Re: WI Press: Humane Society comes in to save exotic pets

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Posted by PHFaust on January 10, 2003 at 14:41:30:

In Reply to: WI Press: Humane Society comes in to save exotic pets posted by W von Papine�u on January 10, 2003 at 07:41:17:

All I can say right now is Im glad that this is very far from me! Since I havent checked my rescue voice mail in a while i suppose i should see if i got any calls on this.

Cindy

:RIVER FALLS JOURNAL (Wisconsin) 08 January 03 Humane Society comes in to save exotic pets in River Falls (Mary Field)
:Pierce-St. Croix County Humane Society investigator Theresa Jonas has rescued hundreds of abused and neglected dogs and cats over the years.
:But until last week, she had not rescued many full-grown, five-foot long, 20-pound iguanas - let alone three other iguanas, two bearded dragon lizards, two chameleons, a box turtle and two cockatiels, all from one small apartment in River Falls.
:"When I got the call from the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, all I was told at first was that there were some animals that needed to be taken from an apartment in Wildcat Court," Jonas said. She got the call on the afternoon of New Year's Eve. "I was expecting dogs and cats, not exotics."
:The animals' owner, 33-year-old Kimberly Kortsch of River Falls, had been raising them in cages in her apartment at 1457 Wildcat Court, until she was arrested and sent to the Pierce County Jail earlier this month.
: Kortsch was jailed in connection with a string of alleged offenses, including retail theft and concealing stolen property from incidences at Radio Shack and ShopKo in River Falls, as well as being wanted for theft and fraud charges in Dakota County, Minn. She expressed concern about the animals' welfare to sheriff's deputies, who contacted the animal shelter.
:Jonas, babysitting grandchildren when she got the call, said she was unable to go to the apartment herself and asked Humane Society director Dawn Fleming and employee Linda Amundsen to get the animals.
:"We knew there were three big iguanas before we got there," Fleming said. "But one of them was out of the cage, so we had search to find him and then we didn't even know about or find the turtle until we got back to the Humane Society."
:Fleming said although the animals' cages were very dirty and covered with cobwebs, it appeared that someone had been feeding the animals.
:"Apparently the woman was concerned that her boyfriend, who was supposed to be feeding them, was not going to be reliable to keep doing that," Fleming said. "She also had been raising crickets for feed, so there were bugs and meal worm crawling all over the place."
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