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QuoteProtesters heckle women in cat case

By HARRY YANOSHAK
Bucks County Courier Times

Blanche Jones, 88, slowly moved past four sign-carrying protesters, set aside her walker and sat in her daughter's car. She reached around and tugged at the waterlogged cardboard sign stuck on the windshield.

She managed to rip off a small strip, not enough to alter what the handwritten sign proclaimed: "Justice. Remember All Their Suffering."

Her 51-year-old daughter, Carol Dewey, smiled, folded the sign and tossed it in the back of the car.

The protester responded: "Maybe you should read it."

Demonstrators outside a Bensalem district court Wednesday believe Jones and Dewey deserve harsh punishment.

They're charged with multiple counts of animal cruelty. Back-to-back raids by the Bucks County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals yielded almost an equal number of live and dead cats. The SPCA in April seized 22 cats and a dog living in fecal-laden carriers in an apartment the women were renting. The second raid at a house Jones owned on Hollins Road in Bensalem yielded bagged and boxed remains of more than 20 cats in various stages of decomposition, SPCA Executive Director Anne Irwin said.

"The conditions were horrific," county Assistant District Attorney Elissa Heinricks said.

Jones and Dewey face trial in county court in Doylestown. On Wednesday, they waived their right to a preliminary hearing before Senior District Judge Joan Hausman of Lehigh County. She substituted for District Judge Leonard Brown, who is recovering from back problems.

These cruelty charges aren't the first the women have faced.

In April 1992, they pleaded guilty to animal cruelty for keeping 105 cats in the Hollins Road home and an outdoor shed. They were forced to relinquish the cats. A few years later, the SPCA found them keeping too many cats again, Irwin said.

The organization worked out an agreement that allowed them to keep some cats, Irwin said. But the women continued to collect more and more pets, she said.

SPCA photographs taken during the April raids show "horrendous" images, the prosecutor said.

Each count of animal cruelty is a third-degree misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of one year in jail. Heinricks said it would be up to a judge to decide whether Jones, reportedly in poor health, and her daughter get jail time.

One cardboard sign asked for nothing less. "Jail a Must" read the sign carried by Donna Heffner of Bristol Township, who said she couldn't believe people could be so cruel to cats.

Jones and Dewey attended area cat shows as representatives of "Precious Paws," a cat-rescue organization. But instead of finding homes for the pets, the women kept them, the SPCA maintained.

Irwin has called the women "classic cat hoarders," referring to the term coined to describe people who keep too many pets to the point that it's unhealthy for the animals and the owners to share the same space.

Following the raids, Bensalem code enforcement and county health officials declared the home on Hollins Road uninhabitable. The place reeked of animal waste.

The women showed up at their hearing without a lawyer, but Dewey told Hausman she and her mother understood their rights and they would get an attorney before the trial.

Hausman denied a request by the women to visit the cats and dog confiscated in the apartment raid.

Dewey told the judge the pets were healthy while in their care.

Though they're not in police custody, the women are not allowed to own any pets - at least until the criminal case has ended. Brown in July imposed the "no pets" order after Dewey admitted to him she and her mother briefly cared for a tabby named "Speakers" following the raids.

Irwin said the SPCA houses the cats and dog in a special area at its headquarters in Buckingham. The animals are evidence in the criminal case and can't be adopted just yet, she said.

"We're prepared to care for them for the long haul," Irwin said.

Dewey, who carried a briefcase into court, found the protesters a spectacle to capture on film. She snapped two photographs of them as she and her mother left the courtroom.

"We want it to go to trial," Dewey said as she put away the briefcase, the contents of which contained what she called "documentation" of alleged unfair treatment by the SPCA and Irwin.

Quote from: MadMarchHare on October 13, 2005, 03:56:13 PM
C'mon, now, T, they're great in egg rolls.

Quote from: Tomahawk on October 13, 2005, 03:59:55 PM

Quote from: MadMarchHare on October 13, 2005, 03:56:13 PM
C'mon, now, T, they're great in egg rolls.

That's dog, foo'

Quote from: stillupfront on October 13, 2005, 04:31:01 PM

Quote from: Tomahawk on October 13, 2005, 03:59:55 PM

Quote from: MadMarchHare on October 13, 2005, 03:56:13 PM
C'mon, now, T, they're great in egg rolls.

That's dog, foo'

A greased cat is the raw material of my deepest fantasies.

Quote from: PhillyPhreak54 on October 13, 2005, 08:04:29 PM
They do nothing but swat at some yarn and shtein, eat and sleep all day.

Quote from: Jerome99RIP on October 13, 2005, 08:10:06 PM

Quote from: PhillyPhreak54 on October 13, 2005, 08:04:29 PM
They do nothing but swat at some yarn and shtein, eat and sleep all day.

So, in other words, they're taterskins fans.

Nice.

Quote from: hbionic on October 14, 2005, 03:18:06 AM
Cats are my enemy.

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Quote from: EagleFeva on November 03, 2006, 11:28:47 AM
(http://shadowdane.shackspace.com/cats_files/ceiling.jpg)