Wednesday, February 25, 2009

These Animals Urgently Need Our Help!

Lorri C. Hare, the Director of the Bowling Green-Warren County Humane Society, emailed us this evening, Wednesday, February 25th, with this appeal:

Hopefully most of you have heard about the terrible situation in Adair County. Unfortunately, our shelter has received almost 150 animals from the Green River Shelter in only 5 days. We will be getting more in the next few days. You may also visit our website to give a monetary donation via Pay Pal if you wish. We have a "chip in" link on our home page. Please see the below press release. Would you all help us get the word out?? We need as much help as possible.

Thank you for always being there for our animals!

The Bowling Green Warren County Humane Society is working non-stop to help those animals recently found in Adair County to save as many as possible. Double Dogs Chow House (restaurant) is setting up a drop off center in their lobby for much needed items. Blankets, old towels, pet shampoo, paper towels, bleach, cedar shavings, dog houses, crates and latex gloves. Items can be dropped off during regular business hours, starting at 11:00 am daily. There will also be a monetary donation bank set up at this location. Double Dogs is located at 1780 Scottsville Road, Bowling Green, KY..

[Yes! This is the same fantastic Bowling Green-Warren County Humane Society Shelter that is in the running for the 'million dollar' shelter make-over on ZooToo. See our earlier blog.]

For those of you not familiar with the story, here are some of the most recent press releases off the web:

From KTYT 27 News First:

Feb 22, 2009 ADAIR COUNTY, KY -- More than 300 animals — including dogs, cats, chickens and goats — have been rescued from an Adair County organization where the bodies of dead animals were found with live ones and feces and urine contaminated the rooms, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader in its Sunday edition.

David Floyd Howery, the owner of Clean Slate Animal Rescue in Columbia, has been charged with 195 counts second-degree animal cruelty.

"It's the worst thing I've ever seen in the way of animals and the conditions that they were living in and the health that a lot of them are in," said Chief Deputy Bruce McCloud of the Adair County sheriff's office.

Clean Slate, whose mission is to provide a temporary home until animals can be placed in a permanent one, was raided Friday [February 20th] after the sheriff's office received a call about the conditions at the rescue agency, McCloud said.

The sheriff's office seized about 210 dogs, 30 cats, 50 chickens, 12 goats, three potbellied pigs, three chinchillas, two donkeys and a horse at Clean Slate.

Six dead goats were found in a room with the 12 live goats, McCloud said.

Howery, 50, is being held on a $1,500 full cash bond at the Adair County Regional Jail. He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Adair District Court.

Additional counts of animal cruelty will be added and the total will probably exceed 300, McCloud said. Howery and his elderly father were living in the building with the animals and the animal carcasses, he said.

The sheriff's office called in the Environmental Protection Agency, the health department, the social services department and a hazardous-materials team for assistance, McCloud said.

The original 195 counts against Howery do not include charges for the dead animals or the chickens, goats, pigs, chinchillas or donkeys, McCloud said. The number of animals already dead hasn't been determined.

The animals are being housed at three locations for the time being, McCloud said. A local farm has taken in the goats and chickens. A rescue agency has taken in the horse and donkeys.

All of the dogs and cats have been taken to the Green River Animal Shelter in Columbia, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Copyright - The Lexington Herald-Leader

From The Associated Press: COLUMBIA, Ky. (AP) - Authorities have added 100 animal cruelty charges to the case against a south-central Kentucky man.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that 50-year-old David F. Howery of Columbia pleaded not guilty to 295 charges at his arraignment Monday in Adair County. Howery originally faced 195 cruelty charges.

Sheriff's deputies raided the Clean Slate Animal Rescue in Columbia on Friday. They rescued dogs, cats, chickens and goats from the center that was set up to give rescued animals a temporary home.

Police say they found dead animals next to live ones and feces and urine contaminated the rooms.

Howery declined to discuss the specifics of his case with the paper, but said there needs to be more recognition about the overpopulation of dogs and cats.

From: WBKO in Bowling Green:

Local animal groups are stepping up in an effort to save as many dogs and cats as they can, who were victims of a recent animal cruelty crime in Adair County.

Employees and volunteers at both Warren County's Humane Society and our local rescue have spent the day bathing and taking care of around 150 dogs and cats.

But their work isn't going unnoticed as hundreds of rescue groups from across the U.S. are trying to help.

It's all in an effort to ensure these animals don't go back to the same conditions they just came from.

"We first got involved with the situation about 5p.m. Friday and never did we think it would be to the level that it is," explained Lorri Hare, with the Bowling Green-Warren County Humane Society.

More than a hundred cats and dogs, many covered in mange, insects and infection, all here at the Warren County Humane Society.

"These animals were in horrible shape," Hare said.

They were taken from the Green River Animal Shelter in Adair County, a shelter not equipped to care for so many.

"The facility is just a small town shelter," she said. "They don't have a lot of staff. They don't have a lot of funding."

So the Warren County shelter and Bowling Green's "RePets" have been helping ever since.

"We're going to get them vetted. We're going to take care of them here. The main thing is just getting them healthy," assured Sarah Wilde, with RePets.

The animals were brought to the Columbia shelter, after David Howery, the owner of Clean Slate Animal Rescue was arrested.

Police found the animals either sick or dead in his care.

But RePets, a local rescue, says Howery's operation was more like a puppy mill.

"Rescues know what numbers they can and can't have. If animals aren't in good health, it's not in fact a rescue," Wilde said.

"I'm very lucky he didn't get any animals from our facility," Hare added.

The Warren County Humane Society has been working non-stop to move as many of these animals into rescues both in-state and out, and plan to head back to the Green River Shelter to pick up more.

That's because Hare says the outcome for those left in Adair County won't be good.

"Unfortunately by the weekend they will be euthanizing majority of these animals," Hare said.

Both the Warren County Humane Society and RePets are asking for blankets, shampoo, financial donations and even volunteers, in hopes of finding these animals and the ones they previously had good homes.

For more on how you can help, click here and visit www.repets.biz.



1 comment:

kittyanydots said...

thanks so much for blogging about this! i have too and raised $ for them through etsy sales on spay day.

best wishes on your journey!