Dog Crisis in the Central Zone -- IN THE ZONE!!!

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Date Posted: 21:39:40 12/19/03 Fri
Author: Lesli Taylor
Subject: Dog Crisis in the Central Zone

~~~cross posted with permission~~~
From: Elizabeth Riddle
To: amazed21@mychoice.net
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 7:43 AM
Subject: German Shepherd Crisis

This is Beth Riddle writing regarding a very serious atrocity that has occurred in our state and in our little German Shepherd community. A mentally ill woman was served a warrant on Dec 16th and Dec 17th regarding the removal of animals from her property. The first wave consisted of about 90 dogs and over 70 of them were purebred GSD's.

Last night at 11pm I received a phone call from my colleague that had just finished cataloging the final pull from the woman�s house. 160 young GSD�s, nursing mothers, pups, and just a small handful were other breeds. The GSD community is shocked. I am crying and shaking as I write you, because we worked so hard yesterday to pull just the first 22 out of the shelter and get them into rescue. Then as we were going to bed feeling pretty good, I received this phone call. The holidays make finding kennel space impossible. We are begging, we never beg, but we are on our knees to former adopters,
contributors, anyone who loves German Shepherds to please help this huge rescue effort. The shelter cannot coordinate the rescues, so it is a team effort consists of Northern IL GSD Rescue, their founder and President is logging and cataloging the dogs, Chicagoland GSD Rescue is digging up a couple spaces and on the phone, Central Illinois GSD Rescue is contacting nationally and coordinating transport, foster care, and will also be pulling some of these angels. They are everywhere at the shelter. They are in cages,
kennels, tied to the walls, and though they were eating dirt, had no food, are close to starvation, they just look at us and wag their tails. It is absolutely killing us to see this. We could use money for medical care, we could use puppy canned food and puppy dry food, puppy pan to feed them in, crates, kennels and most of all space! Anyone with a farm that could serve as a temporary M*A*S*H unit, or shelter. I stress there is no where
to go with these kids. Transporters for national distribution. I can't even think.
IF you want to help, please call at 217-337-5832 or 217-377-7135 and we'll figure something out. Thank you for your consideration.

Rick and Beth Riddle
Central Illinois German Shepherd Dog Rescue Urbana, IL
http://www.gsdhaven.org

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Just an added note-- I phoned the shelter that's processing the dogs in this rescue effort, and this is a legitimate crisis, not some scam as some folks on other lists have feared. Spoke with one of the volunteers at the Chicago Ridge Animal Welfare League, and as of this evening the total head count of dogs was at 180. Not all of the dogs are GSDs, but the majority are; some are thought to be of the Belgian triad (Mals, Tervs and Belgian Shepherds)
and some Great Danes...but we all know that depending on the coat and the coloring, GSDs and Belgian Threes are often confused for one another.

They are desperate for fostering space, as well as for funding, food, medical supplies and services. It's a good cause.

~~Subject: Newspaper Article Regarding the Dog Raid in Illinois~~

Published: Thu, Dec 18, 2003

Reports prompt dog raid
-----------------------------------------------
BY PHIL HARTMAN

SVN NEWS REPORTER

Relief efforts are ongoing for about 200 dogs which were found in life-threatening conditions Monday at a residence at 1329 Sleepy Hollow Road Amboy.

Jeff Squibb, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Agriculture, said, The department has been at a residence in rural Amboy. They've been there the past three days. There were close to 200 dogs at this residence."

The woman who lives at the residence is facing charges of selling dogs without a license.

"We were familiar with her," Squibb said.

According to the Lee County assessor's office, the owner of the home is Tiffany Anne Herbert, and she is believed to be the resident of the home as the most recent tax bill was mailed to her at that address.

Squibb described the conditions at the residence as deplorable.

"There were more than 200 dogs at this residence. The majority of them were kept outside of the home in what I'll loosely describe as pens. Most of the dogs had no water. Those that did the water was frozen. None of the dogs had food, and the shelter was inadequate," Squibb said.

On Monday, when investigators arrived, there were nine dogs found dead. They were taken to an IDA animal disease lab at Galesburg.

"Autopsies were performed. The dogs were emaciated. They had worms. There was no evidence of food in the stomach contents. The only thing found in the stomach of those nine dead dogs was sand and dirt," Squibb said.

On Monday the woman living at the residence relinquished 51 dogs. "When we arrived on Monday there were a number of dogs in pens outside. On Tuesday there was an additional dog that died. The woman relinquished 25 more dogs. It was on Tuesday that we got the lab reports back from Galesburg, plus a veterinarian examined the dogs that were relinquished on Monday, and found them to be in poor condition overall," Squibb said.

Based on the findings, and the findings of the lab on Monday, the IDA started proceedings to impound the rest of the animals on Wednesday.

"We did have to obtain a search warrant to go inside the residence. There were about 60 dogs inside. There were about 140 dogs outside and another 60 inside. The animals were impounded yesterday," Squibb said.

Animals were taken for veterinary care. The animals remaining at the site are being made as comfortable as they can be.

There are nine dogs still at the residence.

"Those dogs are in better condition. There's also an ownership issue. The woman's mother and brother claim to own those nine animals. All the animals, with the exception of those nine, have been removed from the residence," Squibb said.

The case is still open, and no additional charges have been filed yet based on this week's findings.

"Our immediate concern in situations like this is the welfare of the animals That's what we're working on right now. After the dogs are given appropriate care and their situations are stabilized we'll start looking at other aspects of the case, including potential charges. If charges are filed that'll be up to the state's attorney's office. We will prepare an investigative report, with other evidence," Squibb said.

All the other dogs have been taken to shelters in Lee and Whiteside counties and Chicago.

"We had considerable help on this. It was much appreciated," Squibb said, citing assistance from Lee County sheriff's deputies, the Lee County Health Department, Lee County Animal Control, the Lee County Zoning Department, area animal shelters, and the Animal Welfare League of Chicago.

Karen Kinnett, a neighbor of the woman alleged to be involved in the case, said, "In a two-year period we probably called them (the Lee County Animal Control) a couple times.

"This is in concern with the dogs themselves. We felt there was definitely cruelty to animals or just not being taken care of properly. We haven't seen a whole lot, other than dogs being tied to a car bumper with a short rope and just a pan of water," Kinnett said.

Another concern was the noise the dogs were making.

"Sometimes they would bark almost 24 hours a day. Sometimes they were howling, like they were starving. These poor dogs were just crying. They cried all the time. These dogs howled so loud that people a mile away were calling in," Kinnett said.

An employee at the Lee County Animal Control office declined to comment about the case.

Copyright 2001 Sauk Valley Newspapers

You can read this story online at http://www.saukvalley.com/news/279374356754757.bsp

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