| Patricia Aline Abezis, Michael Sickler and Tracy Ann Pennington |
116 counts of failure to provide sustenance |
Accord, NY |
Nov. 7, 2002 |
(Photo of Michael Sickler, holding a dog in the kennel
area at Patty's Angels. Photo courtesy of Bob Haines of the Daily Freeman)
On Nov. 7, 2002, SPCA enforcement officers and Ulster County sheriff's deputies
arrested Patricia Abezis, 48, along with assistants Michael Sickler, 52, and
Tracy Ann Pennington, 44, at the 412 Whitfield Road shelter in Accord. An
indictment listing 116 misdemeanor counts of failure to provide sustenance
to an animal charged that 92 dogs, 24 cats and numerous hens and rabbits were
found without food and water and that kennels were contaminated with feces
and standing water.
Ulster
County Sheriff's deputies, the County SPCA Law Enforcement Unit and the District
Attorney's office conducted the probe that led to the arrests.
Thirty animals were seized and still reside at the SPCA facility in the town
of Ulster. About 100 animals remain with Abezis as she and her employees fight
the charges in Rochester Town Court.
This is not Abezis' first run-in with animal welfare authorities. She was
charged in April 2000 with five counts of failure to provide sustenance to
a dog, though those charges were later dropped.
Patty's Angel's Animal Rescue facility began in 1997.
At Patty's Angels, on a narrow mountain road beyond the Accord Speedway, a
thick sheet of ice and snow covers the grounds. Inside the 17th-century stone
farmhouse, dogs in training cages and others running loose create a cacophony
of barks, whines and howls as a visitor enters. The rusty training cages,
which leave just enough room for a dog to stand up and turn around, are open
on the bottom and rest on a buckling wooden floor. Most have a single blanket
inside.
The rooms in the house are dim and bare, except for a few pieces of battered
furniture and the training crates. A walk through the house reveals about
20 dogs, loose and caged, in four rooms. Five more are outside in a run attached
to the house.
Abezis said the dogs in the house are caged only at night and at feeding time.
On this day, they have been locked up so they will not stampede a visitor,
she said.
Pennington said all the dogs in the house get outdoor exercise twice a day.
The exercise periods range from 20 minutes in bad weather to three hours when
it is warm, said Pennington, who began working for room and board one day
before the November raid.
Inside a long blue wooden kennel, pens about 4 feet square and holding dozens
of dogs line each wall. Larger enclosures stand in the center of the two wings
of the kennel. Here, too, some dogs are confined to training cages.
All of the pens lining the walls have small doors, which are opened by a pulley
system, that lead to outdoor runs 5 feet wide and about 50 feet long. Most
of the dogs have a pen to themselves. A few contain two dogs.
In each pen, a plastic sleeping pallet rests on the concrete floor. The outdoor
runs, which appear cleaner than in the photos taken by the SPCA, are still
layered with a coating of dog waste frozen into the ice that covers the runs.
"We have to go at it with a pick and shovel to get it clean," Abezis
said. "We are still working on that."
About six cats live in a barn loft with chicken wire running down the center
to prevent escape. A cradle and baby carriage piled with blankets are the
only visible source of heat, and the litter boxes contain more waste than
litter.
All of the dogs shown to a visitor had food and water, and none appeared to
be emaciated or outwardly ill. The only visible injury was to a pit bull in
a training cage in the house: It had a large, pink sore on its nose. Sickler
held up a soiled dog bed and explained the animal rubbed his nose raw on it.
Abezis admits the facility is "not the prettiest place," explaining
the death of her husband, Steven, in 2000 after a long battle with cancer
and her own health problems have made it difficult to carry out her original
plan to completely renovate the house and kennel. Still, she insists the animals
are well-cared for.
"Not for one minute were these animals not fed," Abezis said. Abezis,
a Delta Air Lines flight attendant and Long Island native, blamed the November
arrests on a former employee who, angry that she would not bail him out of
jail on a drunk driving charge, told authorities the animals were not being
fed. To back up her claim, Abezis referred to an affidavit filed by Middletown
veterinarian Dr. Paul Johnson on Nov. 22 that reads: "After review of
approximately 130 animals located at (the facility), I was able to ascertain
that all animals received necessary food, water, shelter and care."
Christine French, director of the Ulster County SPCA said that Abezis, in
her zeal to rescue abused and abandoned animals, has become overwhelmed.
"That facility was designed to hold a certain number of animals, and
now it is overcrowded and understaffed," French said. She points to a
small white terrier mix seized from the shelter as evidence the dogs may be
confined to cages for longer periods than Abezis claims. The dog races frantically
back and forth through a small doorway leading to an outdoor run for about
five minutes straight. "That is not a sane dog," French said.
Abezis said many of the shelter's problems are caused by harassment from the
SPCA. The arrests, she claims, have made it difficult to find employees and
volunteers. Meanwhile, publicity surrounding the criminal case a warning about
Patty's Angels on the Internet has caused donations to the non-profit corporation
to drop to almost zero.
But Abezis is confident she will beat the charges and continue her mission
to find homes for adoptable animals and provide sanctuary for the rest. "This
work never stops because animal abuse never stops," she said. "Some
of these dogs will never find homes, but at least they won't be killed."
Abezis, Sickler and Pennington were issued appearance tickets to Rochester
Town Court on December 4th 2002 for the misdemeanor charges.
Update January 14, 2005: More than two years have gone by and the case
has yet to go to trial in the Rochester Town Court. Repeated delays due to
changes in defense counsel and lack of jurors. District Attorney Donald A.
Williams said his office is ready for trial but can’t control the delays at
the Rochester Town Court.
The more seriously ill animals were removed and the remaining animals placed
in the custody of the SPCA but allowed to remain at the Whitfield Road sanctuary
due to a lack of space at the agency's shelter. Abezis was barred from taking
in any more animals and ordered to submit to regular inspections of the sanctuary
by police and SPCA officials.
At the SPCA, meanwhile, Campbell says inspections are hampered by a court
order that requires all law-enforcement and animal control officials to give
Abezis two hours' notice before coming onto the property and forbids them
from entering the farmhouse, where investigators observed at least 20 dogs
confined to small training crates in November 2002.
The sanctuary has undergone renovations including major improvements to electrical
and heating systems. Employee Walter Relyea said there now are between 45
and 50 animals at the sanctuary and that he had seen no new animals taken
in since he began working there in May.
Relyea
said the only animals that had been taken in were boarded there for short
periods of time by owners who had adopted them from the shelter.
Abezis blames her arrest on a former employee who neglected the animals over
a weekend when she was out of town. Abezis said she continues to rescue animals
but that all of them are kept at foster homes and none enter her property.
Update 10/12/05:
Abezis and Pennington have been sentenced to probation for 3 years with unannounced inspections, rights, forfeiture of all animals. prohibited from owning or caring for more than 2 animals for life, mental health evaluations, and 40 hours of community service. An $80,000 restitution is requested by the ADA. Abeziss is appealing the case.
Originally Abezis, Pennington and Sickler were charged with 119 misdemeanor counts of animal neglect for 92 dogs, 24 cats and several hens & rabbits without sufcient food or drinking water, in kennels full and contaminated ithaging feces, urine and standing water.
Abezis was convicted on 38 counts of neglect and Pennington on 6 counts. Charges against Sickler were dropped.
The case took so long for the conviction because 2 previous trials in June 2004 and March 2005 ended in mistrials. One was caused by a change in defense council and the other by lack of jurors.
References:
The Times Herald Record
Cable 6 TV
The Daily Freeman
Animal People News
Animal Legal Defense Fund