Woman faces 20 animal cruelty charges
| Monday, Feb 08 2010 04:52 PM
Last Updated Monday, Feb 08 2010 04:52 PM
A woman with connections to convicted animal abuser Cynthia Gudger was arrested Monday on animal abuse charges of her own.
Kim Maggio, 49, of Frazier Park was evicted from her home on Elm Trail just before 10 a.m. Monday as a result of a bank foreclosure, a Kern County Sheriff's Department report stated.
During the eviction, which was attended by Kern County Animal Control and Code Enforcement officers, seven dogs, 12 cats and one rat were found living inside the home in "deplorable" conditions without fresh water.
One dead dog was in a freezer.
Most of the living dogs were small breeds, according to Lt. Dennis Smithson of the Kern County Sheriff's Department, who was at the home Monday morning.
The sheriff's report states that some of the animals' legs were covered in feces.
Inside the home the stench of urine and feces was so strong that it burned officers eyes and throats, reports stated.
Smithson said they didn't expect to find the terrible conditions in the home.
"We knew there were going to be a lot of animals," he said.
Animal control and code enforcement officials were there to take custody of whatever animals were found.
What they found was an unsanitary environment.
"It was pretty bad," Smithson said. "There was dog feces; you had to walk pretty carefully to get around it. There was no water. I mean there were water dishes but they were filled with urine and dog feces and what might have originally been water."
And the small three-level house, apparently, could have been home to more animals.
Smithson said there were travel kennels stacked against one wall of the house three deep and five long.
"She had room for more," he said.
Kern County Animal Control Director Guy Shaw said that Maggio, who was aware that the Sheriff's Department would be evicting her Monday, had reportedly moved a number of other animals to at least one other location.
The county is also concerned about the condition of those animals, he said.
"We're going to continue our investigation on that," Shaw said.
Smithson said Maggio faces 20 counts of animal abuse -- one for each one of the animals found in her care at the time of her arrest.
This isn't the first time Maggio's name has been connected to stories about Kern County animal abuse.
In 2008 Maggio tried to convince a Kern County Superior Court commissioner to give her the animals that Kern County Animal Control officers had seized from convicted animal abuser Cynthia Gudger -- who was then on trial for the charges.
Maggio told the court she was an agent of VIVA, a Lompoc rescue group, and would transfer the animals to their shelter.
But VIVA founder and treasurer Shirley Cram said she had never heard of Maggio and that Maggio was not acting on behalf of her rescue.
Maggio also has a checkered past with animal control, including complaints of barking and at least one case in which she cleaned up her home after it was found to be in substandard condition, Shaw said.
