[ SHOWGSD-L ] WARNING to east coast residents...........
- From: Peggy <pmick@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: showgsd <Showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2006 22:08:57 -0500
Shared by Peggy
This comes from Barbara Cohen - a Humane Investigator in Fairfax, VA.
Please share this info with all shelters that you work with - especially
those south of Virginia.
After much hard work, emails, and investigations by volunteers of the
SPCA of NOVA, we were successful in acquiring 12 dogs/puppies on
Saturday, February 18, that were brought across the state line from
North Carolina by ASTROpets with the intention of selling them for close
to $300 each. They were sold under false pretenses of being well
puppies with complete vet records. Applications were submitted by
interested folks but were never checked/reviewed. A deposit of $60 was
required before the puppy was delivered and the rest in cash upon
delivery. ASTRO is headed up by Clara Payne Church of Taylorsville,
North Carolina who has several aliases, one of could be Michelle Day.
She also has MUTTS-R-US and Timeless Treasures which is listed in New
Jersey. She travels up and down the East Coast every two weeks
committing this fraud and doing animal trafficking. She starts out
usually on Friday night and makes her first stops in Virginia on
Saturday morning with her husband, Tony Ray Church, driving and her four
year old daughter asleep in the back on the floor of the van among the
crates. The Van is a dark green conversion van with NC plate #YPW-9259.
They have also been known to use a white van. They then continue up
the east coast and continue to make scheduled stops with these sick
puppies. It appears that they do not stop in this long journey for
bathroom breaks, water breaks or food breaks.
One of the volunteers was scheduled to buy a dog at the McDonalds in
Falls Church on Saturday morning and Humane Investigators and a police
office showed up with her to meet the van. After the puppy that our
volunteer was interested in was shown to her, I immediately asked where
the vet records were. Clara showed me a rabies certificate for one of
the puppies. I asked her about the Health Certificate and she said she
did not have to have one. I then identified myself and told her that
under state law she had to have one for each puppy dated within 10 days
of her visit. The police officer told her she needed to have health
certificates before she left Virginia and set it up to happen that
morning. We then convoyed to the vet where I got her to sign a release
form on all 12 puppies/dogs. The puppies were emaciated with ribs and
little hip bones showing. They also drank and ate nonstop until we took
the food and water away. They obviously had not been fed and watered in
many hours. I told her that she needed to go back to North Carolina and
never come back to Virginia. She agreed but this is to alert you all
that this could happen again unless she is put out of business. She
claims that the puppies came from Kill Shelters and were put in foster
homes before she placed them. I am sure that is a lie but we are in the
process of trying to find out where they came from. Every group that
she is listed under has been removed from Petfinders or in the process
of being removed.
The SPCA of NOVA started this investigation because we were alerted by a
family that had bought one of these puppies several weeks ago and have
spent several hundred dollars getting this puppy well. They reimbursed
him for the cost of the puppy but have not reimbursed him for the money
spent at the vet.
Please alert others that may have a need to know this information about
this woman. We need to stop her. Thanks!
Barbara Cohen
Humane Investigator
SPCA of NOVA
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