84 Dogs Found Abandoned,

[Shae]

84 Dogs Found Abandoned, Woman Sought
Authorities Suspect Woman Ran Puppy Mill

POSTED: 6:07 am MDT July 7, 2004
UPDATED: 4:24 pm MDT July 7, 2004

BERTHOUD, Colo. -- A woman who owned 84 dogs found abandoned in crates with little food or water has fled the state, authorities said.


Catherine Cariaso could face 84 charges of abandonment and animal cruelty, Larimer Humane Society officials said.

The crates stuffed with filthy dogs were stacked behind a barn near Berthoud. The landlord apparently went to the property on Saturday and found the dogs with a note that said, "Take them to the Larimer Humane Society."

An investigation is ongoing, but authorities suspect Cariaso may have been running a breeding operation to sell dogs to pet stores.

"This is not a normal boarding situation. This was not a normal breeding situation, this was tragedy," said Joe Olsen, president of the Larimer Humane Society. "Our entire shelter is in a state of somber shock."

Others working at the Larimer Humane Society said that they couldn't help but be horrified.


Authorities found the dogs, including nursing mothers and puppies, in different degrees of disease and filth.

Fifty-four of the animals, including 34 puppies, with untreatable physical and behavioral impairments were euthanized this week, the Humane Society said.

"Many had not seen the outside of a crate," Humane Society spokeswoman Cary Rentola said. "They were in really bad shape. The puppies themselves were sick. There was nothing we could do to help them."

The crates were so small that some of the dogs couldn't stand inside them. The disease-ridden and emaciated puppies had been without food or water for some time and many were languishing in their own feces and urine.

Three of the 30 surviving dogs have been placed in new homes so far. Others -- including 15 nursing puppies, four nursing mothers, three young puppies without mothers and five adults -- have to be nursed back to health, retrained and resocialized so they're no longer afraid of humans before they can be adopted.
Authorities are now searching for Catherine Cariaso in photo below