Declaration: LB's Animal Control Did Not Help Load

A key assertion in the Hearts for Hounds animal cruelty case was altered Wednesday when the rescue shelter's spokesman said Long Beach animal control may not have helped load crated dogs into a U-Haul Jan. 15.

One of two witness descriptions to Hearts for Hounds spokesman Jay Williams either changed or was misunderstood, Williams said Wednesday. Williams, a Belmont Heights paralegal, had taken the shelter volunteers' statements by phone, then had them type them up, notarized at their different locations and forwarded to defense attorneys in Tennessee.

But an email exchange with Patch from one of the volunteers, Sylvia Gyimesi, raised doubt about the claim that an animal control officer at the Hearts for Hounds shelter helped load numerous crated dogs. And when Williams was able to read the affidavits presented to a trial judge Tuesday, he found no mention of that in them.

The (attached) were submitted by the defense attorneys Tuesday in arguing that the women were following what they allege was Long Beach Animal Control direction in loading more than double their planned cargo of dogs. This was because animal control was reportedly concerned about supervision of the remaining dogs with Hearts' Bonnie Sheehan gone.

Sheehan, longtime director of the non-profit Hearts for Hounds rescue shelter, and a volunteer, Pamela King-McCracken, were arrested Jan. 17 on felony animal cruelty by a Tennessee state trooper. He was quoted in a court affidavit that he made an 8:30 a.m. traffic stop on Interstate 40 outside Memphis because a U-Haul, towing a minivan, was tailgating an 18-wheeler. When he heard sustained barking he asked if he could check out the vehicles and found what he said was 141 dogs in the two vehicles, and one cat.

He termed the U-Haul "a horrible environment" and stated there was no food or water in the vehicles. He quoted Sheehan saying there were 60 dogs in the U-Haul and 40 in the minivan the truck towed, but he later used 141. Other local news outlets put the number at 148.One of the dogs was dead, and while it was suggested it died from the journey, details on that differed. Memphis area animal rescue volunteers swooped in to help care for the Hearts dogs.

Sheehan, 55, of Long Beach, and King-McCracken, 59, of Garden Grove, each own property in Virginia, where they'd planned to relocate the menagerie to Sheehan's large acreage. They were each out on $100,000 bail that was posted prior to their Tuesday court hearing. Their preliminary hearing was delayed until Feb. 21, in part due to the declarations that suggested a murkier story of the move than originally painted.

Long Beach Animal Control Services awaits results of an outside investigation it commissioned into the city agency's role in recent Hearts for Hounds contacts, including a visit the week before the U-Haul left Long Beach. A statement it released is attached and lays out dates. A complaint of barking and odor, then a reported dead dog, prompted an agency visit, which found a significant excess in the number of dogs onsite. (There was no dead dog found, nor other citation.)

John Keisler, who was acting director of LBACS until recently, has said in prior tories that in February, 2010, Hearts for Hounds had almost double its permitted capacity of dogs. That would be 150 versus 75 dogs, but findings were that all the animals were in good health. Keisler has said animal services worked with Sheehan to bring that number down over the next eight months.

It was her excess dogs that allegedly propelled events that led to her deciding to relocate the dogs from Long Beach to property near Roanoke, Virginia.

Other key points in the case:

--Sheehan and a 20-year shelter volunteer are driving back from Tennessee to Long Beach, but she will not be in the dog adoption trade for the immediate future. Though the rent was paid through January, the city closed Hearts for Hounds on the day of the Tennessee arrests, after a prior scheduled visit found the shelter being run in an owner's absence. The city said it took custody of 19 dogs--some being boarded for vacationers--that are being sheltered until owners are located.

--The pair of witness affidavits agree that a caller reported the U-Haul loading and that uniformed officers and later an animal control officer were aware of the planned dog move, as was an off-site animal control staffer named Susan. The animal control officer was not named but described as petite, blond and pony-tailed. She made two afternoon visits to the U-Haul loading, and took photos of the U-Haul loading, though it wasn't clear why.

--Contrary to the state trooper's statement, a volunteer-witness observed trash bags full of dog food, and gallons of water.

--Sheehan assured the city officials that she'd made the dog haul to Virginia with 30 dogs and they did fine, and nearly all found homes in the Roanoke area.

--One of the volunteers draped a St. Francis of Assisi medallion on one of the dog crates.

--In perhaps one of the worst calculations in the trip, Sheehan intended to drive the roughly 39 hours to Virginia "straight through" in what she concluded would be the best interest of the dogs: to avoid belaboring the journey. But friends said they made frequent stops to refuel because the weight load of vehicles was getting about 10 miles per gallon. King-McCracken told a friend who was driving Sheehan back to Long Beach that the dogs were definitely fed during the journey and they had been fed the morning of the arrests.