Case Details

Hoarding - 72 animals
Tallapoosa, GA (US)

Incident Date: Monday, Apr 24, 2006
County: Haralson
Local Map: available
Disposition: Alleged
Case Images: 1 files available

Alleged: Wanda Mendess

Case ID: 8447
Classification: Hoarding
Animal: cat, dog (non pit-bull), other farm animal, chicken, bird (other farmed)
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Investigators say it is one of the worst cases they've ever seen. A Tallapoosa mobile home filled with cats, dogs, and other animals, and floors covered in feces and trash. Now, a 60-year-old woman faces 72 counts of animal cruelty.

Homeowner Wanda Mendess was told to clean up her act, just a couple of weeks ago. But it was someone who stopped by the rural mobile home Thursday morning, who tipped off animal control. "I think it was more emotional for us being there, uh, we've never seen anything like this in my career, in animal control. You just couldn't imagine what she was living in," says Haralson animal control director Mike Pope.

Animal control officers say they found ten dogs starving to death. The dogs are now in the county's custody. They also found dozens of feral cats, cooped up in cages, geese, chicken, roosters, and a turkey. 72 animals in all, cramped inside the trailer. "There's just garbage everywhere, food rotten, feces, animals running everywhere," says Pope. Investigators from several different state and local agencies have removed animals, trash and bugs from the residence, and the homeowner had to be forcibly removed.

"We actually had to have her taken off the property because she kept taking animals out of our crates and trucks and putting them back in to the house, and locking the doors, and trying to make a way where we couldn't get to them," says Pope. "She thought everything looked okay, she thought nothing was wrong.l She had no clue that what she was living in was harmful to the animals, much less to herself."

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References

WSBTV.com - May 5, 2006
PETA Media Center - May 15, 2006

« GA State Animal Cruelty Map

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Note: Classifications and other fields should not be used to determine what specific charges the suspect is facing or was convicted of - they are for research and statistical purposes only. The case report and subsequent updates outline the specific charges. Charges referenced in the original case report may be modified throughout the course of the investigation or trial, so case updates, when available, should always be considered the most accurate reflection of charges.

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