Published: November 17, 2007 12:48 am         

SNAP fund saves another animal

MANKATO — It’s too early to call it an animal abuse trend. But it’s causing concern.

Consider the case of Pixie, a brown and white cat brought into the Blue Earth/Nicollet County Humane Society with a tail that looked like something out of a Stephen King novel.

Best they can tell is that it was subjected to cruel treatment, and possibly its tail had been set afire. A veterinarian amputated Pixie’s tail this week.

Or Jenny, the Boston terrier who was nearly starved to death by an owner who refused to feed it or let it out of its kennel regularly. By the time it got help, its fur was stained from urine and feces and it was, humane society officials say, days from death. (Jenny’s situation resulted in criminal charges. See related story below.)

Or Apollo, the kitten found mid-February with its hind legs duct-taped together, who eventually lost one of those legs when daily, around-the-clock care couldn’t save it.

And there are others.

“I don’t know if it’s a rash or if we’re just more aware of it,” said Katherine Nelson, a member of the BENCHS board of directors. “Maybe it just seems like more because we are so involved with them all ... It’s like child abuse. It’s always been there. But people are talking about it more now.”

These animals all came through the BENCHS facility where all benefited from a relatively new program called the SNAP (Save Neglected and Abused Pets) fund.

The SNAP fund was started when the humane society was hit with a run of severe animal abuse cases that required costly medical treatment.

Apollo, a dog named Hope with a leg broken in two places and a pair of shi tzus dropped off at the shelter one morning — Felix and Oscar — all arrived at the shelter needing help.

Katherine Nelson, a member of the BENCHS board of directors, said care for Apollo and Hope surpassed $2,000.

“If we take that out of the general fund, we wouldn’t have money to buy food for the animals,” Nelson said.

The SNAP fund is strictly dedicated to animals in need of extreme care. In Apollo’s case, she was transported to a Sioux Falls vet hospital for hip surgery. Another cat that benefited from SNAP fund surgery needed BBs removed from one of it eyes. The cat was adopted by an intern at the pet hospital who assisted during surgery.

Jenny, the Boston terrier, was severely undernourished when she was rescued. Nicollet vet Gala Beckendorf described her in a report filed in Blue Earth County District Court: “Extremely emaciated body condition; dogs are scored on a scale 1 to 9; she was less than a 1 in my opinion; her condition was merely skin over bone with very minimal musculature left.”

“People need to take care of their animals,” Nelson said. “Animals like Jenny, she lived in that house with this person. She walked by this dog every day.”

Julia Gosen, animal impound officer for the city of Mankato, said she hasn’t seen an increase in the amount of clear-cut animal abuse. In fact, she said no can be certain that Pixie, the cat with the amputated tail, was abused. And she’s right. Pixie could have wandered too close to a candle or fireplace.

“We don’t know what happened to that cat. It’s tough to say unless you have someone come forward and say ‘I saw what happened,’” Gosen said. “True abuse and neglect is, thankfully, pretty rare.”

But it still happens.

Nelson said a very underfed German short-hair was found wandering the Lincoln Park area of town recently.

“I’ve never seen anything like that in my entire life,” Nelson said of the dog’s condition.

That dog was too far gone to be saved and had to be euthanized.

“If you can’t afford it, ask for help. Call us. Say ‘Hey, I’m in dire straits, I’m desperate!’ We will help,” Nelson said. “If we can’t help, maybe we know someone who can help. But an animal shouldn’t have to suffer the way this dog did.”

Animal abuse case going to court

The former owner of a Boston terrier found severely undernourished has been charged with animal mistreatment and will appear in court Monday.

Janice Marie Stolee, 23, 101 Mayan Way, has been charged in Blue Earth County District Court. She’s accused of failing to properly care for a dog that would later be judged by a veterinarian as “extremely emaciated.”

Stolee could not be reached for comment.

Authorities say they first met the dog — named Gizmo when Stolee had it, and later named Jenny by Humane Society volunteers — when Stolee herself brought it to the Mankato impound Aug. 16.

Stolee reportedly told authorities she’d found the dog running lose in Buscher Park. Animal impound office Julia Gosen took the dog in, noting the urine- and feces-stained fur on its paws.

The dog was immediately turned over to the Blue Earth Nicollet County Humane Society for emergency treatment.

A short time later, the humane society received an anonymous call identifying the dog’s owner. Volunteers forwarded that information to Gosen, who ran the name through a state driver’s license database. Gosen saw a driver’s license photograph and recognized it as Stolee, the same person who claimed to have found the dog wandering lose.

Gosen contacted Stolee, who then said she’d given the dog to an ex-boyfriend in April and hadn’t seen the dog since. Gosen contacted the ex-boyfriend, who told Gosen that when the pair broke up, he left the dog with Stolee.

When confronted with this information, authorities say Stolee then admitted, “Fine, Gizmo is my dog.”

Authorities also contacted River Hills Pet Care Hospital, where records show Stolee had brought Gizmo in a year earlier for an eye injury. Other records showed that not long before the Gizmo incident, Stolee had brought another dog she owned to the hospital for veterinary care.

When asked why she had the money to bring Zippy in and not Gizmo, Stolee reportedly stated she’d borrowed money from her mother for Zippy’s care but wasn’t able to borrow money to help Gizmo.