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| Case ID: 11121 | | Classification: Hoarding | | Animal: cat, dog (non pit-bull), horse, bird (pet), pig, reptile, bird (wildlife), chicken, captive exotic, rodent/small mammal (pet), rabbit (pet), goat | | More cases in Pima County, AZ | | More cases in AZ | | « Back to Search Results | | Login to Watch this Case
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Hoarding over 250 animals
Tucson, AZ (US)Incident Date: Tuesday, Jan 30, 2001
County: Pima
Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: June McPherson
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
There was so much animal waste and hair on the floor of June McPherson's single-wide mobile home that Deline Attebery said she couldn't tell what color the carpet was.
The entire place reeked of urine and feces, her dogs were mangy and her cats were sneezing, coughing and leaking from the eyes, Attebery said.
Still, Attebery said, McPherson was angry that she and other employees of the Pima Animal Care Center were on her property.
"She thought she was doing a very well job and she couldn't understand why we were there," Attebery said.
Tuesday was the first day of McPherson's trial in Pima County Superior Court on 23 counts of animal cruelty. Attebery was the first witness to take the stand.
According to Deputy Pima County Attorney Kathleen Mayer, animal-care officers were called out to McPherson's house on Jan. 30, 2001.
They found 58 animals inside the home, including 18 dogs, 17 cats, eight parakeets, four goats, three rabbits and two chickens, Mayer said.
Outside, they found more than 200 other animals crammed into filthy pens and cages that were too small for them, Mayer said. Among them were horses, wolf-hybrids, rabbits and peacocks.
According to her indictment, McPherson, 49, also owned sugar gliders, lizards, pigeons, potbellied pigs, mice, doves, geese, hedgehogs, guinea pigs and prairie dogs.
None of the animals had water or food, Mayer said.
The officers seized 120 animals that day and went back to retrieve the others two days later at the request of a concerned veterinarian, Mayer said.
When the officers arrived at the home on Feb. 1, 2001, Mayer said nothing had changed despite the fact they had ordered McPherson to correct the situation. They not only couldn't find any food or water, but they couldn't find McPherson, either, Mayer said.
She was arrested in 2006.
Defense attorney Daniel Anderson told jurors that McPherson didn't live alone back in January 2001. She lived with a roommate who refused to get rid of the animals despite McPherson's pleas.
Judge Howard Fell is presiding over McPherson's trial.
Case UpdatesA jury has found a Tucson woman guilty of 23 counts of animal cruelty.
On Monday the jury found June McPherson guilty of 19 misdemeanors and 4 felonies stemming from 2001, when Animal Care Officers rescued more than 300 animals in and around a Southside mobile home belonging to McPherson. Some of the animals were dead, and some underfed and living in filth.
Marsh Myers with the Animal Cruelty Task Force was there during the seizure six year ago. "It's really the smell people remember," he said.
Myers considers it the worst case of animal hoarding seen in Pima County in his ten years of work with the task force.
"The skin on our bodies starts to itch just remembering it," Myers said. "It was that kind of experience."
Myers says there were so many layers of urine in and around McPherson's home it smelled like someone poured bottles of ammonia all over the place.
During closing arguments in McPherson's trial on Monday, Deputy Pima Co. Attorney Kathleen Mayer said McPherson and a roommate were breeding the animals to make money.
The two had 333 animals in their mobile home and back yard- dogs, cats, rabbits, prairie dogs, hedgehogs, peacocks, pigeons, chickens, pot belly pigs, pigmy goats, doves- all kept in cramped cages.
"An awful lot of animals were living on top of dead animals," Myers said.
Mayer told the jury pigs were living in more than a foot of waste that was rotting their hooves. The rabbits' ears were scarred and disfigured, and they were so starved many had to be euthanized because they lost the will to eat. The prosecution says the rabbits were stacked up in filthy cages with no food or water.
Mayer showed the jury pictures of a Pomeranian, with open sores covering the hind legs. The sores were infected from the dirty environment and the Pomeranian was emaciated.
Mayer also told jurors that there were layers of urine and feces filling makeshift animal cages. Most of the animals spread disease and mange to the point their skin felt like it was on fire.
McPherson's attorney says she didn't intentionally neglect the animals.
"I think this was really unfair," McPherson's Attorney, Daniel Anderson, said. "June really did her best to take care of the animals."
Anderson says the animals didn't belong to his client, but her roommate. Anderson says McPherson simply offered to help care for them, a task that became too difficult due to medical problems.
"She had really bad back problems and was on many medications, but in all fairness she kept trying to care and feed the animals," Anderson said.
McPherson's roommate is still on the run from authorities. | Source: KVOA - April 3, 2007
Update posted on Apr 3, 2007 - 4:36PM |
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