A Maui couple has been charged with 85 counts of animal cruelty for keeping nearly 100 dogs and cats in squalid conditions in their Haiku home. Arraignment for Tim and Jean Bermudez is scheduled for May 28th.
The criminal complaint against the Bermudezes was filed Friday in Wailuku District Court. Animal control officers removed 81 dogs and 14 cats from the Bermudez home on January fourth. Another dog was found dead inside the house from being mauled.
Jean Bermudez had called officers for help, saying she needed help breaking up a fight between two of her dogs. Each misdemeanor count of cruelty to animals carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a two-thousand dollar fine.
All but seven of the animals were euthanized because of poor health or lack of space at the Maui Humane Society animal shelter in Puunene. One of the cats and two of the dogs were adopted, and four dogs are still awaiting new homes. Jean Bermudez declined comment. She previously has said she cared for the animals as best she could, but they multiplied because she didn't have the money to have them spayed or neutered.
Keith Pocock, executive director of the Maui Humane Society, yesterday said there is little satisfaction to be gleaned from the filing of criminal charges against the Bermudezes. "That it got this far after we offered them this much help is sad for us," he said. "We hope it makes an impression on people that these kinds of things don't have to happen."
Pocock said the agency had made arrangements to spay or neuter the Bermudezes' animals for free, but they didn't keep the appointments.
It took animal control officers 10 hours to remove the pets from the three-bedroom home. At the time, Anderson described it as "a dungeon of horrors." The dogs, including a number of puppies, were kept inside rooms that were partitioned into pens. The cats were kept in kitchen cabinets that had been converted into cages.
Animal control officers reported the floors were covered in animal feces and puddles of urine, but Jean Bermudez has insisted that her pets were well cared for and loved. Case Updates| Posted on Jun 28, 2003 - 1:19PM | Timothy Bermudez was acquitted yesterday of 85 animal cruelty charges after a Maui District Court judge ruled that the prosecutor failed to provide adequate evidence for each of the counts against him.
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