Dogs sold illegally for profit in Northeast US

Recent animal cruelty charges in New Jersey against a Newton woman have exposed the hidden practice of selling rescued dogs for profit. The animals, often gotten for free or at minimal cost, are taken to states in the northeast and sold as part of established underground businesses.

Jessica Isenhour was recently charged with eight civil counts and seven criminal counts of animal cruelty. Isenhour, 33, operates an organization called “Saving Fur Kids,” which is based in Newton, according to information from the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The organization found several animals Isenhour sold or adopted had Canine parvovirus, commonly known as parvo. The animals were sold in and around Lambertville, New Jersey.

Isenhour is not the only one who is taking animals from the state and the south to the north, sources have told the Record, for adoption or sale. Isenhour said all anyone has to do is go onto www.petfinder.com to see all the rescue groups.

Pulling dogs from rural animal shelters for the purpose of selling them up north has become a sort of underground business, said Kim Alboum, NC state director for the Humane Society of the United States.

While she believes there are reputable organizations and people that also are pulling from shelters to adopt out in other states, there are others who act as animal brokers.

Rural animal shelters typically have more animals with less chance of adoption, and shelter officials are desperate to get them out the front door rather than having them going out the back (being euthanized), Alboum said.

The only way to get a better handle on the situation, Alboum said, is for shelters to make sure the organizations or people taking animals for adoption in other states or areas are reputable and credentialed.

Sometimes there is a middleman or group who takes the animal to its final owner. That person or group also needs to be credentialed, she said. Many times, she said, there is a tangled web of foster homes.

The state’s pet overpopulation has made it a target for disreputable rescue organizations and people.

And the way to cut down on the overpopulation of animals to have a licensing law where an animal would be licensed through its veterinarian, Alboum said. Those owners with dogs or cats that have been spayed or neutered would pay significantly less than those with dogs or cats that are not, Alboum said. The licensing would be done through veterinarians and the fee would go to local shelters, she said.

Her organization conducts community outreach events and recently held a low-cost vaccination and spay/neuter clinic in Caldwell County, Alboum said. It was amazing, she said, to see how many animals came in that were not spayed or neutered.

“There’s just no incentive,” Alboum said.

However, county’s that have tried licensing has run up against hunter organizations and their lobbyists, Alboum said. Those who hunt with dogs don’t want to have to pay a fee, she said.

Alboum said Brunswick and Lenoir counties are overcrowded and desperate but commissioners caved in a fight with those who hunt with dogs when it was trying to come up with stricter rules.

“It’s incredibly frustrating,” Alboum said. She said shelters can’t continue to bear more and more at a time when they are short-staffed and funding is being cut.

“Our county commissioners need to take a stand against the hunting lobby and put licensing differentials in place,” Alboum said.

At some point, she said, the community has to take responsibility and help the shelters out, saying they’re the first point of rescue for many animals.

Isenhour an example of what’s wrong

New Jersey is vigorously going after people who bring animals into the state to sell them illegally.

“The fact of the matter is Ms. Isenhour was not operating an animal rescue operation, she was hiding behind the alleged animal rescue veil to operate a for-profit puppy mill or pet dealership that sold sick dogs in the State of New Jersey” said Rick Yocum, president of NJSPCA.

 “New Jersey state law requires that pet dealers have each animal examined by a licensed New Jersey veterinarian prior to the sale of that animal. Ms. Isenhour failed to provide veterinarian examinations by a NJ licensed veterinarian prior selling her animals. Her failure to follow state law resulted in the death of several puppies and the resultant animal cruelty charges.”

But Isenhour, who has foster homes in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York, denies the charges, asking how long she’s supposed to be responsible for an animal and its health. She said the animal that started the investigation of her by New Jersey officials died 11 days after it left her care. The dog got sick six days after it left her care, Isenhour says, and the owners didn’t take it to a veterinarian when it first became ill.

She said the contract between “Saving Fur Kids” and the adoptee the animal should be taken to a vet before it is taken home. She said all of her animals are vaccinated, spay/neutered, micro chipped and goes home with a health certificate.

New Jersey law requires a veterinarian examination for an animal that is sold, said Matt Stanton, spokesman for the NJSPCA. Selling animals, rather than adopting them, is what the NJSPCA believes Isenhour was doing. Stanton said Isenhour was in the retail business.

He said lot of people start as a rescue organization but then get greedy. He said she probably started out with good intentions. But, he said, NJSPCA has received six or seven calls at least from people who have dealt with Isenhour and were not happy.

Blatche: Animals not from Catawba shelter

Jay Blatche, manager of Catawba County Animal Services, knows Isenhour but said she doesn’t take animals from the county shelter to adopt out or sell.

He said an investigator with New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals called and asked whether she receives her dogs from him and he told him no. The investigator, who called months ago, said he was investigating her for illegally selling animals in New Jersey.

Blatche said when he took over as director of the shelter four years ago, he stopped people from pulling animals from the shelter who don’t have nonprofits. He said the county animal shelter is very selective about who pulls animals from the shelter. The shelter verifies the organizations background, paperwork and health certificates.

Blatche said if dogs or cats are taken across state lines for the purposes of adoption or sale, they have to have health certificates, which would include vaccines and whether the animal is healthy. Each state has its own set of laws about what’s required, and it’s up to an individual to make sure they’re complying with those state laws.

Blatche said he’s sure New Jersey wouldn’t have a problem with someone adopting out or selling animals if they follow the rules and regulations.

Isenhour says any dogs she adopts out are spayed/neutered, dewormed, vaccinated and micro chipped and given a clean bill of health from a veterinarian. She denies that she’s in it for the money, saying what she charges is to cover her costs — gas, tolls and other expenses — to transport the animals to the north for adoption.

Some who call themselves animal rescuers do have sick animals, say animal rights officials, and some have been the subject of investigations and seizures of the animals.

Dr. Lee Hunter, director of animal welfare for the NC Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, said it’s not just a matter of getting a vet to say your animal is healthy. He said someone taking an animal out of North Carolina into another state for adoption or sale has to meet the requirements of the state of destination. State requirements are on the USDA’s web site under “importation requirements,” he said.

Hunter said a lot of people start rescuing animals with the best of intentions and there are some who are moving animals across state lines improperly and causing problems for those who do it the right way. One county shelter in the eastern part of the state has been banned from adopting out animals in a Midwestern state, he said.

And some rescue groups get in over their head or become animal hoarders. Hunter said he was called to look into a private shelter in the north central part of the state. When he got to the shelter, he found dead dogs and dogs eating other dogs.

Hunter said he worries that those who don’t adopt out animals in other states properly, those states will close off adoptions to animals from our state. And that would mean North Carolina would have to euthanize more animals, he said.

David Campbell, president of Burke County Friends for Animals, said Burke County Friends for Animals saves a lot of animals that otherwise would be euthanized. The animals, he said, are spayed or neutered and have their necessary shots. He said no sick dogs are taken north for adoption.

There are 260,000 animals euthanized each year in the state, Alboum said.

Problems in Burke

Burke County Friends for Animals is one group in the area that has taken dogs north for adoption. That organization was in turmoil for several months in 2009, with board members raising questions about clinical and administrative practices. One of the questions was about taking dogs north for adoption and money from those adoptions not being properly accounted for, board members said at the time, according to stories in The News Herald.

Thers is nothing illegal or improper in what is happening with the Burke County Friends now.

Campbell said the organization takes animals up to the Vermont and New Hampshire area to sell. But being an animal rescue is not a lucrative business.

Campbell said workers bring back several thousand dollars each time but that money is used to pay part of a worker’s salary and the rest goes back into the organization. He said the dogs taken north can bring $200 to $300 each.

Marsha Riddle is a former board member and treasurer of Burke County Friends for Animals. She said, depending on the breed of the dog, they sometimes could get up to $600 for a dog. And many of those dogs are the most coveted or trendy.

“I always felt like they took the desirable dogs up north, but that was my opinion,” Riddle said.

But it’s money the organization may otherwise not get.

“We tend to make a little bit of money on it, and god knows we need some money,” Campbell said.

Campbell said donations to the nonprofit are few and far between now. Sometimes it doesn’t have enough money to pay the bills, he said. The organization hopes to sell some property left to it from an estate to keep it going.

“We don’t have any money,” Campbell said. “There’s no waste there.”

Isenhour said she doesn’t make money from adopting out animals to new homes. She breaks even, she said.