Help in Animal Cruelty Case

WARNING: PICTURES BELOW ARE GRAPHIC

This is from Agape Fosters in Iowa. They are legitimate.

Dear Adopters and Friends:

In February 2008 I was asked to help with a cruelty/neglect case in a county near here (Iowa). Long story short a woman named Michele Kinzner was portraying herself as a legit Rescue-called Waggin Tails and calling herself a No Kill shelter. She is a squatter (lives in places, never pays, trashes the place) and a scammer and moves on when the heat gets on her. She has involved her teenage children as well.

In reality she was starving the animals there.

A local small rescue group in the same town became involved and began to feed the animals they saw, they were standing in about a foot of feces and urine and were starving.

The police were alerted as was the county attorney, board of supervisors, media, etc etc etc. The police did not see a problem and did nothing, many times just calling her versus going out there and taking her word she was caring for them.

It is now 3 1/2 months later and still no charges have been filed and it doesn’t appear there will be though the law was blatantly broken, and the woman has skipped town (we know where she is) now.

Common citizens going out to feed and care for the animals have discovered dead dogs and cats all over the place even up in a hay mount left to starve as they could not get down to get away (they must have been put there), 15 in all, (there were over 60 animals, dogs mainly and some cats on this property and none were well cared for) some have been autopsied and malnutrition was the cause out of 6 of the 7, the one was undetermined.

A cat was found in a cage dead, and as recent as last week a cocker was found dead in the house, no water not even in the toilet and a dying cat was rescued.
The police and others have been called by many sharing their concern and outrage, editorials written, etc., and nothing is being done. It has been stated the police would take strays to this woman!

I have retained an attorney out of Des Moines (very difficult to get anyone to do anything when it comes to animals, she is really a godsend) to get done what we can to get some justice for these animals and try and hold all accountable those that allowed this to happen. If the police had done their job there would not have been any animals suffering and dying. After knowing and seeing what I saw I could not just let this one go.

The attorney is Angela Campbell out of Des Moines, Iowa. She is usually $250-300 an hour but is willing to take the case for far far less as she feels this is wrong too.
I think the message needs to be sent win or lose the case that someone cares and will not let this just go away until all comes out and hopefully those accountable will answer for this.

This is the first mass plea I have sent out for myself in the name of animals in my 30 years of rescue work and I’m donating as well.

I am asking for your help too.

Four pictures below, please know some are graphic, but I know to see it will help you understand the reason justice needs to be served and I will not get into all the horror details but want you to know this could not have been much worse, these animals received NO dignity in their life but deserve to have some justice in their death.

If you can and are willing to help please send donations to
Agape Fosters
c/o Diann Helmers
20744 W Ave
Reinbeck, IA
50669

319-239-2268 if you have any questions and please pass this on to anyone you feel would care and want to help.

And if there is any left it will go back into the Agape Foster fund and be put towards the foster pets here or elsewhere.

If you would like your name included in the case as a concerned party you are welcome to, there is strength in numbers and the more names added, the better for the animals. You would not be called to testify as you have no direct info, but feel if they see many names it will send a strong message.

Many dead animals still lay there waiting for some type of burial - we are trying to get this worked out.

Thank you for your support by helping me help them.

UPDATES!!

This is what it’s all about. Yes, we have a lot of sad stories. But because of the dedicated people in rescue, wonderful dogs like these can be saved. I just wish we could save them all…or really, that none would even need saving!

CHIEF THEN

Remember Chief (above)? The dog whose leg was smashed to bits by a baseball bat? Here’s what the Bully Breed reports of him now!

CHIEF NOW!

Chief had his final exam, and is doing wonderful! He has healed up just fine, and can run and play with the best of them. As you can see in the photos, Chief has lots of friends, as he gets along so well with other dogs. All the staff at VCA is just so in love with him, and it will be sad to send him off after we all watched him recover and grow, and turn into such a wonderful little dog!

I want to thank you all again for your overwhelming generosity, donations, love and prayers for Chief! As you can see, he is one lucky dog! This is all what “The Bully Breed Fund” is all about - helping these poor, misunderstood, and abused dogs get the love and care they need. Chief will be our “Poster Boy” for “The Bully Breed Fund.”

Thank you all so much, and Chief thanks you TOO!

___________________________________________

THOMAS THEN

Remember Thomas? This wonderful dog had his genitals smashed. Well, he’s recovered and in his new foster home!

THOMAS NOW!

The rescuer reports:

Thanks to you all for helping Thomas - Karen was lucky enough to snap this photo of this happy boy on his way to his new foster home on Saturday! GOOD LUCK THOMAS and thanks Karen!!

They Need You!

From Animal Control:

I don’t know where to begin with this little doll baby, lets see, she was picked up in the county along the highway and dropped off at the city shelter because they didn’t have time to bring her to county shelter. When I went to pick her up from there today she had blood on both of her sides and her tail was dripping blood, shelter worker didn’t even know she had been bleeding, blood all of the walls and the floor…..GGGGGZZZZ. When I took her out her tail had been wagging so much I had blood in my hair and face, I was covered from top to shoes with blood, her little tail could not stop wagging. We fear she has just had pups, we don’t know if the owner killed the pups or dumped them off with her and they were to little to make it. She ran out of her kennel greeting the other dogs through their cages, one pup had his nose out of the cage and she started licking his face (AAAWWWWW) too cute. Another dog was growling at her and she sat down (wagging her tail of course) and just cocked her head as to say don’t be so nasty. She went to every cage and peeked in, I think she was looking for her babies. She gets so upset when you leave her, she just thrives for human attention. I will try to get better pictures of her in the morning, she was acting so silly in these, she was just happy for me to show her some love. Maybe I can take her to work with me in the morning for awhile to give her some attention she so desperately needs, to help her with the grieving loss of her puppies. Please if you can ever help one please let it be this little sweet girl, she is truly a wonderful girl.

__________________________________________________

This sweet little girl is at City - her time was up Friday. I have a hold on her until Wednesday - if you can help, please email ausiersq@dstream.net ASAP! Thanks! -Anne

Ebay Auction for Lab Rescue

From the rescue: Great Lakes Lab Rescue has taken in several special needs Labs in the past few weeks, we need your help! All proceeds from this fundraiser will help with medical care for them.

We have many great items up for auction, including a brand new Dyson Animal Vacuum cleaner. The auction began today, May 12, and will run until Sunday, May18.

Click on link below:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=gllr&category0=

Low-Cost Spay/Neuter Clinic Opening in Glenwood

The South Suburban Humane Society is opening a low cost spay/neuter clinic opening in the southeast Chicago suburbs this summer!

From South Suburban Humane Society:

*The Clinic is finally coming!*

The South Suburban Humane Society is thrilled to announce we are opening our Spay/Neuter Clinic on July 28, 2008. We will begin accepting surgery appointments on July 7, 2008. Our clinic is located in the Glenwood Plaza shopping center on South Halsted Street (Il route 1), right next door to Harlem Furniture. We have been lucky enough to find the ideal veterinarian, Dr. Karen Huppert, and equally ideal Veterinary Technician, Annette Jernberg, to help us achieve our annual goal of spaying/neutering over 8,000 animals per year. We are currently accepting applications for an office staff person and two veterinary assistants.

Our clinic will be open to everyone, however; our target clientele will be low-income individuals and families and underserved animal populations such as feral cats, pit bulls, animals offered free-to-a-good-home and animals from areas that our shelter receives a significant amount of strays. Our clinic will also offer basic vaccinations, for a low additional cost, for our surgery patients only.

We are currently in the middle of renovating the clinic space, which we anticipate being finished by June. If you are interested in supporting our clinic with a financial donation, volunteering, or if you have further questions, please feel free to contact our Clinic Director, Sandi Petee, at sandi@sshspets.org or 708-420-5002. Please keep checking our website at sshspets@Ameritech.net for clinic updates!

Update on Lucky

The Cause 4 Paws Rescue group was the catalyst behind busting the largest dogfighting ring in Illinois history. You can read more about it in the articles section of this blog. They write:

Lucky is from the South Holland Dog Fighting case. He was a tiny little puppy when he and 36 others were seized from alleged dog fighter Kevin Taylor in July ‘07. We noticed Lucky wasn’t playing quite as much as he should be and would often limp or just lay down and watch others play. We found out that he had Luxating Patellas in both rear legs that would require surgery.

We raised enough money to get the first leg done and he had the surgery 5-5-08. He is doing very well and was sent home the following day. He has to remain very laid back for 28 days, at which time we hope to have raised enough money to get the second leg done so this young man can run, jump, and play like every other dog his age and hopefully find his forever home!

For more information on Lucky (or any of our other adoptables) please visit our site at www.MyCause4Paws.petfinder.com. There is also a link to one of our Ebay auctions on the homepage in which we are trying to raise money for Lucky.
Linda, Cause 4 Paws Rescue

Sign This Please

By request I am posting this. I just signed the petition and so far there are 1,179,066 signatures.

Dear fellow dog lovers:

As a HUMANE investigator, I thought id seen and heard it all. This is just unbelievable. There is no end to apathy and cruelty. I’m about to give up on mankind. WHAT AN OXYMORON.

I have decided not to share the photos. If you want to see them you can Google the artist.

This “artist” Guillermo Vargas “Habacuc, took a dog from the streets, tied it up in an ART GALLERY for art connoisseurs to view, and left it to die, which it did.

Investigate if you like but please, sign the petition although I wonder what that will do. Probably make this “person” more rich and famous.

http://www.petitiononline.com/ea6gk/petition-sign.html

Needs Help Quickly

I need help quick on this one! Please email ausiersq@dstream.net. - Anne

—–Forwarded Message—–
From the Animal Control Officer

Anne,
This sweet boy was not reclaimed, he still has a lot of love and years to give to a good home, I was holding a little four week old kitten and I bent down to show the beagle and he started licking him to clean him, Now how cute is that ???????? He is around 4 years of age and needs your help, his time is up this Friday.

In Honor of Mother’s Day

Animal kingdom baby’s mamas.

(I swiped the below story from PETA.org.)

Northern Fur Seals:

Human mothers tuned in to Channel Mom may find themselves responding to anybody’s child when they hear someone calling the M word, but fur seals never make this mistake. Fresh from foraging for food, moms have to find their young quickly in a sea of hundreds—or possibly thousands—of seals, so both mother and pup depend on their uncanny powers of vocal recognition to find one another. Both will call out and answer, responding selectively to one another until they are reunited.

Elephants:

The TLC that these mammoth mothers bestow on their babies is among their most engaging qualities. Always ready to give an affectionate caress, a gentle nudge in the right direction, or a cool bath to help their babies beat the heat, doting moms maintain constant touch with their young ones, never allowing them to stray too far from their side. Mothers even stay in touch with their adult kids and enjoy close relationships with their daughters that can last up to 50 years.

Cows:

For cows and their calves, it’s love at first sight. The first minutes after birth are spent developing a bond that will last a lifetime. Throughout life, mother and child maintain social contact and regularly enjoy each other’s companionship. Their attachment and affection for each other is so deep that if they are forced apart, they both suffer severe stress. Moms have been known to escape their enclosures and travel for miles looking for their calves.

Dolphins:

Dolphins are known for graceful synchronized swimming, but dolphin mothers and their babies also synchronize their breathing for the first few weeks following the babies’ birth. These dedicated moms may nurse their young for up to 10 years and will also mentor less experienced females by allowing them to babysit as practice for when they have babies of their own.

Cheetahs:

Let’s hear it for single moms! These lightning-fast felines have their paws full caring for their cubs all on their own. Not only does mom protect her children from predators while she is nursing them, she also hunts for them from the time they are weaned until they are 14 to 18 months old. Overly active offspring can make the task of hunting even harder: Cubs often scare hunted animals away with their animated antics, leaving mom so worn out that she sometimes falls asleep in the middle of a hunt.

Chickens:

Nurturing begins in the nest for these caring moms. Mother hens will turn their eggs as many as five times an hour and cluck softly to their unborn chicks, who chirp back to her and to one another from within their shells! Once chicks hatch, devoted moms use their wings to shield their babies from predators and have been known to refuse to leave their nests during a fire if they have newly hatched peeps.

Pretty Girl Needs Sponsors

Pretty Girl is in surgery as I write this to place a pin in her injured leg. She was rescued from from a man who abusive and was going to shoot her and her one remaining puppy (he had sold the rest of the litter). She was found to have been hit by a car over 2 weeks ago. The injury is right below the knee, with the knee possibly involved. There are fractures/lump on her side and this has been calcifying since she was hit. Right now her rescuer (Anne) is footing the bill. She has a rescue group lined up to take Pretty Girl when she is out of the hospital. Can you help?

Anne Heckle is part of the small group of volunteers that rescue dogs that would otherwise be euthanized in south and central Illinois (West Hancock K9 Rescue). They are not funded and pay for everything via donations and out of their own pockets. Please contact Anne if you can help at ausiersq@dstream.net.