Scores of animals removed from home of embattled rescuer
| Thursday, Jul 08 2010 07:00 PM
Last Updated Friday, Jul 09 2010 05:33 PM
Images
Cages line the walls at the Humane Society of the United States' temporary shelter at the county fairgrounds on Friday. The HSUS came to Bakersfield from the Washington, D.C. area to assist when a Tehachapi woman surrendered over 130 dogs to the county.
Kimi Peck watches as Kern County sherriff's deputies arrive to evict her from her home on Thursday. Peck ran a rescue operation and kept more than 150 dogs at her house and an adjacent building.
A friend watches as Susan Marlowe and Kimi Peck hug. Marlowe is the owner of the property where Peck lives, and had evicted her from the property earlier in the morning.
One of Kimi Peck's assistants carries a dog into the Humane Society of the United States' trailer as a viedeographer from the HSUS films. Peck surrendered over 150 dogs to the county on Thursday.
United Animal Nations volunteers Ida Noack, left, and Laura Wright check a dog's papers at the temporary shelter at the county fairgrounds on Thursday. A Tehachapi woman surrendered over 130 dogs to the county. The dogs were taken to the temporary shelter for veterinary assessment before being sent on for adoption.
Volunteers lead two dogs into the temporary shelter set up at the county fairgrounds on Thursday. Several volunteer groups came to Bakersfield to assist when Kimi Peck, a Tehachapi woman surrender over 130 dogs to the county.
A high-profile battle between a controversial Tehachapi animal rescuer and the county culminated Thursday with the removal of 144 dogs, 13 cats, and several chickens, rabbits, rats and other animals from a Bear Valley Road home.
Kimi Peck signed control of her animals over to Kern County Animal Control. And, with Peck’s assistance, the Humane Society of the United States removed the dogs from the property in two 75-foot-long animal rescue trucks.
The animals were driven to a shelter at the Kern County Fairgrounds in Bakersfield. They will be given medical and behavioral evaluations and cared for there for a few days.
Adam Parascandola, who led the Humane Society effort, said when the animals are ready for a longer drive they will be transferred to trusted rescue groups in Northern California who will be able to care for each animal’s individual needs.
The goal is to have as many animals as possible end up in new homes.
Parascandola said it took weeks to set up the transfer and bring the needed resources together from across the nation.
Kern County Animal Control Director Guy Shaw said his department simply does not have the resources to take that many additional animals.
“For a local county this would overburden their shelter. It would force them to euthanize more animals,” Parascandola said.
GOOD CONDITION
Parascandola said, at first glance, Peck’s animals were in good condition.
“She made a very good effort to care for her dogs,” he said.
But the buildings had the smell “you might expect” and there was the mess that any large group of dogs in a confined area creates, Parascandola said. Some of the dogs needed a bath and a nail-clipping and they all needed attention.
Humane Society spokesperson Jordan Crump said Peck planned to keep a small number of the dogs.
“I am voluntarily relinquishing my own animals with the understanding that they will all go to the Humane Society and not one will be euthanized,” Peck said.
In the past she has said she would love to be free of the responsibility of caring for the animals but couldn’t abandon them to a lethal injection.
Peck said Thursday that she is moving on — hoping to do a reality-television show. And there may be a book deal and a screenplay deal in her future, she said.
Peck said the eviction, though, didn’t come without some good.
“There is a silver-lining in every cloud. It took this to get the Humane Society to come,” she said.
EVICTION
Thursday morning started when Beverly Hills CPA Susan Marlowe, a friend of Peck’s for nearly a decade, evicted her from the property.
“I’m really, really sorry that I’ve had to evict Kimi,” Marlowe said. “My concern has always been for the welfare of the animals.”
Humane Society teams gathered at Cummings Valley Elementary on Bear Valley Road just after 9 a.m. while Kern County sheriff’s deputies and Shaw’s team drove down the road to talk with Peck.
Peck, who has been talking to Shaw and the Humane Society about Thursday for weeks, was prepared for them.
Sheriff’s deputies, greeted by explosions of barking every time they opened a door, searched the stone-accented yellow ranch home and its long warehouse building to make sure they were secure while news teams clustered in the driveway, their camera’s firing.
Once the legal papers were signed, the Humane Society backed two transport trucks — driven from bases in Maryland and Tennessee — up to the warehouse.
Volunteers threw up a mobile command post under shade shelters and began putting together stacks of dog carriers while local veterinarians prepared to check and triage the animals.
Peck picked the animals she would keep and then volunteers began bringing dogs out.
Crump said each animal was photographed and given a numbered tag before being carried into the trucks.
PECK’S STORY
Peck moved to Tehachapi several years ago after her animal rescue group in Burbank was investigated by animal control officials there.
She moved into a home on Water Canyon Road in the hills south of Tehachapi with around 200 dogs. Her presence quickly became controversial as neighbors complained about noise and smell from the property.
Animal control officers, who inspected Peck’s operation regularly, were concerned that she had too many animals to care for but routinely reported that her pets had food, water and basic necessities.
It was ultimately land use laws that caused Peck problems in Tehachapi.
In early 2009, Kern County supervisors ruled Peck was running an animal rescue out of the home on Water Canyon without required land use approvals.
Peck argued that the animals were her personal pets and, since she licensed them, she was not violating the law.
But supervisors, relying on photos of her home on the web page of a rescue group that appeared to offer her animals for adoption, rejected her arguments.
To escape the problem, Marlowe let Peck move into the home on Bear Valley Road.
But the Bear Valley Road home — where convicted animal abuser Cynthia Gudger and around 60 animals were found living amid piles of trash and feces in 2008 — was also on land zoned for agriculture.
Peck was, once again, cited by the county and supervisors leveled steep financial penalties against both her and Marlowe.
Peck said she was not allowed to adopt animals out and the situation became too much for her to handle.
Marlowe said she eventually had to make the tough decision to evict Peck.
END OF THE ROAD
“I think she’s an angel for picking up every animal on the side of the road — every animal that has been kicked in the face and abandoned. But I don’t think the conditions here are the best for the number of animals there are,” Marlowe said.
Thursday morning the two women avoided each other for long minutes then exchanged nervous words.
Tears began to flow and the two collapsed into a hug that led to a long, emotion-filled discussion far from the cameras and microphones.
Peck said Thursday was the end of her animal rescue story.
“I will never, ever get back into animal rescue again,” she said. “It’s full of dysfunctional people.”
