Update: The owner of All Creatures Great and Small has been charged with mistreatment of animals after animals were allegedly found hoarded at her home. Your help is needed.
Kim Kappler, the owner and operator of the now defunct All Creatures Great & Small (ACGS), was arrested in July 2008 after 44 animals were reportedly found packed into a filthy residence in Flat Rock, North Carolina. The Henderson County Sheriff's Office took all the animals into protective custody and states that its recent investigation "revealed that conditions had worsened" since last January, when 17 animals had to be seized, and that "[m]any of the animals appeared to be in poor medical condition and four required immediate veterinary treatment."
According to news reports, the animals were languishing in their own waste, which could be smelled from across the street. Kappler reportedly maintains that all 44 of the animals are her companions, which further exemplifies the clichéd and dangerous hoarder mentality.
Criminal charges have still not been filed against Kappler and other operators responsible for the severe animal suffering at ACGS, the no-kill animal shelter that Kappler was running before it was shut down by the state. Sick, injured, hungry, frightened, bored, and frustrated—the animals housed at ACGS had no respite from the cruel conditions documented by PETA's undercover investigator. Video footage obtained during PETA's intense seven-month-long investigation depicts what we believe to be violation after violation of North Carolina's animal protection laws—which prohibit "any act, omission, or neglect causing or permitting unjustifiable pain, suffering, or death"—as well as state and local health laws. It also shows deplorable conditions that are not acceptable by any animal-sheltering standards. In September 2007, Henderson County District Attorney Jeff Hunt was asked to meet with an experienced Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) attorney and review some of the evidence against ACGS so that appropriate criminal charges could be considered against the people responsible for the suffering of animals imprisoned there. Hunt refused this meeting.
Please politely urge Hunt to review the ample evidence against ACGS carefully and to file criminal charges against all operators responsible for the animal suffering at this so-called animal shelter. In light of the recent charges against Kim Kappler, also demand that Hunt also do everything in his power to ensure that, if convicted, Kappler is barred from all contact with animals, ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluations, and required to receive appropriate counseling or treatment. Without strong action, the cycle of hoarding and abuse is certain to continue. Kappler is scheduled to face the mistreatment of animals charges in District Court on October 8.
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