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Case ID: 9821

Classification: Hoarding

Animal: cat, dog (non pit-bull), rodent/small mammal (pet)

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Hoarding - 15 dogs, 23 cats, cages of mice
Riverside, CA (US)

Incident Date: Friday, Sep 29, 2006
County: Riverside

Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Alleged

Alleged: Anita Gilbert

Case Updates: 2 update(s) available

Felony animal-cruelty charges have been filed against a Hemet woman suspected of hoarding dozens of cats, dogs and mice in squalid conditions in an otherwise tidy and quiet senior-citizen housing tract in Hemet.

The Riverside County Department of Animal Services sought charges against Barbara Ryan, 51, after animal-control officers confiscated 15 small- to medium-size dogs, 23 cats and several cages filled with mice from the home she rented at 805 Cortez Drive in the Hemet Del Sol development.

"Trash and feces throughout the house, cats hiding in the sink, animals hiding in the walls. None of them are social," Animal Services Director Robert Miller said. "This has all the telltale signs of an animal-hoarding case."

Ryan initially was arrested Sept. 29 for felony vandalism to the property exceeding $5,000 but was released. An arrest warrant was issued Oct. 13 and the Riverside County district attorney filed charges earlier this week based on a recommendation from Animal Services.

"Our hope was that she was going to come here and coordinate her arrest," said department spokesman John Welsh.

Welsh said the woman's whereabouts are unknown.

Bob and Mary Jungbluth have lived next to the Cortez Drive address for 13 years. They characterized Ryan as a troublesome neighbor who flouted homeowner association rules from the outset.

Bob Jungbluth said Ryan moved into the house about 18 months ago with an older woman who left six weeks later. Since Ryan was not 55 or older, she was not supposed to remain in the retirement community, he said.

"She wasn't in here but a few weeks and there was a terrible, terrible cat odor," he said.

"I couldn't eat my supper. The odor of feces would absolutely gag you."

The Jungbluths said they reported their concerns to their homeowners association numerous times, but nothing was done. Authorities stepped in only after a utility repairman visited the home Sept. 29.

"He was in there just a few minutes before he came out and was on the phone," Mary Jungbluth recalled. "A few minute later, a police cruiser showed up."

Riverside County Chief Veterinarian Dr. Allan Drusys said all of the cats were covered in caked-on fecal matter and soaked in urine.

"The cats didn't have fleas -- they had roaches," he said. "They were jumping ship as we were trying to examine the animals."

Welsh said the homeowners who rented the house to Ryan were horrified by the news.

Case Updates

Kern County Animal control officers say the animals were kept in terrible conditions with no food or water. But Anita Gilbert says that's simply not true. She says she loved and cared for each one of her pets.

"I've had a hard life. I have no family. My pets are like my children," Gilbert said.

Gilbert faces 41 felony counts of animal cruelty after animal control officiers raided her home and found dogs and cats living in what they call an extreme case of neglect.

But says she spent four months in treatment for cancer in Florida and paid someone to care for her aminals while she was away. She also says she has only been home ten days and was cleaning up the mess.

Animal control officers say they not only found many neglected pets in her home. but there were also fourteen dead animals in a freezer. Gilbert says she was going to bury the animals in bulk.

Kern County Resources Department chief David Price also tells me code enforcement had to "red tag" Gilbert's house because there was so much animal waste and the air was so bad inside the home.

Source: KGET - July 19, 2008
Update posted on Jul 19, 2008 - 12:18PM

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A woman accused of animal cruelty in Kern County may be the same woman facing similar charges in Riverside County. Animal Control officers from Riverside identified the suspect during a court hearing in Mojave on Friday.

Eyewitness News was also in the courtroom of the Mojave Superior Court when 59-year-old Anita Gilbert appeared on the Kern County charges.

Riverside Department of Animal Services Field Commander Rita Gutierrez says Gilbert is the woman they knew as "Barbara Ryan."

Riverside County has an arrest warrant out for Ryan from a 2006 case. Gutierrez says Ryan skipped out on that case. She's wanted on five felony counts of animal cruelty and one count of vandalism.

The vandalism comes from damage to a house Ryan was allegedly renting in the community of Hemet. That's where the case started when a neighbor reported a cockroach infestation.

When Riverside officials investigated, they found the house next door in filthy condition with about 40 cats and dogs inside.

"They were tied so closely to cabinets and walls, there was so much urine on the floor that it was wicking up into the drywall -- the drywall was disintegrating," Officer Gutierrez told Eyewitness News.

"The curtains had wicked up urine about half-way up the walls. The animals were standing in so much that their pads were being burned by the urine and the feces burned their flesh," says Gutierrez.

The officer says the animals were infested with fleas and roaches. Gutierrez says Riverside seized more than 40 animals, and some eventually died because of the condition they were in.

Near Tehachapi, Kern County Animal Control officers seized about 60 cats and dogs from a warehouse on Bear Valley Road where Gilbert was living. Officers said conditions were dangerous and unsanitary.

In that warehouse, local officers found paperwork linking Gilbert to the case in Riverside -- that's when they contacted officials in that county.

The Riverside officer says, not only did they identify "Gilbert" as the woman from their case -- some of the animals seized by Kern County are the same animals they had seized.

Officer Gutierrez says a judge in Riverside County allowed the 40 animals taken from "Barbara Ryan" to be returned to a doctor and some animal rescue groups.

"Under the judge's order, those animals did go to these different organizations," says Gutierrez. "But oddly enough, when we were just here at the Kern County animal shelter, we identified these animals as ones that were supposed to be held within these organizations or adopted out to other people."

Gutierrez says they have no idea how Gilbert -- or Ryan -- got back into possession of these animals.

In Kern County, Anita Gilbert faces 41 felony charges of animal cruelty. In court on Friday she asked the judge to let her represent herself.

Judge John Oglesby refused that request, citing Gilbert's behavior in court and the serious nature of the charges against her. Judge Oglesby reduce Gilbert's bail from $205,000 to $100,000 -- and appointed a public defender to her case.

On Thursday, in a jail-house interview -- Gilbert said Kern County Animal Control Director Denise Haynes had given her five dogs to rescue. Gilbert said that happened late last year.

Eyewitness News asked Resource Management Agency Director Dave Price about that. On Friday, Price said that department had checked, and found no record that ever happened.

Price says they checked adoption and rescue records under both "Anita Gilbert" and "Barbara Ryan." They also checked all records for rescue groups and for the address near Tehachapi where Gilbert was found with the animals.

Riverside County officials say they'll work with Kern County on this case. Animal Control officer Rita Gutierrez says her office is sure this is the same woman they want for the 2006 case. Eyewitness News asked what she might know about the two different names.

"We have no idea," says Gutierrez. "None at all. In fact, we even have her original rental agreement with the property-owner in Hemet (where the 40 animals were found) and she used a different name."

Source: Bakersfield Now - July 19, 2008
Update posted on Jul 19, 2008 - 12:15PM

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Hoarding - 15 dogs, 23 cats, cages of miceRiverside, CA (US)

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Hoarding - 15 dogs, 23 cats, cages of mice
Riverside, CA (US)