119 animals removed from suspected puppy mill in Libby

Charges expected soon; Owner disputes cruelty claims

Nearly 120 animals, including dogs, donkeys and birds, were removed Tuesday from a suspected puppy mill near Libby, the Humane Society first reported Tuesday.

A Lincoln County detective on Tuesday executed a warrant for the search and seizure that produced 49 poodles, one Borzoi dog, two Plott hound dogs, one yellow Labrador, six donkeys and the dog ownership paperwork found at a property just outside Libby city limits, according to court documents filed Wednesday; 60 birds were also removed from the property. That property belongs to Cathie Warren, 61, owner of Adonai Rare Poodles. Warren disputes the potential charges of aggravated animal cruelty, a felony, and cruelty to animals, a misdemeanor. Both potential charges served as the basis for the search and seizure on Tuesday but have not yet been filed against Warren as of Thursday. Charges are expected to be filed as a result of the removal effort.

The removal was a coordinated effort between the Humane Society of the United States, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and Lincoln County Animal Care and Control, according to the press release issued by the Humane Society.

“The warrant went well, no one got hurt and everyone worked very well together in tough conditions,” Lincoln County Sheriff Roby Bowe said Tuesday. “It just went flawlessly.”

Bowe said a private veterinarian was also present during the seizure. Bowe said among the 59 animals removed from the property, 60 birds were also removed, albeit voluntarily.

“Some of them were voluntarily given up, but they were still seized,” he said.

The Lincoln County removal effort comes just one week after a Lake County Sheriff’s Office investigation led to the seizure of 11 dogs from a kennel containing 120 dogs. The kennel owners were cited with animal cruelty, but seven of the 11 dogs were returned to the owner after being reviewed by a veterinarian.

Although a Lincoln County resident called dispatch on July 27 to report an animal cruelty complaint at 185 Crossway Avenue, Bowe also said the case has been active for several months.

According to court documents, Warren’s dog breeding and kennel operation has been in question with the county since April, after members of the county animal control and health department staffs visited Warren’s property in response to a barking complaint, and Warren’s application with Lincoln County for a kennel license for the upcoming year. Information documented in that visit claim that Wendy Anderson, of County Animal Care and Control, and Kathi Hooper, of the County Health Department, saw dogs living in deplorable conditions, including descriptions of 32 dogs packed into small wire crates, stacked on top of each other inside a 10-foot-by-10-foot room with no food or water. According to that same report, a bullwhip was found and Warren claimed that she would smack the bullwhip against a tarp to keep the dogs quiet.

While Warren’s previous license to operate allowed 20 dogs in her care, the documents from Hooper’s and Anderson’s report suggest Warren had more than 50 dogs on the property during the April inspection.

Hooper and Anderson reported the conditions of the kennel to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and County Attorney’s office after the visit.

On June 30, Hooper and Anderson returned to the property, this time with Sheriff Roby Bowe, and found the conditions hadn’t changed. According to the report from this visit, since the lighting was better in the 10-foot-by-10-foot room on this visit, Anderson and Hooper were able to see the conditions of the poodles. Many of the poodles were reported to have the top of their heads flattened because the crates were too small and they could not put their heads up while sitting down. Anderson said that this indicated that the poodles spent long periods of time in the crates.

On July 26, court documents say that Bowe returned to the property again with Melissa Genovese, a veterinarian at Whitefish Animal Hospital. Two days later, Genovese emailed a report from the visit to David Hall, the Lincoln County detective heading the case.

Genovese’s report includes descriptions of the first animals encountered in the visit as healthy, but as the inspection reached further into the property, conditions plummeted. Genovese reported some dogs kept in spaces too small to move, while other areas allowed dogs running so freely that she was unaware one dog had been pregnant until it had given birth. She reported that Warren had been feeding all the dogs cat food and much too little of it to sustain a healthy diet.

“(Warren) told me that she fed the Plott hounds less food so that they wouldn’t grow too quickly, while the others received less food so they wouldn’t have diarrhea,” Genovese wrote in the report. “We noted one pile of diarrhea in the space, which surprised me with that many dogs. I suspect they could be eating their feces as they don’t have enough food.”

Genovese’s report included an inspection of most of the property, where she found most dogs on the property to be malnourished. The report includes notes of donkeys that were too far away to determine their condition and overcrowded cages of parakeets. Genovese concluded her report with a recommendation that the dogs and potentially the other animals on the property should be removed from Warren’s care. The dogs and donkeys were included in the seizure report from Detective Hall, while the birds were not. The Lincoln County Animal Care and Control took the animals into care and will hold them pending the results of the case. While all 53 dogs had been relocated to the Lincoln County animal shelter by Wednesday, Anderson said that some of the dogs would be shipped to the Eureka facility sometime Thursday.

Warren, kennel owner for 35 years, refused to comment on the search and seizure on Thursday after the search warrant information had been filed. On Tuesday, prior to the document filings, Warren said she disputes the claims of animal cruelty and the title of her operation as a puppy mill. Warren said she’s been a licensed dog owner in Lincoln County for three years, in which the county animal control department has completed bi-annual inspections.

“Animal control has seen my dogs twice a year and didn’t seize them before, and my setup was worse prior to this,” she said Tuesday.

Warren said that of the 53 dogs seized from her facility, only six simply needed haircuts.

“That’s what I was planning on next,” Warren said. “They’re happy, running around and healthy. They just needed a good haircut.”

She also disputes the health concerns regarding the six donkeys, which she said only needed a “foot trim.” She also said that no birds were seized from her home as stated in the Humane Society press release.

Warren said she doesn’t know why the investigation into her animal operation started.

“It’s hard to know what’s in the minds of other people,” she said.

Warren said that she raises different types of dogs mostly to become service pets for people with disabilities. Her Facebook page, Adonai Rare Poodles, features pictures of poodle puppies with their new owners, seemingly both healthy.

Once charges have been filed and she begins moving through the legal process, Warren will have to testify in the case in order to get her animals back, she said.

The animals are currently being held at the county animal shelters in Libby and Eureka. Judy Hyslop, volunteer with Kootenai Pets for Life, said that the animal control department has contacted them and they will be working closely with the effort.

Reporters Seaborn Larson and Bethany Rolfson may be reached at 293-4124 or by email at Reporter@TheWesternNews.com.