Animals left in U-Haul van - cockatiel dies
Des Moines, IA (US)Incident Date: Thursday, Dec 8, 2005
County: Polk
Disposition: Not Charged
Person of Interest: Susan Meakins
Animal neglect charges will not be filed against the Missouri family whose U-Haul moving van loaded with furniture and pets was impounded by Des Moines police on December 8, 2005.
In an admitted case of poor planning, Susan Meakins and three relatives had about $5 left after their idea to move to Minnesota fell apart. Nearly out of gasoline on their return trip to Missouri, the family was seeking a gas voucher at a Salvation Army community center in Des Moines when their moving truck stalled a few blocks away on University Avenue, blocking a lane of traffic near a hospital.
A police officer impounded the U-Haul, despite the family's protests that it contained all the possessions they owned and that they couldn't afford the $200 impound fee. An animal control officer took three dogs to a shelter. On December 10, 2005, authorities found several more pets in the impounded truck - and one of those animals, a cockatiel, was dead.
Police said the family failed to tell authorities that the bird, two cats, two hamsters and a guinea pig were stacked in cages behind a couch along a wall of the truck.
Sgt. Todd Dykstra said Monday that no animal neglect charges will be filed against the family.
Also today, Des Moines Police Chief William McCarthy asked the department's Office of Professional Standards, which looks into allegations of wrong-doing or inappropriate behavior by police officers, to do some fact-finding on the case.
After spending a night in a Des Moines homeless shelter, Susan and Ronald Meakins of Sedalia, Mo., their daughter and son-in-law, Felicha and Clay Thixton, are back in Missouri. References
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