Post by sugar on Jan 18, 2012 14:00:15 GMT -5
www.nydailynews.com/news/national/cops-bust-women-128-dogs-crammed-back-u-haul-article-1.1008021
Two women who run an animal rescue operation are facing aggravated animal cruelty charges after cops caught them with more than 100 dogs and one cat stuffed in the back of a U-Haul truck without food, water, or adequate air, police said.
Bonnie Sheehan, 55, and Pamela A. King-McCracken, 59, were busted in Fayette County, Tennessee, on Tuesday when a cop making a traffic stop noticed a rank smell and discovered 128 dogs and a lone cat suffering in squalid conditions in the back of the truck and an attached van, the Commercial Appeal reported.
Dozens of cages were stacked on top of each other in the truck, some holding four or five dogs smeared with their own feces, while other pooches were caged inside dog houses secured with wired grates, the Appeal reported.
One of the dogs was dead, police said.
"I have seen animals like this when we raided a puppy mill a few years ago," Fayette County Animal Rescue agent Gina Thweatt told the Appeal, referring to the mass breeding operations that have plagued the pet industry.
"But as far as transporting them like this? No... not where they literally could not get any air or circulation."
The dogs had been locked in the truck and van since Saturday without food or water, police said.
Two women, Bonnie Sheehan, 55, and Pamela A. King-McCracken, 59, who were reportedly moving their animal rescue operation to Virginia from California, are facing more than one hundred counts of animal cruelty.
Sheehan and McCracken ran a dog rescue operation in Long Beach, Calif., called Hearts for Hounds, according to local reports.
According to the organization's website, the two were moving their operation to Roanoke, Va.
The group boasts to have found home for more than 17,000 dogs since 1997.
"We are a pack of humans trying to make a difference in the dog world!" the website says.
"Our goal is to find a loving home for every dog we rescue."
The website wasn't active on Wednesday.
Thweatt said the pair had a "warped idea" about how to care for their pups.
"The first thing... one of [them\] said to me was: 'We love our animals,'" Thweatt told the Appeal.
"That is usually the first thing people say to me in a situation like this. I have to literally bite my tongue and say: 'If you loved them, you wouldn't treat them like this.'"
Animal shelter officials said the dogs and cat would be taken to shelters in the Memphis area.
Two women who run an animal rescue operation are facing aggravated animal cruelty charges after cops caught them with more than 100 dogs and one cat stuffed in the back of a U-Haul truck without food, water, or adequate air, police said.
Bonnie Sheehan, 55, and Pamela A. King-McCracken, 59, were busted in Fayette County, Tennessee, on Tuesday when a cop making a traffic stop noticed a rank smell and discovered 128 dogs and a lone cat suffering in squalid conditions in the back of the truck and an attached van, the Commercial Appeal reported.
Dozens of cages were stacked on top of each other in the truck, some holding four or five dogs smeared with their own feces, while other pooches were caged inside dog houses secured with wired grates, the Appeal reported.
One of the dogs was dead, police said.
"I have seen animals like this when we raided a puppy mill a few years ago," Fayette County Animal Rescue agent Gina Thweatt told the Appeal, referring to the mass breeding operations that have plagued the pet industry.
"But as far as transporting them like this? No... not where they literally could not get any air or circulation."
The dogs had been locked in the truck and van since Saturday without food or water, police said.
Two women, Bonnie Sheehan, 55, and Pamela A. King-McCracken, 59, who were reportedly moving their animal rescue operation to Virginia from California, are facing more than one hundred counts of animal cruelty.
Sheehan and McCracken ran a dog rescue operation in Long Beach, Calif., called Hearts for Hounds, according to local reports.
According to the organization's website, the two were moving their operation to Roanoke, Va.
The group boasts to have found home for more than 17,000 dogs since 1997.
"We are a pack of humans trying to make a difference in the dog world!" the website says.
"Our goal is to find a loving home for every dog we rescue."
The website wasn't active on Wednesday.
Thweatt said the pair had a "warped idea" about how to care for their pups.
"The first thing... one of [them\] said to me was: 'We love our animals,'" Thweatt told the Appeal.
"That is usually the first thing people say to me in a situation like this. I have to literally bite my tongue and say: 'If you loved them, you wouldn't treat them like this.'"
Animal shelter officials said the dogs and cat would be taken to shelters in the Memphis area.
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