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Case ID: 15275

Classification: Neglect / Abandonment

Animal: dog (non pit-bull), captive exotic

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Attorneys/Judges

Prosecutor(s):

Jacob Skouby

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208 neglected dogs and one emaciated tiger seized
Seneca, MO (US)

Incident Date: Thursday, Feb 19, 2009
County: Newton

Charges: Misdemeanor
Disposition: Alleged

Alleged: Margaret J. Bond

Upcoming Court Dates:
» Monday, Mar 9, 2009: Disposition hearing

Case Updates: 1 update(s) available

The operator of a rural Seneca kennel with a history of violating state and federal animal welfare regulations now faces local charges of animal abuse.

Margaret J. "Jewel" Bond, 66, was charged Friday with two counts of animal abuse on Friday. On Thursday, authorities seized 208 dogs, a house cat and a Bengal tiger allegedly suffering from a lack of water, unsanitary conditions and poor health care.

Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland confirmed that officers found the carcasses of two puppies inside the cage of the tiger that Bond kept as a pet.

"It didn't appear like there was any place an animal could crawl into the cage," Copeland said, raising questions about whether Bond fed the animals to the tiger. "She claimed she fed it dead chickens."

Probable-cause affidavits accompanying the criminal complaint allege authorities also found the skeletal remains of puppies and adult dogs in dog-food bags behind one of the buildings on the kennel compound.

One of the counts of animal abuse covers all 208 dogs that were found by authorities, said Newton County Prosecutor Jacob Skouby.

Logistically, he said, it would be difficult to file and then prosecute hundreds of individual counts for each dog. He did say his office might break the one charge into separate counts later.

The second animal-abuse charge stems from the alleged neglect of the tiger, which weighed less than half of what it should have, according to a Joplin veterinarian.

"The tiger had ribs that were visible showing through the skin," William Pike, of the Newton County Sheriff's Department, wrote in the probable-cause affidavit. "The tiger's hair had mud and feces in it."

Copeland said the Newton County Sheriff's Department obtained a search warrant for Bond's kennel, at 12250 Highway 43, after receiving complaints from the public.

Bond was supposed to have ceased operations in late 2007 per an agreement with the state Department of Agriculture, which did not press for charges against her after she voluntarily relinquished ownership of about 150 dogs and surrendered her state license.

But problems at the kennel had been found years earlier by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which also licensed Bond and filed a complaint against her in August 2004 alleging that she "willfully" violated a host of provisions of the Animal Welfare Act the previous year.

Case Updates

The more than 200 dogs that were taken from JB's Precious Puppies, located north of Seneca, are now in the hands of the Humane Society of Missouri -- St. Louis.

"They are doing well, now," said Cyndi Nason, director of adoption services for the humane society. "We have got them all situated in pens and we are getting them all cleaned up. We are getting medical treatments started — many of them had eye infections, ear infections, internal parasites, external parasites, there were lots of long overgrown nails, we think we had some ringworm. A lot of medial treatment is going to be needed."

According to Nason, the dogs seized included all sizes, but primarily three-quarters of them were small- to medium-sized dogs. Large dogs included mainly chows and huskies.

The dogs will be under the care of the humane society until the disposion hearing, which, according to Nason, is set for March 9 in Newton County.

"So once that hearing is over and if we get the animals, then we will begin to move forward on determining adoptability," she said. "And by that time, a lot of the common health issues like infections and things should be clearing up with the antibiotics. ...We really want to place healthy, friendly animals. All of the time with large commercial breeders, we see some behavior problems. Those include fearfulness, sometimes there are some aggressive behaviors, and housebreaking can be a major issue for new owners, because they don't know any better. They have lived their lives in a pen and their natural instinct to keep clean and keep their sleeping and living area clean, is gone. You have to work harder than with most dogs to get them into that habit again, especially with the smaller dogs: They have small bladders, anyway. People who are interested in adopting dogs from large commercial breeders really need to know that these are not well-bred, well-socialized animals."

The cost of sheltering and caring for the dogs has not yet been determined.

"It is so dependent on what is wrong with each animal, and the numbers," Nason said. "At some point here in the future, we will have that, once we collect all of that data. But I imagine the rescue of this size is going to cost us hundreds of thousands, by the time you consider all of the man power time, all of the medications, all of the lab work and X-rays that we are going to have to do and the surgeries."

Nason said although 209 dogs, a tiger and a housecat were seized, this was not the largest seizure of animals in recent memory.

"In the last couple of years, we have really picked up a lot of cases," she said. "We had one, which was our biggest a while ago, and it was over 300. When you get into the 200 range, it is certainly big and then we had it on the heels of our Feb. 13 rescue of almost 100 Yorkshire terriers from another breeder."

Nason said that shortly after the animal rescue, she received one phone call about a missing dog.

"I had a call from a lady who had a Yorkie-poo, and I am certainly going to check it out," she said. "But even if dogs at this point belong to an individual, we would not be able to address any of those issues until the animals are, hopefully, given to us by the court. So until the court tells us they belong to the humane society, we can't address any of those issues, but we certainly take the information down and we will look into that. If people have pictures, they can gather information that will help to prove an animal belonged to them. We always want to get animals back to their rightful, loving owners."

The humane society is also looking for donations, including blankets, towels, newspapers, single-cut shredded paper and money. For more information, visit their Web site at www.hsmo.org.
Their address is Humane Society of Missouri Headquarters Adoption Center, 1201 Macklind Ave., St. Louis, Mo. 63110. Report Animal Abuse: 314-647-4400. Donations: 314-951-1542.

Source: Neosho Daily News - Feb 21, 2009
Update posted on Feb 23, 2009 - 4:39PM

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- Feb 21, 2009

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208 neglected dogs and one emaciated tiger seizedSeneca, MO (US)

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208 neglected dogs and one emaciated tiger seized
Seneca, MO (US)