Hoarding - 24 dogs, 1 goat, 1 cat, chickens, more
Greenville, ME (US)Date: Jan 26, 2006
Disposition: Not Charged
Person of Interest: Elsa Silveira
Case Updates: 2 update(s) available |
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Twenty-four dogs, a goat, a cat, chickens and pheasants, along with a boa constrictor and a tarantula, are recovering at the Bangor Humane Society and in private homes after they were seized Jan 27 from a Charleston home by state animal welfare officials.
Meanwhile, a criminal case for neglect and cruelty against the animals' owner continues to be reviewed by the Penobscot County District Attorney's Office.
"This is a very serious case," R. Christopher Almy, district attorney, said Monday. "It remains under investigation. We are making sure that all evidence is collected and analyzed."
He did not reveal the name of the animals' owner.
Officials entered the home on Garland Center Road last Friday armed with a search warrant after the Maine Department of Agriculture's Animal Welfare Division received an anonymous complaint.
Conditions in the home were described as "dirty" and "disgusting," with feces and urine soaking the animals' environments. During the seizure, officials also found a dead dog in an outdoor trash can and more than a dozen dead birds in an outdoor coop.
The dogs were kept mostly in crates indoors or in outdoor cages. The home looked "extremely nice" architecturally, but was "disgusting" inside, according to the humane society employees.
All of the dogs, including rat terriers, Labs, hounds, and German short-haired pointers, have worms and were dehydrated and already have been treated, according to Bangor Humane Society employees. Two dogs required emergency medical treatment.
Three days have made a great deal of difference, BHS Executive Director Jeff Mitchell said Monday.
"Everyone is doing quite well at this point," Mitchell said. "Physically they are in pretty good shape, and they are eating like wildfire."
Mitchell said the shelter will be able to expedite adoption of more than half of the animals immediately because the owner turned them over to the humane society.
"The court will have to deal with the rest of them," he said. Case UpdatesCrying and shaking, Elsa Silveira voluntarily gave up ownership of 13 animals seized last month from what the state has called abusive and neglectful conditions at her Charleston home on Feb 8.
But within minutes, outside a Newport courtroom, Silveira denied she had ever abused her pets and accused state animal welfare agents of fabricating evidence and making things look "worse than they were."
Silveira also denied an animal welfare agent's claim that she allegedly abused the animals to exact revenge on an estranged husband.
The pets, which include five adult rat terriers and four rat terrier puppies, one black Lab, one German shorthair puppy, one Nubian goat, and a cat, were part of a seizure of more than 24 animals from Silveira's home Jan. 20 after state officials received an anonymous tip the animals were being mistreated.
Wednesday's hearing at Newport District Court was held to determine custody of the pets, and Judge Robert Murray explained to Silveira that the burden of proof was on her to explain to the court why the animals should be returned to her.
Silveira immediately requested both a continuance and a court-appointed attorney, but Murray told her the hearing was not a criminal matter and she must proceed.
While seated on the witness stand, Silveira began shuffling through folders of paperwork, which included veterinary bills, licenses and invoices for dog food purchases, and, when it appeared she was having difficulty, Murray recessed court to allow her time to determine what papers would be entered into evidence.
After a 45-minute recess, Silveira returned to the courtroom in tears, saying she had changed her mind and would relinquish ownership. She was charged $576, the amount the 13 pets' medical care and housing have cost.
In an anteroom after the hearing, Silveira continued to cry and said she did not abuse her pets. She said the amount of confusing paperwork, the fact that she had no legal advice, and the presence of television cameras in the courtroom overwhelmed her and pushed her to give up her pets.
The Charleston woman presented photographs of her home and kennel that showed numerous containers of dog and cat food, trash cans full of dog food and clean kennels. She said animal welfare agents took pictures of kennels that hadn't been used in months and took the photographs on a Friday, the day before her regular weekly cleaning day.
Court documents, filed by the agents after the seizure, stated conditions in the home were "dirty" and "disgusting," with feces and urine soaking the animals' environments. During the seizure, officials also found a dead dog in an outdoor trash can and more than a dozen dead birds in an outdoor coop.
"So much of what they are saying isn't true," Silveira said. She said that all of the 24 animals originally seized belonged to her estranged husband and that a welfare agent's theory that revenge against him was her motive to abuse them was "a lie."
"I have never been in trouble with the law, and I have raised dogs for 13 years," she said.
Silveira said she had no problems until a neighbor built a house next to her kennel and repeatedly called local animal control agents to complain about the dogs barking. She even installed a $300 bark box, which emits a high frequency sound that dogs dislike when they bark, on the ACO's advice.
"Every day at 4 o'clock when my kids got home from school, we fed the animals together," the woman stated outside the courtroom.
"I wanted to teach them responsibility," Silveira said of her 9- and 10-year-old daughters. "What is this whole experience teaching them? They really don't understand everything."
Many of the 24 original animals - including dogs, a goat, a cat, chickens and pheasants, along with as a boa constrictor and a tarantula - already have been placed with new homes.
Rochelle Black, adoption and volunteer services manager at the Bangor Humane Society, where the remaining 13 animals are now housed, said Wednesday that the pets are doing well. Once the court paperwork is completed, likely in two weeks, she said, they also will be offered for adoption.
Meanwhile, a criminal case for neglect and cruelty against Silveira continues to be reviewed by the Penobscot County District Attorney's Office. | Source: Bangor Daily News - Feb 9. 2006
Update posted on Feb 10, 2006 - 6:54PM |
Revenge may have been the reason that more than two dozen animals in Charleston were neglected and deprived of care and food, court documents revealed Tuesday.
The thick court file, which included photographs, was received Monday at Newport District Court, and graphically describes the substandard conditions in which more than 24 animals were living at the Garland Center Road home of Elsa Silveria in Charleston.
State animal welfare agents who seized the animals at the home on Friday found malnourished and dead animals. There was no evidence of food or water for the pets, and most were standing or lying in their own feces and urine.
The smell of decaying animals and feces was so overpowering that one veteran humane agent gagged during the seizure action, according to the documents.
During the search and seizure, Silveria returned home and said that her husband, Manny Silveria, had left the home five months earlier with another two dozen pets, State Humane Agent Chrissy Perry's affidavit stated. Perry said the reason the animals were neglected may have been revenge by Silveria against her estranged husband.
National studies have drawn a distinct link between domestic abuse and animal abuse. The Maine Legislature's Agriculture, Forestry and Conservation Committee is reviewing legislation that would allow pets and companion animals to be included in protection from abuse court orders.
The Silverias appeared Tuesday afternoon in Newport District Court for a contested divorce hearing but indicated they may be reconciling, and the hearing was continued for three months. The couple have two daughters, 9 and 10, according to court documents.
The Animal Welfare Program of the Maine Department of Agriculture received an anonymous tip about the animals in mid-January. According to an affidavit filed by Perry, the complainant told the agents that two goats were believed to have frozen to death, two dogs and a puppy starved to death and that there were dead raccoons and rabbits throughout the property that were used as training aids for some of the hunting-breed dogs.
Two agents went to the home on Thursday, Jan. 26. No one was home, but the agents, according to their affidavits, found dead animals, animals crying from hunger and thirst, and animals inside the home on a feces-covered floor.
The agents returned the next day with a search warrant and seized 24 animals, including puppies, a cat, adult dogs, a goat, hermit crabs, a tarantula, a boa constrictor and cockroaches used as food. They also confiscated a dead puppy, a dead rabbit and American Kennel Club registration papers.
The dogs' crates were lined with several layers of feces-covered newspapers, and the puppies were in a playpen in the kitchen, which also was feces-covered, the affidavit alleges.
Outside, the agents found two wooden bins filled with large bones and skulls. In a nearby wooded area, they discovered three dog houses without dogs but with several bones scattered in the area. The affidavit does not state whether these bones were from pet dogs or were being fed to pet dogs.
Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy has categorized the Silveria case as "extremely serious" and is contemplating criminal charges.
Silveria is due in Newport District Court on Wednesday, Feb. 8, to defend herself against the Animal Welfare Division's seizure.
She is requesting return of 13 of the 24 animals seized, including the goat, a black Lab, a German short-hair pointer puppy, a cat, five adult rat terries and five rat-terrier puppies.
The remaining animals have been turned over to the state and are recovering and being prepared for adoption at the Bangor Humane Society. | Source: Bangor News - Feb 1, 2006
Update posted on Feb 1, 2006 - 1:51PM |
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