Public Safety officials in Franklin County got more than they bargained for on Dec 5 when they executed a search warrant in the Ferrum area. They found 50 animals in and around the house.
A number of residents along Haw Patch Road have complained about the animals at Nancy Felter's house. A four hour search turned up a dog with a broken leg, plus the bodies of ten other dogs and a cat. In most cases, the remains were found inside the residence.
A vet says the dogs ranged in size from Chihuahua to Boxer. The immature bones of one of the animals indicates it had died as a puppy. Doctor Krauss says due to the state they are in, it would be impossible to determine the cause of death for most of the animals.
Authorities have not yet placed any charges against the three residents. Case Updates| According to court records, Nancy Felter was convicted of failure to properly dispose of a pet, a misdemeanor, on 6/4/07, under case # CR07-016609. Felter was fined $250 each for 11 class 4 misdemeanors for a total of $2,750. | Source: Case # CR07-016609
Update posted on Sep 26, 2007 - 12:55AM |
| On June 4, 2007, Nancy Felter was found guilty of misdemeanor charges of "failure to properly dispose of a pet", acording to court records. She was found not guilty of failure to provide proper shelter for her pets. These charges stem from the incident in December 2006. Felter also faced animal cruelty charges stemming from an incident this past May, but she was acquitted of those charges. | Source: Franklin County Circuit Court Case # CR07-016609
Update posted on Sep 5, 2007 - 4:45PM |
Nancy Felter, a Franklin County dog breeder, was tried back in March on animal cruelty charges. She was acquitted, although she is scheduled to be tried on additional charges next month.
According to reports, authorities seized more animals this week from her Ferrum home. She has yet to be charged from this latest incident.
Four animals were seized from her home. That includes a dead goat whose head is missing. Three other animals are currently being treated. Felter allegedly tried to euthanize one of the animals in an extremely inhumane way.
According to a search warrant, Felter told an informant on May 12th she was going to kill the poodle, but she didn't have any anti-freeze. The informant then called her back three days later, and according to the search warrant, Felter stated she had crushed 25 pain relief pills and fed them to the poodle in its dog food.
Authorities also confiscated a goat. It has injuries to its neck. The third animal, a Sheltie mix has a skin infection. The vet is still trying to figure out how it got the infection.
Veterinarian Jonathan Amos says the Sheltie mix and the goat should be ok. As for the poodle, her prognosis is unclear. That's because they're waiting for toxicology reports to come back to see exactly what was in the dog's system. | Source: WDBJ7.com - May 17, 2007
Update posted on Jun 2, 2007 - 1:12AM |
Nancy Felter is scheduled for trial on May 18 at 11:00 a.m. in Franklin County Circuit Court. Felter faces multiple charges for allegedly failing to to provide adequate shelter for her animals and failing to properly dispose of the remains of 11 deceased animals.
Last month, the court dismissed more serious counts related to depriving her dog of emergency veterinary care. | Source: Case #'s CR07015694 - CR07016609
Update posted on May 1, 2007 - 12:20AM |
A Franklin County dog breeder successfully defended herself in court on March 30 on animal cruelty charges.
Nancy Felter was set for trial on more than two dozen violations. Only one of them was heard today. The evidence at trial was limited to Felter's failure to provide emergency veterinary care. Doctor Eric Krauss estimated the dog's leg had been broken three or four weeks before the Public Safety officer brought the animal in.
Felter had fashioned a home-made splint for the dog before it was seized in a raid on her home in December. Dr. Krauss testified the splint she had made wasn't rigid enough. Krauss also said it didn't extend far enough to immobilize the fracture.
The judge found Felter was trying to do what she could to help the dog. He decided to dismiss this charge.
Felter told the court she'd just learned that all the charges, including those on appeal from the lower court, were to be consolidated in one hearing. So Judge William Alexander continued the rest and gave her another month to hire her own lawyer for the remaining charges. These charges include six instances of failure to produce proof of rabies vaccination.
Felter is due back in court April 27th for her alleged failure to provide adequate shelter and failure to dispose of 11 dead animals. | Source: WDBJ - March 30, 2007
Update posted on Apr 4, 2007 - 3:02AM |
A Ferrum woman has been indicted for failing to bury her eleven dead pets.
Animal control officials also brought charges against Nancy Felter for failing to provide adequate shelter for seven animals. That charge and the failure to bury charges carry only a fine.
But one additional charge could land Felter in jail for a year. That involves the case of the Schnauzer with a broken leg. Felter is charged with ill treatment or depriving the dog emergency veterinary care. It was one of 19 separate charges returned by the grand jury today. | Source: WDBJ - Jan 3, 2007
Update posted on Jan 4, 2007 - 11:07AM |
An appalling stench and the constant barking of dogs next door have kept Donna Robertson from sitting outside her home for a long time, she said.
Robertson had assumed the smell that practically imprisoned her inside her home all summer had something to do with her neighbor's septic tank.
"When the wind would shift ... it's an undescribable odor," she said.
On Tuesday, authorities searched her next-door neighbor's house on Haw Patch Road in the Ferrum area and found a house teeming with as many as 50 animals. Some were living, some long dead.
Among the living were several dogs, rabbits and four goats in cages throughout the house, two litters of puppies in metal crates and a dog with a broken leg and a makeshift splint, said Capt. Marvin Woods of Franklin County's animal control division.
"They had put up makeshift gates and what have you, to try to contain them," Woods said.
Roughly 30 dogs and three goats, all of them living, were kept outside the house.
One room in the basement was littered with feces and 11 dead animals in assorted stages of decomposition. There were balls of fur with bones protruding from them and trash bags containing dead animals, Woods said.
A veterinarian examined the dead animals and could not determine how they died, Woods said.
"It's impossible to take care of that many animals," he said.
None of the three people living in the house has been charged with animal cruelty or neglect, but Woods is consulting with the Franklin County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office.
Authorities took the dog with the broken leg to the same veterinarian's office for treatment. None of the other live animals was taken from the property because they appeared healthy and there was food for them there, Woods said.
"At this point there was no reason that we could take the other animals," he said.
A phone call made to the home on Wednesday went unanswered.
Woods said the smell inside the house was so powerful that animal control officers wore breathing apparatuses.
He said that papers seized from the house are so putrid that he has sprayed his office with several disinfectant and deodorizing products, to no avail.
"We might have to switch brands," Woods said. "I don't know." | Source: Roanoke Times - Dec 7, 2006
Update posted on Dec 9, 2006 - 12:34PM |
Neighborhood MapFor more information about the Interactive Animal Cruelty Maps, see the map notes.
Back to Top References« VA State Animal Cruelty Map
|
