The owner of a Carbon County animal shelter could face criminal charges in the wake of an investigation into conditions at the facility, an official said.
Carbon County sheriff's deputies, veterinarians and personnel from the Humane Society of the United States executed a search warrant at the Safe Harbor Rescue shelter at 40 Gebo Road near Fromberg on Tuesday morning, Carbon County Attorney Kemp Wilson said. The team - also including the Carbon County sanitarian - examined dozens of animals and documented their living conditions as part of an ongoing probe, Wilson said.
The investigation was opened in response to complaints from neighbors and Humane Society personnel that the shelter is over capacity and that animals are underfed and insufficiently cared for.
If justified, those allegations could merit anything from a public nuisance violation to felony charges of aggravated animal cruelty against owner Kelly Sondeno, Wilson said. He said he's waiting for the groups involved in the Jan 24 2006 search to complete reports about their findings.
"Once I've examined them, I'll determine whether we have any offenses that need to be charged," he said.
In July, a "mini evaluation" by the Northern Rockies office of the Humane Society found the shelter had too many animals and identified potential dangers related to sanitary conditions.
The evaluation was performed at Sondeno's request to counter complaints from neighbors.
Inspectors found an estimated 50 dogs and 75 to 100 cats, many with obvious health problems and infectious diseases, Northern Rockies Regional Director Dave Pauli said in an Aug. 12 report.
The cat population "teeters between an unrestricted feral cat colony and a typical cat hoarder situation," Pauli said. "This situation poses a health risk to neighborhood cats and potentially to native wildlife like bobcats, raccoons, skunks and other species."
Conditions for horses were "borderline" and the animals required "some immediate veterinary intervention" to examine horses and develop a treatment plan for diet, teeth and hoof care, the report said.
Two days after the Humane Society released its findings, the Billings Animal Shelter halted adoptions of animals to Safe Harbor, Animal Control Supervisor David Klein said in a signed letter to Sondeno.
Sandy Wulff, a Lockwood animal rescue enthusiast who used to work with Sondeno, said Tuesday that she ended her business relationship last summer in part because of concerns about care the animals were receiving. Her fears were supported by a visit to the shelter in August, she said.
"I was just appalled," Wulff said. "I found out that she had been misleading me" about the level of care at the facility. She said Sondeno routinely declined offers by Wulff and other members of the animal rescue community in the Billings area to help out at the shelter. Case UpdatesThe owner of an animal shelter in Fromberg pleaded not guilty to aggravated animal cruelty. Kelly Sondeno owns Safe Harbor Rescue. She was arraigned in District Court in Red Lodge. Veterinarians, Humane Society representatives and other visited the property in January. They said there was garbage and feces everywhere, and that horses, dogs and cats at the shelter were not receiving proper care.
Sondeno has acknowledged problems at the shelter, but said there's little money to upgrade facilities. She also has said many of the animals were sick when they came to the shelter. | Source: KBZK News - March 2006
Update posted on Mar 14, 2006 - 9:35PM |
| The owner of Safe Harbor Rescue, an animal shelter in Fromberg, has been charged with aggravated animal cruelty. Veterinarians, Humane Society representatives and other visited the property last month. They said there was garbage and feces everywhere, and that horses, dogs and cats at the shelter were receiving substandard care. | Source: Associated Press - February 2006
Update posted on Feb 28, 2006 - 2:21PM |
By this time next week, Carbon County officials and the founder of an animal rescue facility in Fromberg should know the outcome of an animal health inspection at the facility Tuesday.
Carbon County Attorney Kemp Wilson will wait until the report is complete before deciding if the county will press for charges. Meanwhile, Kelly Sondeno, who runs Safe Harbor Rescue, will continue caring for the dozens of animals still on her property. "They are still her animals, except those in legal custodial care," said Dave Pauli, regional director of the Humane Society of the United States Northern Rockies Region. Pauli helped organize Tuesday's animal health assessment team, which played a pivotal role in the inspection. The team included three veterinarians specializing in canine, feline and equine issues.
As a result of the inspection, six horses and four cats were identified for custodial care. The cats were removed from Safe Harbor, but the horses, several of which were not trained sufficiently to be led, will remain there under an agreement with the Humane Society. A canine veterinarian involved in the inspection also recommended that five of the dogs be placed under special care. Pauli revisited Safe Harbor Wednesday and will continue with follow-up.
Pauli said the health inspection report should be wrapped up by week's end, after which it will go to Carbon County Sheriff's Deputy Stan Frank, who headed up the law enforcement team. Frank has been investigating Safe Harbor since last August, when an informal inspection identified potential problems there. The report will ultimately go to Wilson.
"It's always frustrating to the general public because they expect things to happen in a 24-hour timeframe," Pauli said. "But it's more realistic to expect a 24-day timeframe, to protect not only the animals but the alleged perpetrator."
Sondeno, who founded Safe Harbor Rescue in 2002, acknowledges some problems there but says most of the issues are due to unrealistic expectations. One of the original goals of Safe Harbor was to remove pets from the animal shelter before they were euthanized and find homes for them. Sondeno said Safe Harbor has adopted out more than 1,400 animals since 2002.
"People have a fairy-tale notion that animal rescue should look like something off Animal Planet," she said. "That's not the real world. Everyone's strapped for money."
Sondeno said the pens at Safe Harbor look shabby because there's little money or help to upgrade them. But she insists they are routinely cleaned. And a number of the animals have health issues, but many of them came to her sick, and she has the paperwork to document that, she said. As for the backlog of animals on the property, she said many of the dogs have issues that make them challenging prospects for adoption.
"Some of these dogs out here I've had too long because the right people haven't come along," she said.
She denies reports of feline leukemia at Safe Harbor. Following last summer's evaluation, 15 cats were randomly tested and none of them came up positive for the disease, she said.
Describing herself as "an outspoken advocate against the (Billings) animal shelter," Sondeno traces the root of her problems to 2002, when she went before the Billings City Council to voice her grievance over a dog that was euthanized at the old animal shelter. As for Tuesday's inspection, she sees it as confirmation that the problems at Safe Harbor are not serious.
"If the animals were in such bad shape, they would have taken them," she said.
And yet, statements and complaints collected by the Carbon County Sheriff's Office suggest otherwise.
"I felt we had seen enough information that would justify the filing of an application for a search warrant," Wilson said.
Besides animal health staff, the team that arrived at Safe Harbor Tuesday included four deputies, a photographer designated by the sheriff's office and the Carbon County sanitarian. If justified, charges could range from a public nuisance violation to felony charges of aggravated animal cruelty and even charges related to soil and water pollution.
This week's inspection follows a mini-evaluation at Safe Harbor that took place in July 2005. The informal inspection, which did not involve veterinarians, concluded that the cat facility "teeters between an unrestricted feral cat colony and a typical cat hoarder situation." The equine operation was listed as "borderline." The canine operation received the best marks, but evaluators questioned the facility's goal in canine rescue and stated that there were too many dogs for the existing facilities.
In summary, it said, "Safe Harbor may be well-intentioned, but appears to be an underfunded and overmotivated animal rescue facility."
Since the July inspection, Pauli said two horses reported in bad shape had been euthanized, but otherwise the number of animals at the facility was "not dissimilar." The July report listed 50-plus dogs and between 75 and 100 cats on-site. There was no figure given for the number of horses present.
Pauli expects Tuesday's inspection to provide a clearer picture of the situation.
It has yet to be determined whether more animals will be taken into custodial care. Should the necessity arise, Pauli said the Humane Society has taken on that role before, as it did in Camp Collie. In that case, federal customs officials seized more than 180 mistreated dogs during a truck inspection at the U.S.-Canadian border north of Shelby. The dogs remained in limbo for months while proceedings dragged on. | Source: Montana Forum - Jan 26, 2006
Update posted on Jan 26, 2006 - 10:06PM |
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