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Kern prosecuting more suspected hoarders
| Saturday, Aug 16 2008 12:00 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Aug 15 2008 1:18 PM
Hoarding animals isn’t a crime. Abusing animals is.
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Number of misdemeanor and felony animal abuse cases Kern County Animal Control has filed with the District Attorney’s office:
• 2004: 18
• 2005: 9
• 2006: 16
• 2007: 62
• 2008: (to date) 19
Photos:
Cindy Bemis waits for the start of a hearing last week in Kern County Superior Court. She's now scheduled to go on trial Oct. 14.
Cindy Bemis kisses one of her dogs at her home outside Mojave in this 2002 file photo.
Vince Rhoads walks by some of the more than 150 dogs he helps Cindy Bemis care for on a piece of desert land south of Mojave in this 2005 file photo.
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Some abuse cases seem clear — rail-thin dogs, severe injuries and corpses.
But every animal rescuer and kennel owner has his own concept of what abuse is, and many fight back when cornered.
The county once was reluctant to lock legal horns with suspected abusers.
A Mojave woman changed that.
FRESH EYES
Animal Control Chief Denise Haynes came on board in 2004. She had little experience in the field.
She told animal officers to politely encourage problem owners to meet animal care standards.
Dealing with animal rescuer Cindy Bemis changed Haynes’ attitude.
Bemis is a fire-tongued woman who has kept a shifting menagerie of 100 to 300 mutts, strays and shelter pooches in a hot plot of desert dirt near Mojave for nearly two decades.
She has always operated on the edge of what animal officers consider to be humane animal treatment.
And Haynes said the animal care standards slip if the threat of enforcement is not hanging over Bemis’ head.
Bemis says her animals have great care — food, water, shelter and medical care.
But evidence photos collected in raids of her property in April show a dog-gnawed dog corpse, empty medicine bottles and piles of trash in the mobile home where Bemis lives with 50 to 60 dogs and a number of cats.
Dogs in her care suffer from chronic mange.
ENFORCEMENT
“This is the worst case this department has had to deal with and we’ve had to deal with it for 17 years,” Haynes said. “We’re done. I had had enough. My officers had had enough. We have done everything we can within reason to work with this person.”
In 2006, Haynes got search warrants and conducted raids on Bemis’ property.
Bemis moved her animals to San Bernardino County, where she was quickly cited for land use violations and animal abuse.
She moved the dogs to a kennel in Los Angeles County. Los Angeles seized around 100 dogs within days.
So Bemis came back to Kern County.
And in 2007, Kern County arrested and prosecuted her for felony animal abuse. Bemis is scheduled to go on trial Oct. 14.
POINT OF VIEW
Sitting outside a Bakersfield courtroom Aug. 8, Bemis said animal control is persecuting her.
Bemis has sued Kern, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties in federal court for violating her civil rights.
Haynes, she claims, called the other counties when she left Kern in 2006 and plotted with them to hunt her down and take her animals.
Haynes said she doesn’t remember any such contact.
“I had contact with L.A. County after they had seized her 100 dogs,” Haynes said.
MORE TO COME
Kern County is stepping up its fight against animal abuse, and finding more cases of abuse as it goes.
“They’ve been out there. Now they’re just surfacing,” Haynes said.