Charges pending in pet abuse case
Posted: January 25, 2013
The Winchester Star
WINCHESTER — Charges are pending against a local woman who signed over 20 dogs and four cats to a local animal shelter.
The pets — found Jan. 9 by city police to be living in poor conditions in the woman’s apartment on Bellview Avenue — are now available for adoption at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Winchester and Frederick and Clarke Counties.
Winchester Police Department spokeswoman Lauren Cummings said law enforcement officials received a call for a welfare check of the animals, which led Animal Control Officer Andrea Enke to the woman’s apartment.
The residence smelled of dog feces and ammonia from urine and four of the animals had medical problems that required treatment, according to a Thursday media release.
All of the dogs are Chihuahua or Chihuahua mixes, and two are pregnant.
Cummings would not release the name or age of the woman who owned the pets. She also did not say what charges were pending against her.
Margo Bach, interim director of the local SPCA, said that 10 of the dogs were adopted within the first hour of the shelter opening Thursday.
There is one female adult dog that will be available Tuesday. Her five 7-week-old puppies will be available at 10 a.m. today.
There also is an 8-year-old female named Angel ready for a forever home.
A different female and her two puppies are in foster care, and another pregnant female is not yet ready for adoption.
Of the four cats, Bach said, a kitten was adopted right away, but three adults are ready to find a home.
One is a brown tabby, another white with brown tabby spots and the third is a calico, she said.
— Contact Melissa Boughton at mboughton@winchesterstar.com