Pleas Court judge to sentence the woman formerly known as Linda Bruno to jail time, presented a bleak and disturbing image where diseased cats were left to contaminate the healthy, only 21 cats were adopted out of thousands taken in, and mass graves dotted the 29-acre Frazer property.

Judge Jill A. Rangos, who repeatedly admonished the defendant and expressed her disappointment in the multitude of lies she told, did not order the woman to jail.

But she didn't discount the possibility either.

Instead, the judge ordered Ms. Marie, 47, to serve two years of house arrest, followed by 27 years of probation. But Judge Rangos also told the defendant she would not hesitate to put Ms. Marie in jail if she violates even the slightest of conditions of her release.

Among those, she is to have no contact with any animals and she must undergo a psychiatric evaluation and participate in weekly mental health treatment.

"I give you this break, in part, not because you deserve it, but I don't feel the taxpayers of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania should pay to warehouse you at the jail," the judge said.

Further, she added, house arrest will allow Ms. Marie to continue working to earn money to cover restitution. She was ordered to pay $200,000 to cover the cost of the veterinary care provided to the 391 live cats seized during the March 2008 raid of the facility.

A former humane agent who began volunteering at Tiger Ranch in August 2007 went to local animal rights groups to complain almost immediately about the conditions she saw.

However, it was the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals that finally agreed to help pursue the case.

Along with local law enforcement, they organized a raid on March 13, 2008, bringing in mobile veterinary clinics and dozens of people to help catch the hundreds of cats.

"It's unforgiveable this was going on for so long," said Dr. Becky Morrow, a veterinarian who helped with the investigation, at the raid and in the many months since. "The smell alone would have tipped anyone off."

Originally facing hundreds of counts of animal cruelty, Ms. Marie pleaded guilty in July to 12 counts, plus an additional two counts of tampering with records.

Assistant District Attorney Deborah Jugan laid out for the judge, in very minute detail, the number of cats -- both alive and dead -- found on the property and their medical conditions.

According to Ms. Marie's own records, the prosecutor said, there should have been 7,819 cats on the property that she had taken in. Instead, they recovered 391 live cats and 106 that were dead and stored in freezers. Of the live cats, 300 of them were malnourished, and 294 had some form of upper respiratory infection.

Ms. Marie paid a man with a Bobcat to dig mass graves for her on a regular basis, the prosecutor said. The last one was 30 feet long, 12 feet deep and 12 feet wide.

"You couldn't walk on Tiger Ranch without stepping on cat bones," Ms. Jugan said. "I often wonder if she told so many lies she started believing them. It's amazing how many people this woman was able to con."..." More

PSPCA Update: here

Cats seized from Frazer sanctuary nearly ready to receive new homes

Cats that were seized from a Frazer animal shelter and survived their illnesses should be ready soon for adoption, according to the organization caring for them.

More than 240 cats from the Tiger Ranch no-kill shelter are living in a Clarion County facility while the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals waits for their transfer.

Lin Marie, the owner of the defunct animal sanctuary, pleaded guilty last week to 12 animal cruelty charges, which spared her almost 600 animal cruelty and other charges. Marie also was known as Linda Bruno.

During a March 2008 raid on the Tiger Ranch on Miller Drive, officials found 55 dead cats, 12 that had to be euthanized and hundreds of animal bones. They took more than 600 cats after the raid..." More

January 7, 2009:

On October 23, 2008, the Allegheny District Attorney's Office filed new charges against Lin Marie, including seven felony counts of tampering with public records (rabies vaccination certificates for cats) and 10 misdemeanor counts for allegedly signing a veterinarian's signature on the documents and allegedly operating an unlicensed veterinary practice. At the preliminary hearing on January 7, 2009, Lin Marie was charged with seven felony charges for tampering with public records, seven misdemeanor forgery charges and three charges of practicing as an unlicensed vet..." More

October 30, 2008: If it weren't for a handful of volunteers, Tiger Ranch might still be in operation today...

October 25, 2008: Tiger Ranch lawyer calls new charges 'overkill'

Story

On March 13, 2008, the PSPCA removed 406 cats from the Tiger Ranch Cat Sanctuary in Tarentum, Pa., a 28-acre property owned and operated by Lin Marie (Linda Bruno). Upon entering the property with a search warrant obtained from the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office and along with animal welfare experts from the ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®), PSPCA officials found hundreds of cats living in squalor in multiple buildings, suffering from numerous serious illnesses and disease, including ESCHERICHIA COLI, STAPHYLOCOCCUS, PROTEUS MIRABILUS, FELINE CALICIVIRUS, HERPES VIRUS, BORDETELLA, MYCOPLASMA FELIS and CHLAMYDOPHILAFELIS. The cats' symptoms included upper respiratory conditions, severe muscle wasting, abscesses, dehydration, malnutrition, purulent oral ulcers, eyes completely occluded with dried mucus and other conditions that required immediate medical intervention. Some cats had oral ulcers that prevented them from eating and a discharge from the eyes that was left unchecked and resulted in loss of vision and then the eyes themselves. Hundreds more cats were found dead in deep freezers and burial pits located on the Tiger Ranch property. Cats were fighting over one food dish and water bowl, dead cats were found in litter boxes and extremely ill and dying cats were living with seemingly healthier cats...." More background & pictures (graphic)

More on Tiger Ranch / Bruno: here

What is "Animal Hoarding?"

by: Kim Thomas

Animal experts say what they discovered yesterday at a Union City home is someone considered an "animal hoarder." Experts say animal hoarding can be considered a mental illness. It affects humans, animals and in many ways the quality of life in a community.

A Union City woman lived inside her home with hundreds of cats. Twenty five of them were found alive. More than 80 were found deceased and wrapped up inside two separate freezers. Animal officials say this is what's called an animal hoarder. A person who has more animals than they can provide food, vet service or sanitary living conditions for. It is a condition that is almost exclusive to older, single women.

"Most all of the situations are excessive in nature, I'm referring to the unsanitary conditions and the totality of the situation, and it can be and appear quite shocking when you encounter it," said Joe Grisanti, The Humane Society of NWPA.

The director of the local humane society says it's excessive, serial behavior, that many professionals still don't entirely understand. As we reported, this wasn't the first time this woman has been discovered hoarding cats. Living and dead cats were taken out of her Erie home in 2003. Officials say this condition can be associated with obsessive compulsive disorder, but with different characteristics.

"What I have noted is a person's inability to really understand or discover that their behavior is abnormal," said Grisanti..." More & video

Humane Officers: Neglected Animals Removed From Beaver Co. FarmINDEPENDENCE TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Animals, including horses and dogs, were removed

INDEPENDENCE TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Animals, including horses and dogs, were removed from a Beaver County farm on Monday amid accusations of abuse and neglect.

Neighbors of the farm on Cowpath Road in Independence Township asked authorities to investigate the condition of three horses and a colt held in a muddy, circular pen.

“They were getting loose very frequently to get in the neighbor’s yard to get grass because they were hungry in there,” said concerned neighbor Julie Froats.

Representatives from the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals seized the horses and took them to a rescue farm to be held during the investigation.

“They need food and water and care and out of the mud because they can get thrush, which is a hoof disease,” said a PSPCA official.

PSPCA officers also found seven thin dogs and some cats, three of which were dead and removed from the home in plastic bags.

Concerned neighbors said the action was warranted and should have happened sooner.

“I’m not convinced this is the end of it. It’s been way too long to happen,” said a neighbor. “I’m angry in one sense. It’s been allowed to get this far before anyone took action.”..." More

Help fight animal hoarding in Poconos

Letter to the Editor of the Pocono Record:

Editor, the Record:

Over the past three months, the Pocono Record has reported three separate hoarding cases that involved dozens of cats found in squalid conditions in the area. Animal hoarding is a complex and intricate public health issue that affects the entire community and the ASPCA American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) was concerned to read about its prevalence in the area.

Few people or agencies recognize hoarding as a community and social issue, with animals often being the symptom. Animal hoarding is not just about the animals. Usually, the animal hoarder is neglecting his or her own mental and physical needs, and may require assistance. We believe there is a dire need for a multi-agency task force that involves human social services, animal welfare and public health organizations. The common signs of an animal hoarder are deteriorating conditions and a lack of insight that the animals are suffering. Hoarders may have good intentions, but the reality is these animals suffer from lack of socialization, poor health and starvation, as well as other ailments.

Very often animals removed from hoarding situations are not good candidates for adoption, and their fate usually involves euthanasia.

It's important to note that not everyone who has multiple animals is an animal hoarder. A person may have more than a dozen animals, but if they receive regular vet care, food and a sanitary environment, then the owner would not be a hoarder.

Hoarding is a form of animal cruelty that can only be combated by involving the entire community. With the community's commitment, we can raise awareness on this critical issue and begin to make the changes needed to create a more humane society.

DR. RANDALL LOCKWOOD

Senior VP, Anti-Cruelty

ASPCA of New York

Animals Rescued from Filthy Homes

Nearly 12 dozen animals have be seized from two houses in Clinton County.

Police said the animals belonged to one person who was living in filthy conditions. All of the rescued animals are being checked out by veterinarians.

Police said they arrived at the two houses on Park Avenue in Dunstable Township, near Woolrich, late Monday night.

Investigators said they found 150 animals, including cats, dogs, ferrets, chinchillas and a variety of birds and reptiles.

Police said the animals were kept in two different properties located next to each other. They were taken to the Clinton County SPCA where they are staying until the investigation is completed.

The owner has not been charged with anything but police said this an ongoing investigation.

The Clinton County SPCA is asking for donations of food to help feed the animals, as well as bedding, small bottles of water, dry cat food and litter so they can care for the animals..." More & video

Dogs in alleged abuse case at SPCA until hearing

BY JASON WHONG

The dogs seized by Chemung County Humane Society and Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Inc. on Sunday in a suspected animal cruelty case will be held at the shelter at least until the arraignment of their owner.

Michael Seymour, 28, of Levittown, Pa., is scheduled for arraignment on charges of animal cruelty on Sept. 7 in Erin Town Court, said Jaclyn Pfaehler, public relations and marketing coordinator for the Chemung SPCA in Big Flats.

However, Sept. 7 is Labor Day. The town court's recorded telephone message says the town does hold court on Mondays, but not on holidays.

Pfaehler said the two pit bulls are "doing well, for what they've been through."

The dogs are living in a separate room in the shelter so they can stay calm, and they are walked three times daily, she said.

A veterinarian had examined the dogs, Pfaehler said. The dogs had no broken bones or internal bleeding, she said.

State police at Horseheads, who arrested Seymour, said he apparently became upset when his dogs ran away from a home on Park Hill Road in Erin.

When the dogs returned, he allegedly tied them to a tree and whipped them with a nylon rope.

He then allegedly tied the dogs to the hitch of his truck and drove in circles in the yard with the dogs attached, police said.

Depending on the outcome of legal proceedings, the SPCA will return the dogs to the owner, offer them for adoption or send them to a pit bull rescue society...." More

August 18, 2009: Man arrested after beating and dragging his dogs

A man was arrested Sunday by State Police for animal cruelty after police say he beat his two dogs with a rope and then dragged them behind his truck.

Michael Seymour, 27, has addresses listed in both Levittown, Pennsylvania and on Park Hill Road in the Town of Erin, which is where police found him Sunday. They say Seymour became upset after his two pit bulls got away.

According to police, when the dogs returned, he tied them to a tree and whipped them with a nylon rope. He then tied the dogs to the hitch of his truck and drove around in circles.

The pit bulls are alive and in the custody of the Chemung County SPCA where they have been examined by a local vet.

"Whenever we hear charges like this, animal cruelty charges, our hearts really go out. And we here at the SPCA are so committed to the humane treatment of animals. It breaks our heart when we hear this, but we're doing all we can for them right now and we feel confident that they'll receive the care they need," said Jaclyn Pfaehler.

Seymour will be in court in September. A decision will be made then on whether the pit bulls are returned to their owner or placed for adoption..." More & video

Animals seized from unlicensed kennel near Waynesboro

HARRISBURG -- Dog wardens seized animals and closed down a Waynesboro kennel that was operating without a license.

Dog wardens and members of Washington Township Police on Wednesday removed all 29 live dogs and one dead dog from the premises.

Dog law charges against the owner, Donna Cook, are pending. Any charges for animal cruelty would be filed by police.

Cook, who lives at of 12293 Pen Mar Road, was cited in 2001 for cruelty and operating a kennel without a license.

Acting on information provided by a visitor to the kennel, dog wardens and police officers secured search warrants to investigate potential kennel and cruelty violations. The agents found dogs and other animals living in filthy conditions, including cages stacked four high and filled with feces, maggots and moldy food.

The dogs -- papillons, Yorkies and poodle mixes -- as well as several cats and birds, were immediately removed by the Antietam Humane Society of Waynesboro.

According to the state Department of Agriculture, the dogs were matted and dirty, and several appeared to have eye and ear infections. The animals will all be examined and receive veterinary care.

Jessie Smith, the state' s special deputy for dog law, said any kennel with more than 26 dogs per year must obtain a license and be inspected annually.

"Unlicensed kennels are difficult to regulate because they are often intentionally secretive about their operation," Smith said...." More

Animal hoarding in Bensalem

Another case of animal hoarding was uncovered yesterday at the 2700 block of June Street in Bensalem, (Bucks County) PA. A 74 year old woman and her 38 year old son were actually living among filth, clutter, trash and animals (living and dead).

The house is literally falling down and has been condemned by the Board of Health. A cat was found walking on the roof; it apparently had easy access from the rotted eves of the house. The house is scheduled to be torn down within the next 30 days.

A total of five cats were rescued by PSPCA and will be available for adoption. Their names are Mischief, Sprinkles, Sugar Cone, Clover and Diamond.

Dead animals were discovered among the ceiling high trash including one cat in a cage that had actually mummified! Traps were left at the site for any other animals that may have been missed. Officials will return to the house to check on the traps and remove any other animals discovered..."  More & video

The Pennsylvania SPCA, which will be showcasing some of its adoptable mutts at Philadelphia’s Fourth of July parade, managed to squeeze all the information you need into their patriotic announcement. So we’ll just salute and say no more.

Reposted from: ohmidog

ACTION ALERT: PSPCA desperately seeking foster homes

** ACTION ALERT **

The Pennsylvania SPCA (PSPCA) is making an urgent appeal to the community to provide foster homes for dogs in need.

“The Animal Care & Control Team shelter (111 W. Hunting Park Avenue) and the PSPCA Adoption Center (350 E. Erie Avenue) in Philadelphia are full to capacity and we’ve tapped out our existing network of foster parents,” the organization says. “If you can provide temporary housing for a dog, we will provide free medical care and support in return. Foster homes are needed immediately! The longer you can foster the dog, the more lives we can save.”

To help, contact ACCT Lifesaving Manager Natalie Smith at nsmith@pspca.org or (267) 385-3800 (ask for the “Lifesaving Department”), or contact PSPCA Director of Adoptions, Rescue, and Foster Care Ray Little at rlittle@pspca.org or (215) 426-6300 (ask for the “Adoptions Counter”).

To see some of the dogs in need of foster care, visit the PSPCA website.

Original post: Ohmidog