woman charged with animal abuse

[Retic chic]

These stories just amaze me. How can someone be so calous?

Woman arrested in truck full of dead, sick animals


By TENA LEE and JEREMY JOHNSON
The (Hendersonville) Star-News


A Hendersonville woman using a rented truck to haul more than 40 animals — some dead, some sick and dehydrated — was arrested yesterday near St. Louis.

Evelyn Pool, 61, was charged with four counts of animal neglect. Pool was being held in Missouri in lieu of $15,000 bond. The animals were taken to a local animal shelter there.

St. Genevieve County sheriff's officials stopped Pool about 11 a.m. after they received reports that her driving appeared to be impaired because of the load of animals.

A horrid smell wafted from the cab of the rental truck, where there were 12 dogs of different sizes and breeds, said Capt. Mark Maples of the St. Genevieve Sheriff's Department.

''When we stopped her, her clothes were soaked in urine and animal feces,'' Maples said. ''There were dead dogs under the seat that were decaying. The smell was something awful. It was not a pretty sight.''

Deputies found more than 40 dogs, along with cats, rabbits and a pet rat, in the back of the truck. The animals had no food or water, and there were up to four dogs in one small cage, they said. Several animals also were found dead in their cages, and one dog was found dead under the driver's seat of the vehicle.

A Humane Society spokeswoman in St. Louis said it was not clear what Pool was doing with the animals. She told authorities she had been evicted in Tennessee and was driving to Nevada to find work. The St. Genevieve County prosecutor's office said animal abuse and neglect charges would be filed today.

Pool left Tennessee a week ago after Hendersonville police arrested her daughter Christine Davis, 28, and charged her with two counts of child neglect. Police reportedly wanted Pool on similar charges.

Those charges are the result of the discovery that the women and two children, 3 and 8, lived with garbage everywhere and no running water at 144 Glenn Hill Drive, police said.

Police went to the women's home to serve an eviction notice, but the women were not there, said Hendersonville police Lt. Paul Harbsmeier. The officers found.

Davis, who was later apprehended, has since been released from the Sumner County Jail on $1,000 bond. Davis' two children were taken into the custody of the Tennessee Department of Children's Services.

Middle Tennessee has recently seen a handful of animal cruelty cases:

• Franklin breeder Jennifer Siliski was indicted last week on animal cruelty charges after 230 purebred dogs and cats were taken from her home Jan. 22.

• Nineteen cats were taken Janis Oberkirsch's home in La Vergne. She pleaded guilty in February to one count of animal cruelty.

• William ''Terry'' Davis of Murfreesboro was forced to surrender more than 90 cats in December. He faces 48 charges of animal cruelty.

The (Hendersonville) Star-News is part of the Middle Tennessee Community Newspapers group, owned by The Tennessean. Tennessean staff writer Michelle Shaw and The Associated Press contributed.

[drewlowe]

there's another case similar to this but the lady had 27 dogs, 5 being dead, and my older sister has her son that's how i know about it (the lady is from ohio). My sister fosters kids from time to time.

[joer]

I am not a bad person and i do value Humans more then animals but in a case like this. Hang her How could some one treat animals so bad. I watch alot of animal planit and i work in the Media. I live in Detroit i was thinking of join the Animal Cops Detroit. Then i though hard about it could take seeing the animals be treated like this. Nope i cant i would want to beat the living crap out of the person that let a Poor puppy with a 20 pound chain around his neck. With the chain imbedded into his neck. I could not take it. So I turned away from it becouse of this kind of stuff. I would drop the camera and drop the person.

[gonesnakee]

You have to question her mental state for starters. She is obviously quite sick one way or another. SAD Mark

[C.m.pyrrhus]

Any "normal rational thinker" would not do this. Much like the homeless problem, these folks truly do have mental problems that the general public does not care about, well not until some things like this stir up.

Here is another story a bit like this:

I moved to Minnesota with my girlfriend a few years back. Our first apartment was a few blocks from my work and I would walk there everyday. There was this one house on a corner a block from us, all the windows were covered up, the yard was dirty and all the plants and trees dead. Looked liked something out of a Brothers Grimm tale.

Anyhoo.....the place reaked of cats, like a huge litter box. Everyday I would walk by, and some days the lady would be unloading several 20# bags of cat food and litter, enough to fill her truck bed.

About 2 years later she was caught with over 200+ live cats living in her house, but not to mention the several hundred dead cats that were piled on the floors and even dead in the walls. Turns out there were more dead than alive, and the number was somewhere around 500 cats ( believe it was like 490+). One of the firemen, whom did part of the clean-up, said they seriously had shoveled dead cats out of the house and that the walls were filled with dead bodies, some of which were several years old! The dead were so piled up in places that they were nearly waist high! The clean up took weeks to finish, as they had to do something with all of these animals.

This is a seriously sick problem I agree, but to be fair, this woman had severe mental problems and in respect did not know what she was really doing. A lot of people will jump in and judge this person, yet most folks that end up in this scenario do have in some way some mental problems that need to be evaluated. As such, should be treated in that way.

On a flip side, I have know people to have nearly 40 cats, without giving proper medical attention that had no known mental problems and were "strong and avid members" of society, at least till they were caught :) I think that hurt them there.....

[crazykeeper]

Torture her,this person should suffer like the animals did,long slow painful death,hanging and leathal injection is to fast..

[meow_mix450]

idiot in my opinion, thats sad, why would they ever do that, but this happpens everyday, in the world.

Meow

[beth wallbank]

things like this boil my blood. mental health or not, there is no excuse for the torture the animals have to live through. ARGH

[Toirtis]

just had an elderly cat-collector discovered in Calgary, a couple of weeks back:

Posted at Thursday, March 4, 2004 11:33 AM


The Calgary Humane Society has been forced to destroy 40 cats found in a southwest Calgary home.

On Monday, a total of 53 animals were pulled out of a home on the 1600 block of 15 Ave. S.W.

Animal workers spent several days removing the cats from the home.

Most had serious health problems.

The remaining 13 are in quarantine, while vets and the society work provide medical attention.

A neighbor called police after not seeing the elderly woman who lived in the home for several days.

She was found on the kitchen floor, unable to get up.

The humane society continues to look for more of the woman's cats both in and around the home.

The elderly woman is recovering in hospital.

[Grant vg]

A very sad story indeed.
i wonder what was going through her head as that dog continued to decompose beneath her seat....

People never cease to amaze me.

[XtremeReptiles]

I say we dub Retic Chick with the local News Member.......

[Lisa]

People with mental health issues do not know they're doing something wrong, and punishing them will just confuse them. It's up to society to help these people. Saying "hang her" or "beat the snot out of her" won't help the issue. Treatment is required. In one case a mentaly chalenged man had over 600 rats and mice that he had "saved" (stole) from a pet store he worked at as a cleaner that specialised in reptiles. He was keeping them in colonies not understanding they were going to reproduce. He honestly thought he was helping these animals when really he was cramming them into tiny overcrowded cages and couldn't afford to feed them. These people need help, not the abuse people would pile on them.

[meow_mix450]

lisa you have a good point, but i beleive she was not metal, or ill. I could understand that if she is, but shes not, if she was i bet a lot of people here would understand.:)

Meow

[Lisa]

Originally posted by meow_mix450
lisa you have a good point, but i beleive she was not metal, or ill. I could understand that if she is, but shes not, if she was i bet a lot of people here would understand.:)

Meow


Putting over 50 dogs in a truck (12 in front and 40+ in back) and living in the poop while driving from one state to another does not indicate a well balanced mind. It's a disease and the people that do that are called "collectors". In her mind she's not doing anything wrong and she loves them more then anything else.

[Sunrunner]

Geez I feel really bad for the animals but what breaks my heart is the fact the 2 small children was living basically in a trash heap.
This world is mostly **** now a days, I am sorry to say that not any of this suprises me anymore just breaks my heart.

[claycoke11]

I value animals lives more then humans I say just put her in apen and let her starve to death shell never do it again.

[TheRedDragon]

Originally posted by beth wallbank
things like this boil my blood. mental health or not, there is no excuse for the torture the animals have to live through. ARGH

Here here! :mad:

[Sunrunner]

Originally posted by claycoke11
I value animals lives more then humans I say just put her in apen and let her starve to death shell never do it again.
?? So it is ok that the kids were starving but not ok for the dogs?

[C.m.pyrrhus]

?? So it is ok that the kids were starving but not ok for the dogs?

That’s the point, and the fact is all you (and seriously without prejudice of course) animal lovers should realize that these people are not level headed, no matter how far you seem to think they are wrong and that you have a right to judge accordingly. If it were even more 'obvious' to you folks that the person was a bit off the wall, say the woman had Down Syndrome, then it would be "OK" for her to act this way because you would feel a bit bad about judging them then. I will never understand. Yet everyone keeps complaining about the dogs when people were also dealt the same cards. I do not understand folks that believe they are so caring when they say lock her in a cage. That is just as freaking cruel...Folks, this woman has no clue what she was doing, be a bit more humane yourselves. Good lord, folks complain about whacking rats because it is "inhumane", but yet treating another human so badly with unfair judgment is any better? Get real people, Have a heart. You sound horrible, honestly.

[Andy_G]

Don't punish her, put her in a mental ward to get some help, she's obviously wrong in the head. What she did does disturb me quite deeply, but I think if she was well she wouldn't have let things go that badly.

[meow_mix450]

The part i dont understand, where are you guys getting that she needs help??? I cant find it lol, but if she is ill then i could understand that, but it doesnt say that she is. There are people that like animals and they go over bored, they get so many pets that in the end they have no money to feed them selves, children and the animals. It does happen, but the person just keeps her mouth shut and dont tell anyone cause they dont want to get charged for animal curelty(sp). But, yes if she is ill(dont want to use mental, cause its a strong word,IMO) i could understand that she did this cause she thought it was right. If we were to reserach on the internet to see how other animals are abused, its just sick, these people werent ill they did this for fun and they think its amusing.....People would burn dogs, put oil on them and light them. Has anyone seen the Toronto humane society(THS) tv show, they always play the same one over and over. Anyone remember about the cats??? this person left more then a dozen cats in a house, with fish tanks. They abandened the house, and wooded it up, theses cats were suffering, and this person ran way from the problem, leaving them to stave.

Meow

[C.m.pyrrhus]

I not saying that some people are full out wrong and know they are, but given these circumstances as a whole, not just the animals, you can only have one thing to come up with. There are some underlining mental/emotional/rational problems involved. I know of folks that are just plain cruel. Some folks are just cruel and that is that, and yes even I have felt very upset in this sort of manner in about the same way. But there is a line to be drawn at where to place absolute hatred at a person. I am not perfect, and no one is. Just that some folks can just seem to be odd at how they can rationalize judgement at another.

[Sunrunner]

"Several animals also were found dead in their cages, and one dog was found dead under the driver's seat of the vehicle."

If this is not mentaly sick then I am sorry folks nothing is. Even if this woman would have let these dogs die, that happens I know sad fact but it happens. How many of these people drive with a rotting stinking carcus under their seat rather than just drop it in a ditch? You still think she is mentally sane?
And great post C.mpyrrhus I agree whole heartly.