Animal shelter chief pleads not guilty to neglect charges
Operator of Bloomingdale facility faces 16 counts of animal neglect, cruelty
By Art Barnum | Tribune reporter
September 18, 2008
The director of a Bloomingdale animal shelter that says it is a no-kill facility has been charged with 15 new counts of animal neglect.
Penny Horak, 69, of Winfield, director of Pet Rescue, 151 N. Bloomingdale Rd., pleaded not guilty to the charges Tuesday before DuPage Judge Ronald Sutter, who set Nov. 19 for her next court date.
Horak was charged last month with one count of violation of owner's duties, but Assistant State's Atty.
Mandy Meindl said the 15 additional charges, comprising three misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals and 12 misdemeanor counts of violation of owner's duties, have been filed. Meindl said the new charges allege mistreatment of a dozen cats and dogs.
The hearing was attended by about a dozen people opposed to the shelter's operation who have complained about its operations in recent weeks to prosecutors.
Several of those attending said that when they volunteered at the shelter, they saw animals mistreated and sick animals allowed to be adopted.
Horak declined to comment Tuesday. The shelter has been in operation about 28 years.
Cherie Travis, associate director of the Center for Animal Law at the DePaul University College of Law, who was at Tuesday's court session, called Pet Rescue "a terrible animal shelter."
abarnum@tribune.com
Thursday, September 18, 2008
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2 comments:
I am appalled to hear about this situation. I was a volunteer there for a very short time in the late 80s, and could not stand Dale so I ended up leaving. I believe every word and image that relates Dale and Penny to these horrific acts and I hope they are brought to justice. If there is a hell, there is a special place in it for these two.
I came across this article written by Dale, it doesn't say when but sounds fairly recent: http://members.aol.com/petrescue3/
People have to be stupid to believe her. She is a liar and always has been.
She made volunteers sign a confidentiality agreement? Hello, red flag that she needs to hide something! How in the world do these two women sleep at night? The animals would be better off running wild than brought to her "torture chamber" to die a long and suffering death.
I hate Dale. Please please please close Pet Rescue and put these women away for a long time, never letting them near another animal again.
Back in the early 1990s, our family innocently went to Pet Rescue to adopt a guinea pig. We were so glad to get him out of there. He'd been there a year but his nails looked like they had never been cut, and his coat was a mess. Until we started cuddling him, he was afraid of human contact. The poor guy died three months later of a problem that most guinea pigs receiving the proper vet care we gave him would have survived. The only good thing is that at least for a few months he was properly cared for and loved....
We got besieged for years with tear jerker, paranoid fundraising letters that made us wonder, if they are getting all this money, why is it still a pit? The current allegations are hardly a surprise.
How terrible for all the animals who have never gotten out alive, and even those like our piggy who did get out alive. And for the volunteers who did their best to care for the animals but have been thwarted at every turn.
And how terrible for the no kill movement as a whole. This wonderful development in the treatment of animals is severly discredited by "shelters" like Pet Rescue that claim a no kill approach but cause deaths and injuries to their residents--no, inmates. No kill my ***!!
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