View Single Post
Old 03-03-2009, 06:27 PM   #11
yorkiesmiles
Donating YT 4000 Club Member
 
yorkiesmiles's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Iowa
Posts: 9,493
Default Clean Slate Animals Relocated

Clean Slate Animals Relocated

Clean Slate Animals Relocated | adairprogress.com

By Lawrence Harris on March 03,2009

The cats and dogs rescued from Clean Slate Animal Rescue have been completely relocated from the Green River Animal Shelter to a temporary shelter in Bowling Green.

The remaining 96 of the 240 dogs and 31 cats that were rescued from the Clean Slate Animal Rescue center in Sparksville on Feb. 20th are now under the care of The Humane Society of the United States in a temporary shelter in Bowling Green.

The National Disaster Animal Response Team of the HSUS arrived yesterday with a fully equipped kennel tractor-trailer to transport the animals to the temporary shelter located at the fairgrounds in Bowling Green. The Bowling Green-Warren County Humane Society had already taken several of the animals last week and was waiting on the NDART to finish work at a puppy mill in North Carolina as well as a flood evacuation in Washington.

Senior Director of the HSUS Scotlund Haisley stated, "The NDART was established to assist in emergency situations like this as well as natural disasters to ensure the safety and welfare of the animals."

After the animals arrive at the temporary shelter they will be treated for their current health issues including mange and respiratory disease, at which time they will be sent to shelters for adoption. According to Haisley, in addition to the HSUS workers and the Kentucky Humane Society, dozens of volunteers came from as far away as California to help with the rescue of the Clean Slate animals.

"Rescues like this and puppy mills are two of the biggest problems we face," said Haisley.

Clean Slate owner 50-year old David Howery was arrested and charged with 295 counts of animal cruelty and was released on a $1,500 cash bond after plead not guilty to the charges in district court on Monday, Feb. 24th and agreed to release the animals to the Green River Animal Shelter.

According to HSUS State Director for Kentucky Pam Rogers the case involving Clean Slate was a classic case of animal hoarding.

"The two biggest problems with animal cruelty we face in the state as well as national are hoarders and puppy mills and from what I have been told about the situation at Clean Slate, he was a classic hoarder," said Rogers.

According to the HSUS fact sheet on animal hoarding, an animal hoarder is a person who amasses more animals than they can properly care for and fail to recognize or refuse to acknowledge when the animals become victims of gross neglect.

In most cases after the animals are removed, the burden of caring for the animals while they are in the shelters will fall back on taxpayers.

"Local government must enact local legislation that addresses some of the issues that deal with hoarders and puppy mills to more effectively address the problem and save the taxpayers money," commented Rogers.

According to Rogers in many cases the person arrested for animal cruelty does not release control of the animals and there is not much that can be done to help prevent these types of events from happening. Rogers noted that there is currently legislation at the state level that is awaiting approval to help combat animal hoarding in the state of Kentucky.

House Bill 428 in the Kentucky Legislature addresses the issue of the bonding of animals by specifying the responsibility for care of the animals that are seized in a case of animal cruelty. The bill will allow judges to impose a cash bond for the care of the animals in addition to a criminal bond, which will force the offender to assume the financial responsibility for the seized animals while they are in the care of the shelters. However if the owner of the seized animals releases control of the animals they will not be responsible for the cost incurred while under the care of the shelter.

House Bill 137 establishes shelter and shade requirements for animals by limiting the amount of animals and how they are boarded.

Both H.B. 428 and 137 will establish licensing, inspection and strict regulation of both private and public shelters.

To help prevent the amount of cases animal hoarding Rogers stated, "People need to be careful about where they send animals and if they have not been to the facility recently to check the conditions they do not need to send their animals there."
__________________
yorkiesmiles
Loved by Bubba & Roxy
Holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come
yorkiesmiles is offline   Reply With Quote
Welcome Guest!
Not Registered?

Join today and remove this ad!