pittsburgh: Charges dismissed against Tiger Ranch

La rouquine sans merci (

jcipa) wrote in

pittsburgh,
@ 2008-04-03 14:47:00

Charges dismissed against Tiger Ranch
Charges Dismissed Against Owner Of Cat Sanctuary

(KDKA) All charges were dismissed today in court against the owner of a local animal sanctuary that was raided last month by rescue workers.

Linda Bruno appeared in court this afternoon for a preliminary hearing on several counts of animal cruelty for illegally housing hundreds of cats at the 'Tiger Ranch Cat Sanctuary' in Frazer Township.

Defense attorneys say the counts Bruno was charged with were not specific enough to any one case of abuse.

Bruno's attorney talked with KDKA and said he recommended that she not take in anymore animals for now, because the District Attorney could re-file charges.

Dozens of sick and dying cats were allegedly found on the property during a raid last month.

Many of those cats were taken to local shelters for care and eventual adoption.

Animal Planet Crew Present For Tiger Ranch Raid

FRAZER (KDKA) ― The case of a cat sanctuary owner facing animal cruelty charges is causing a divide in the animal rights community.

Linda Bruno has been charged with 14 counts of animal cruelty, accused of illegally housing hundreds of cats at Tiger Ranch after a raid last month.

But the case has become complicated by the fact that a crew from "Animal Cops," a show on Animal Planet, was present for the raid.

The raid moved Howard Nelson, the head of the Pennsylvania SPCA, to tears.

"I carried animals as they were dying into cages last night," he said on March 14. "Cats that were just screaming to get out of there."

But Last Chance for Animals, a California-based animal rights group, calls the investigation tainted and is in turn investigating the SPCA.

Chris DeRose, of Last Chance, says the SPCA's action was compromised by their contractual arrangement with Animal Planet and their program "Animal Cops" to produce a series of programs.

A judge in New York threw out animal cruelty charges against a man, ruling that the SPCA agent had played for Animal Planet's cameras and hyped up charges against him. DeRose predicts the same thing will happen with Tiger Ranch.

"And that just conclusion is going to be that these animals are returned immediately back to Tiger Ranch and that this witch hunt is stopped immediately," he said.

The SPCA, based in Philadelphia, confirms they received some money from Animal Planet for space in their offices for the show's crew while they were in town. But they also say they have not been influenced by the program and stand by their evidence, given to them by Deborah Urmann who volunteered at the ranch, conducted an undercover investigation and recorded video of sickly cats.

"I did everything legally and I did what I did to save those animals that were suffering," she said.

Urmann says she took the evidence to the SPCA in Philadelphia and kept local officers in the dark because she said they were too cozy with Bruno.

Local Humane Officer Kathy Hecker recently conducted her own investigation of Tiger Ranch and found no violations and denies turning a blind eye.

"We don't duck down from a fight if there's animal welfare issues, " she said.

From there the war of words only escalates. Last Chance for Animal says Urmann originally came to them with her allegations and they conducted their own investigation and found Tiger Ranch to be above board.

Likewise, Bruno says Urmann asked her for a job but she turned her down and that Urmann is carrying a grudge.

All of this will be argued in court on Thursday.

Rumor has had it that the PASPCA sat on actually talking to TR, in order to accommodate Animal Planet's filming schedule (and to provide dramatic "raid" footage). If they truly believed that animals were being abused and neglected, how could they possibly justify waiting for months for a film crew? I'm thoroughly disgusted. The owner of TR may be abrasive, but nobody deserves to have their name dragged through the mud like this. Especially when they were actually helping feral animals that had nowhere else to go.

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	reginamicia 2008-04-03 07:02 pm UTC (link)
	agreed. (Reply to this)

cpdavngr
2008-04-03 07:09 pm UTC (link)

Woohoo! :)
I've been waiting for this all day. I'm so glad they dismissed the charges. :)
Hopefully Animal Planet won't air the footage of Tiger Ranch. However, Animal Cops always says at the beginning of the show that everyone is "innocent until proven guilty in a court of law" but they never do follow ups to find out if they were really innocent or not. I'm worried that if they air the "pieced together" footage it will just further destroy the character of Tiger Ranch.
Thanks for posting this! :)

(Reply to this)

	headtilt22 2008-04-03 07:15 pm UTC (link)
	I don't know what to think at this point. I'm sure that there's side 1, side 2, and the truth. (Reply to this)(Thread)

cpdavngr
2008-04-03 07:31 pm UTC (link)

I think the problem was that people weren't comfortable with the concept of a "no-kill" shelter. The animals in this place died of natural causes. They got another chance at life. Sometimes they don't make it, sometimes they do. Sometimes they suffer, just like people do. Some people think that if an animal's suffering, it's more humane to put them to sleep. Tiger Ranch believes the animal should die naturally.
Tiger Ranch is kind of like a hospital for cats. I watched many of my family members suffer for months in hospitals but the hospital did all they could to keep them alive, ease their pain, and cure them if possible, which is exactly what Tiger Ranch does. :)

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	pjvj 2008-04-03 07:59 pm UTC (link)
	How does TR alleviate the pain of the cats often associated with dying "naturally"? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	cpdavngr 2008-04-03 08:13 pm UTC (link)
	AFAIK, they had medication on site. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	jcipa 2008-04-03 08:18 pm UTC (link)
	I think that the idea was that cats with FIV, leuko, et al lived in a hospice-like environment rather than be euthanized-- symptoms managed until death occurs, but no putting to sleep. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	cpdavngr 2008-04-03 08:20 pm UTC (link)
	Exactly! :) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	cpdavngr 2008-04-03 08:18 pm UTC (link)
	This thread is probably the best hands on experience information that I've found about TR. The user named "Jen" is the one who used to volunteer there and states that they had medication on site. (Reply to this)(Parent)

headtilt22
2008-04-03 08:27 pm UTC (link)

There are some people who go the extra mile for animals that are sick - i.e. getting them chemo if they have cancer, wheeled carts for animals who can't walk - and I'm sure there are those who think that animal is in pain and should be put out of its misery. IMO you know your pet and that's your decision to make. But when you have hundreds of animals, I just don't see how you can know them as intimately as if you have one or two pets and how you can know that letting them die naturally is always the right decision - or that putting them to sleep is always the right decision.

Even "no kill" shelters occasionally have to put an animal that is too far gone to sleep. If you have too many animals and not enough people to be able to evaluate the individual animals' situations, there's a problem.

I think that's what people have issue with - not that she rescued cats w/ FIV or what have you, but that she let them die in pain. If there was indeed pain medication on site that's a different matter.

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jcipa
2008-04-03 08:35 pm UTC (link)

Honestly, I'm having a hard time believing anything that the SPCA has ever said about TR at the moment. They raided and said that there were nearly a thousand cats. Turns out it was closer to 400. They talk about horrific conditions, but I saw a relatively decent place, with fences and shelter and heaters. Were they in pain? She had a vet there checking on the cats regularly. I doubt that most vets would just allow an animal to suffer without trying to help. Did animals get sick? Obviously, we all saw cats with calci. But if calci (and having a hard time managing it) is enough to charge you with animal cruelty, then every single animal shelter in the area should be shut down because we all had it, all really really bad cases and we all lost more than a few cats to it this past winter.

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stargatedragon
2008-04-04 12:10 am UTC (link)

I'm upset at the idea that these cats are left to die alone in a room with other dying cats. How horrible it must be for them to spend their last few minutes lying there with other dying cats!

For all the bleating about "Christian" morals you would have thought at least one person would be "assigned" to keep the dying cats company until the very end. Instead they're locked away and left until someone comes to clean out the corpses?

If that's what was going on, the no-kill shelter might as well just be as nasty as those that kill. Leaving these cats to die alone and afraid in a room is much more evil than giving them a shot and putting them out of their misery.

IMO, of course.

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reeeeeeeeflex
2008-04-04 12:37 am UTC (link)

I don't think dying cats know they are dying. Cats, of course, don't have the same understanding that people do. I am sure cats can feel pain, and if something can be done to relieve it, sure. But I don't think cats feel lonely, being solitary animals, and I don't think they can conceive of the state we call death.

Dogs can certainly feel lonely, but there again I don't think they know when they are dying either. They are relatively happy right up to the end, unless they are in pain, of course. They have no conception or anticipation of death like humans do.

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cpdavngr
2008-04-04 12:52 am UTC (link)

"these cats are left to die alone in a room with other dying cats"

That's not what she did at all.

Excerpt from the link mentioned above:

"You don't euthanize people when they have cancer, whether or not they are in pain. You sit and hold them, wipe their eyes, touch their faces, even as they pass away. This is how she viewed those cats. This is what she did with her cats. I have been there and seen this, I have done this at Tiger Ranch, she treated her cats better then many shelters I worked at did. There may have been many many cats there but she knew them ALL by name, knew their story, etc."

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	rapier1 2008-04-04 01:30 pm UTC (link)
	That she held them while they died is heartwrenching but its not sound medical practice. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

cpdavngr
2008-04-04 01:41 pm UTC (link)

Holding them while they died wasn't the only thing she did for these dying cats. I was only trying to let

stargatedragon know that the cats were not "left to die alone in a room with other dying cats". She helped them medically as well as emotionally as best she could right up to the end.

And I do believe that doctors and nurses also hold peoples' hands and such and try to comfort them through their times of suffering.

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rapier1
2008-04-04 04:24 pm UTC (link)

How did she care for them medically? Did she give them IVs? Drain fluid? Prescribe medications? Give pain killers? If so, who was prescribing these medications? How was she affording all of this palliative care? I can't even imagine how she was affording the flea control medication for 400 cats let alone all the other necessary treatments.

With the range of diseases she was dealing with, even in the best of situations, she was letting cats die in pretty horrible ways. Their lungs would fill up with fluids until they drowned. Their abdomens would swell with retained fluid until they suffocated. They would have had neurological symptoms (convulsion, paralysis, etc), pancreatitis, blindness, constant dehydration, liver failure, and so on and so on. Few of these symptoms are what you'd call pain free.

I don't agree with putting down an animal the second it tests positive for FIV or FIP but I don't believe its fair or humane to allow an animal to suffer through the end stages of a disease when it doesn't have to. What she did was condemn these animals to avoidable and unnecessary drawn out suffering. I don't think she had bad intentions but good intentions aren't an excuse.

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jcipa
2008-04-04 04:39 pm UTC (link)

Before this whole mess, I didn't know that she was absolutely anti-euthanasia, just that she wasanti-automatic euthanasia for the cases that are usually automatically put down in virtually every shelter. Has it been proven that she didn't provide some manner of palliative care? She hasn't been to trial. She says she had a vet-- let's see if that's true. Until there is evidence presented and she has a chance to answer to it. Whether she can, who knows... sometimes things that look bad have a perfectly reasonable explanation-- just ask any parent who's been accused of abuse and neglect of a child who's failed to thrive.

She was running a shelter-- do you question how every other shelter around can provide the flea medication, deworming, and immediate vet care that every cat that's taken in every day is given, regardless of their fate?

This case has caused incredible rifts and has caused irreparable harm to everyone working with rescue organizations in the area. Don't add fuel to the fire. Don't blindly make accusations that have yet to be proven true.

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	irishlinc 2008-04-05 05:48 pm UTC (link)
	Exactly, you rule. :) (Reply to this)(Parent)

irishlinc
2008-04-04 01:05 am UTC (link)

Even "no kill" shelters occasionally have to put an animal that is too far gone to sleep. If you have too many animals and not enough people to be able to evaluate the individual animals' situations, there's a problem.

Exactly. Tiger Ranch being misconstrued as a no kill sanctuary really degrades the very basis of the no kill movement, which I fully support. She is anti euthanasia for any reason, NOT no kill.

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	cpdavngr 2008-04-04 01:22 am UTC (link)
	Based on the description of a "no kill" shelter, I guess "anti euthanasia" would be more appropriate. However, "no kill" might also be misleading for some people. Maybe "no kill shelters" should be renamed "mercy kill shelters". (Reply to this)(Parent)

	fiannaharpar 2008-04-03 07:25 pm UTC (link)
	What I find interesting is that the story claims that the cats were taken to other shelters for adoption. Since the cats were being held at a facility and were not permitted to be moved because they were "evidence" and all. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	cpdavngr 2008-04-03 07:29 pm UTC (link)
	I wonder if she'll get them all back now. Hopefully because of all of this media hype, they'll get adopted much faster and take some of the burden off of Tiger Ranch. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	irishlinc 2008-04-04 12:56 am UTC (link)
	That's only the tip of the iceberg of all the misinformation in this particular story. But good catch, I've been involved with this from the get-go and I had to laugh at that, as well. (Reply to this)(Parent)

irishlinc
2008-04-04 12:54 am UTC (link)

This merely means each cat is now being accounted for as an individual and the charges build up more.

I'm currently vet teching at the shelter - this particular news story is honestly one of the most misinformed pieces I've seen on the actual situation to date.

The raid actually happened ahead of schedule because of the owner of Tiger Ranch being tipped off about it. Animal Planet may have provided to be present, but PSPCA did not start the initial investigation. The video footage and evidence of all counts of animal cruelty remain the same, if not moreso now that they're providing even more time for us to gather evidence.

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jcipa
2008-04-04 01:03 am UTC (link)

We shall see.

I do have a hard time believing that every single humane agent in western Pennsylvania could or would have turned a blind eye if things were as horrifying at TR as the SPCA has claimed. And why was the actual number of cats half what was claimed when the initial "raid" occurred? By painting every humane agent and society in western PA as uncaring, by misrepresenting simple facts like numbers, and for involving Animal Planet in the first place, SPCA has a serious credibility problem in a lot of people's books right now.

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irishlinc
2008-04-04 01:13 am UTC (link)

The question of why the conditions were as they were (btw, we were cleared to release the undercover footage, have you seen it?), and the place was passing inspection on local level is definitely a question to be brought out, and one that Voices for Animals (the Pittsburgh AR group I help coordinate) is posing.

Understand this did not initiate with PSPCA, Animal Planet - anything. It was an operation discussed and formulated by four people. From there it went on who to contact that would be capable of conducting such a necessary raid on the property.

You'll also have to understand there are various questions of yours that I am literally not at legal liberty to answer for you, as much as I'd like to.

So whatever side you take, just know that as an animal rights activist and veterinary technician, these guys were all in an extremely bad way and I, along with others, are doing our personal best to get them healthy. Ferals, FIV+, FeLeuk+, are not being euthanized left and right as media and Lin Marie supporters would have you believe.

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cpdavngr
2008-04-04 01:34 am UTC (link)

"Ferals, FIV+, FeLeuk+, are not being euthanized left and right as media and Lin Marie supporters would have you believe"
That's awesome to hear! :) I was really sad when I heard some of the cats were being euthanized. That totally defeats the purpose of all of her hard work.

I'm also glad the animals are being well taken care of. :)

Hopefully this all ends well and Lin can go back to what she was doing. Maybe she'll have a limit set on the number of cats she can have at the facility so this doesn't happen again.
Then again, I guess that still wouldn't stop people from just dumping their cats off there unannounced.
I'm just wondering what the solution to all of this is at this point.

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left_on_red
2008-04-04 04:01 am UTC (link)

Let's all understand that the charges weren't dismissed because this woman was "found innocent" or anything like that. The fact that they weren't specific enough as a matter of law should not be equated with innocence.

Whatever this woman's intentions and moral theory, I can't reconcile "innocence" with "allowing hundreds of cats to suffer and die in pain." If you take in animals, you accept an obligation to care for them, not to let them starve and go without medical care. It's a social contract. My own morals would be appalled if she simply went back to what she was doing.

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jcipa
2008-04-04 05:15 am UTC (link)

Whatever happened to innocent until proved guilty?

I love animals. I have two rescued cats, my family has five rescued cats and a rescued dog. I volunteer at an animal shelter. I was just as appalled as everyone to hear what the SPCA was claiming about TR. However, everything that the SPCA has claimed is in dispute and the SPCA's integrity is under question (they delayed a raid so that they could have Animal Planet film it?). So how about we wait and see what actual facts come out before claiming that she starved animals?

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	rapier1 2008-04-04 01:28 pm UTC (link)
	Innocent until proven guilty is a legal concept useful in a court of law. So while its a nice idea it really doesn't have much traction outside of the legal system. I think the real problem people are having is that a bunch of "outsiders" came into our backyard and told everyone how messy it was. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

jcipa
2008-04-04 01:45 pm UTC (link)

I see someone who is a polarizing figure for her practices have a lot of incredible allegations made against her, and those making the allegations have a credibility issue. Isn't it the prudent thing to wait and see what the actual facts are before we bring out the tar and feathers?

Re: outiders-- do you agree with the allegations that every single humane officer in western Pennsylvania is completely down with the alleged abuse at TR? I really find that difficult to believe. If I were a humane agent who had nothing to do with TR, I would be pissed that I wasn't approached in the first place and further pissed that I'm characterized as complicit in alleged animal abuse.

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left_on_red
2008-04-05 12:34 am UTC (link)

Innocent until proven guilty is a legal term. A jury should not have made up its mind before considering all the evidence. I am not a jury, nor would I be selected to serve on a jury for this case because I don't live in Allegheny County.

You can certainly doubt the facts if you want to, but when animals are starving and dying and nothing is done to ease their suffering, I call that abuse. I call that horrific. Whether or not the raid was delayed, and whatever the SPCA's other motives, the result was a discovery of suffering cats. I'm also pretty sure that the way she disposed of the dead bodies is illegal. I'm not positive about Allegheny County's laws on it, but it would be illegal in my county.

You can have your view on it, but I disagree.

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	Charges Refiled... cpdavngr 2008-04-04 05:38 pm UTC (link)
	Charges against cat shelter owner will be refiled Apparently the defense attorney stated that he couldn't make a decent defense case based on the way the charges were presented. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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