Failure to provide vet care by backyard breeder
Frankfort Township, IL (US)Incident Date: Wednesday, May 2, 2007
County: Will
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Noreen Kooiman
A 4-year-old female Great Dane named Tigger was found limping in a pasture near Stuenkel Road in unincorporated Frankfort Township.
She had been shot in the right hind leg, the bullet shattering her femur and making it excruciatingly painful for her to put any of her 114 pounds on the leg.
She'd been in that condition for the past couple of months, according to a veterinarian who examined her and PAWS investigators who took her away from the 100-acre farm she shared with several other dogs and seven horses.
Ruby Wilson, a PAWS investigator who helped rescue Tigger and two of her puppies, Bravo and Legend, said the docile giant had received no veterinary care for her wound.
Wilson said the owners did remove the bullet with tweezers.
"But that was it," she said.
Tigger's owner, Noreen Kooiman, said she did everything humanly possible to help the dog.
"Tigger definitely needed care. We put on a topical ointment made specially for farm animals," Kooiman said. "It is the best frickin' stuff on the market."
She said she was coping with other issues in her life while trying to care for her dogs and horses.
Kooiman said her brother-in-law recently was diagnosed with leukemia; she's recuperating from recent spinal surgery, and her son hurt his wrist.
She said her husband runs his own business and gets home after the vet's office is closed.
"I'm not saying I'm 100 percent right in what I did or didn't do," Kooiman said. "But I'm not saying I was 100 percent wrong in what I did."
Wilson said Tigger looked emaciated and added the dog was being used solely for breeding.
Her puppies were being sold through newspaper ads for $250.
Kooiman said Tigger has had three litters of puppies. In the first litter, she delivered 14; in the second, she had 12; and in the last litter, she had four.
Two of the puppies were sold.
Bravo and Legend are staying at the PAWS shelter in Tinley Park.
Wilson said they've had no socialization with humans.
"They're feral. They're wild animals," she said. "It's going to take a period of adjustment before we can adopt them out.
"And then we have to make sure they are adopted to the right owners," Wilson said. "These dogs are going to be around 200 pounds."
Kooiman said that while the dogs lived in a barn, they did receive socialization.
"I read to them every day," she said. "I brought books out to the dog run and read to them."
Wilson learned of Tigger last week after another Great Dane was found about a half-mile from the Stuenkel Road property wandering in a field.
"Moose," as he's been come to be known, was brought in by a stranger for treatment of a softball-sized abscess on the side of his head.
In trying to find Moose's owner, Wilson discovered the Kooimans' farm -- including Tigger and the other animals.
Wilson said the Kooimans initially denied Moose was theirs, then changed their story to say he had been stolen from their property.
She said PAWS officials are pursuing cruelty charges against the Kooimans for not getting veterinary care for Tigger and some of their other animals.
"That was absolutely horrible," Wilson said. "How do you not get medical care for your animals?" References
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