Five of the rescued chihuahuas being held at the Lewis County Animal Shelter
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – They started getting brought in on Saturday, batches of chihuahuas found abandoned in East Lewis County.
The Lewis County Animal Shelter has been clipping, grooming and preparing for spaying and neutering of little dogs all week.
Yesterday afternoon the animals being temporarily housed at the facility on Centralia-Alpha Road huddled in small groups in five separate kennel areas.
Eighteen chihuahuas, all appearing to be pure bred, are or will be available for adoption.
“My gut feeling is they’re all from the same place,” Shelter Manager Amy Hanson said.
Three times so far, people have found some of the dogs and delivered them to the shelter, Hanson said yesterday afternoon.
Lindsey Dean lives in Cinebar but her daughter goes to school in Morton, so she drives that remote stretch along state Route 508 at least four times a day.
“It was Monday morning, I came around the corner and they were piled in the road,” Dean said. “They were hungry, I had a banana and they were eating dirt to get to the rest of the banana.”
They smelled terrible, their nails were long and they were afraid of people, she said.
On Tuesday after work, animal technician Robin Williams, drove out to the same area just over the Bear Canyon Bridge to see if she could locate any more. With help from Dean, Dean’s teenage son and her friend Missy Baier, they rounded up eight.
“If the first ones hadn’t gone out into the road, I don’t think anyone would have found them, cause they were back in the woods,” Williams said.
Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Chief Criminal Deputy Dusty Breen says it’s a neglect issue that could be pursued criminally.
Lewis County Code Compliance Supervisor Bill Teitzel today said his office is seriously looking at the situation.
Teitzel said over the past six to eight months, the same type of dogs have been dumped in a similar fashion in similar locations, although never this many.
“They seem to coincide with things we’re doing at this office,” he said.
The county’s humane officer conducts inspections for people who want to apply for kennel permits, he said.
“My office doesn’t investigate crime, but if we find crime we will turn it over to the sheriff’s office,” Teitzel said.
Animals must be fixed before the shelter can release them to new homes. That requirement over the years has led to lower numbers of strays kept there.
At any given time, nowadays, they may have only two to three dogs available for adoption, according to Hanson.
This week almost 100 dogs are inhabiting the kennels and cages in the building.
On Monday, Lewis County seized dozens of dogs, mostly chihuahua-mix, from a man who lives on the 1600 block of Little Hanaford Road outside Centralia.
They undertook a similar action three years ago at the same place and the owner, Jimmie R. Jemison, was charged with a violation of state law related to dog breeding and standards of cleanliness, care and protection.
The case however was dismissed in December the following year because Jemison was found not competent to stand trial due to mental illness, according to documents filed in Lewis County Superior Court.
Soon after, the county filed for a declaratory judgement to “abate” the situation, as it believed he continued to breed dogs in the same poor conditions. The court signed a warrant of abatement earlier this month.
Hanson said when they went to the property Monday to impound Jemison’s dogs, the conditions were maybe even worse than before.
Some were living in the motor home with him and others were kept in outbuildings, she said.
They collected five litters of puppies, about two weeks old, she said, plus 47 dogs at least four months old and older.
Those animals are being cared for at the shelter, and will become available for adoption later.
Hanson said she doesn’t have any reason to think Jemison’s operation was related to the animals found off state Route 508.
Dean said she learned today, a man with a tree farm off state Route 508 found more chihuahuas but could only catch one.
“He said there were three more, maybe five miles down by a small bridge,” she said.
As many as four other chihuahuas have been discovered in the area and not turned into the shelter, she said.
She’ll keep going back to look for others, she said.
“Me and my friend Missy, we’re just heartbroken,” she said. “Because it’s obvious, they’re scared.”
•••
For background, read “Centralia man pleads not guilty to dog breeding violation” from Saturday May 31, 2014, here
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Six chihuahuas were picked up Monday morning off of state Route 508 near milepost 22. / Courtesy photo by Lindsey Dean
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
This is just terrible and lewis county needs to start listening to it’s citizens who pay their wages and start cracking down on animal abusers with real fines and real jail time instead of just a slap on the wrist if even that.
We are interested in fostering….
How do you help foster so the shelter gets some support?
This is heartbreaking, and completely unnecessary! We need much stricter animal cruelty laws, and we need much better local law enforcement and prosecution of these lowlife scum!
To ” Really?”:
If this is not your sort of cause, and you want to make your cause something else, like children or child molesters or some other important thing, then you should do that. There are many things that need to be addressed. Unless maybe you’re just a troll, the topic here is very valid. Thanks to everyone who actually cares about this.
These puppy mills keep the females in small wire cages, exposed to the elements, and keep them pregnant and nursing litters endlessly until they’re no longer able to reproduce. They then either dump them or kill them. They’re no longer needed. They don’t let them out to run in the grass, they don’t feed them well, they live their miserable short lives in horrible conditions, and never see vets! ADOPT DON’T SHOP!
Puppy mills are alive and well in Washington too. People who have them don’t care about the dogs, they’re nothing but a cash crop to them. These dogs actually look healthier than most of them do in the Midwest! STOP buying dogs from pet stores, offline, and other places that sell for big profit!! When you do, you’re supporting irresponsible breeding, and you’re causing perfectly healthy pets in shelters to be killed. Did you know that 25% of healthy dogs in shelters killed are purebreds, and would be wonderful pets if given a chance? Did you know that those expensive designer dogs you purchase who seem so unhealthy are, and it’s genetic because of all the bad breeding and inbreeding.
Ok comentors I love animals also but what I keep reading is really crazy! Lets keep in perspective that they are not people and calling for the peoples heads on a platter is rather over the top……with that being said we have a county full of child molesters that get to get out of jail over and over and re-offfend(without completing the sex offender program) and there is no outcry or hashtag started to get them harsher(more appropriate penalties). Why do we seem to care more about animals than our innocent children?
What do you expect from Lewis County, these are the same people that dump the deadly Neurotoxin Fluoride in the public’s drinking water. The Lewis county courts allowed Jay the cat to be murdered in a parking lot and then threw his body in a dumpster, while the prosecutor did nothing about it. If Lewis county pumps poision to the homes of its citizens, do you really think they care about its Animals? Then Pastor Bills Bates also murdered his neighbor’s cat and received no punishment for the crime. It had to go viral before the police would even issue a citation. These are the Tax Feeders at the city Hall people, there adding poision to your water they could care less about any animals. Think about the facts and get a material safety data sheet and look up Fluoride it’s not even fit for animals. In fact it will kill cows within a year’s time.
Those poor babies I want them all but can’t have them
This makes me so angry. It’s no different than a mother that throws her new baby in a dumpster and then just walks away when it’s just as easy to leave it in a hospital or church etc. How some people can just shut off their minds, and are able to stop thinking about what another being is feeling or going through is beyond me. Just disgusting. Please please please also write a follow up story about the movement for tougher laws, so we can all join in the fight! Thank you for bringing this story to light. I hope people are still checking to make sure there are no more babies lost out there. And YES, there BETTER be a criminal investigation. Use DNA to nail the cold hearted SOB. Come on LEWIS COUNTY, time to REDEEM yourselves!!!!!
#JusticeJust”US”forbabyJay
Those puppies in this article were found less than a mile from my home. I wish I had been on the road when that asshole was dumping them. I hope they catch the f*cker and that they start cracking down on these backyard breeders who let their dogs just breed and breed without giving the moms a break in between litters and who flood the market with puppies when there are so many wonderful puppies and older dogs in shelters everywhere needing homes.
The real problem is that puppy mills are unregulated. Prices for such animals are so ridiculous they have the poor dogs pumping out max puppies for nothing but profits. What they often forget dog food is just as ridiculously marketed and just as expensive as it as a waste product of food production. Dont breed the dogs if you can’t feed them.
So sick of the “slap on the wrist” justice system for animal welfare in LC. We need stricter laws resulting in stricter penalties for the helpless victims that suffer at these horrible hands. The people that can do this type of crap deserve jail. Not a “2 year” no pets BS. There aren’t tough enough laws for animal welfare here in LC unfortunately.
I’ve heard that there is a movement to increase the penalties for animal cruelty. I hope it’s true, as horrible people like this deserve the greatest penalties possible.
Anyone who would treat animals like this should be treated similarly or worse. These dogs have suffered terribly, and those responsible should see what it’s like, IMO. Even worse, it sounds like some of the victims have not been rescued, and if so, must have suffered terrible deaths.
Hi,
Just read your article about all the Chis being dumped & abandoned in your shelter’s area. If you are becoming over-loaded to the point of having to euthanize for space, PLEASE reach out to the other Western Washington rescues/shelters. They have been so good about helping with California Puppy Mill dogs, I can’t believe they’d turn you down, nor should they.
Just a suggestion as this story breaks my heart.
Thank you!
THANK YOU FOR COVERING THIS SHARYN DECKER!!! You rock. Just”US” for Diamond Movement Members have been notified.
I also brought in a total of 4 dogs from that same area ots so sad they were so scared my friend and my two teenage kids helped it nust makes me sick