Hoarding - 44 dogs seized
Mount Vernon, NH (US)

Incident Date: Tuesday, Apr 13, 2010
County: Hillsborough

Charges: Misdemeanor
Disposition: Alleged

Alleged: Virginia Smith

An elderly woman has been charged with animal neglect after police and officials from the Animal Rescue League of New Hampshire removed 44 small dogs from squalid surroundings.

On Tuesday, Virginia Smith, 78, was charged with one misdemeanor count of animal cruelty and neglect after police and staff from the Animal Rescue League, acting on a warrant, removed 44 shih tzus, Yorkshire terriers, Maltese and poodles from Smith's small house on Francestown Turnpike.

Smith's husband, Roland, died at the couple's home on March 1, and police and emergency responders became aware of the squalid conditions the elderly couple and the dogs had been living in, according to the warrant affidavit filed at Milford District Court last Friday by Police Chief Kyle Aspinwall.

Aspinwall said that he tried to convince Smith to surrender the animals, but had difficulty convincing her to let them go, so he sought a warrant to enter the house and remove the dogs, and enlisted the help of the Animal Rescue League in Bedford.

On Tuesday morning, police executed the warrant and Smith agreed to surrender 22 of the dogs, signing over custody of them to the Animal Rescue League. However, she refused to voluntarily surrender the other 22 dogs, Aspinwall said.

"The condition of these dogs is the worst I have ever seen," said Maureen Prendergast in a press release from the Rescue League. "All of them are covered in fecal matter and severely matted. When we entered the area where they were kept, I observed many of them exhibiting a compulsive spinning behavior which is often indicative of animals kept in confinement for excessive periods of time."

Prendergast said the case was similar to other hording cases she had seen recently where the owners of animals that have not been spayed or neutered breed more offspring than the owner can manage.

"In hoarding cases, the owner typically gets overwhelmed by the number of animals they own and cannot properly care for them," she said.

The Rescue League took temporary custody of the 22 dogs Smith refused to surrender, and Smith will have to plead her case for regaining custody of the animals before a judge at Milford District Court on May 4 when she stands trial on the misdemeanor charge, said Aspinwall.

In the meantime, it appears that of the dogs Smith surrendered, four will have to be euthanized due to a variety of serious health issues.

Prendergast said the healthy dogs will be vaccinated, spayed or neutered and put up for adoption at the Animal Rescue League.

References

• - April 13, 2010

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