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Case ID: 11695

Classification: Hoarding, Neglect / Abandonment

Animal: dog (non pit-bull)

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Child or elder neglect

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Hoarding - 9 dogs found, 5 dead
Glen Burnie, MD (US)

Incident Date: Wednesday, Jun 13, 2007
County: Anne Arundel

Charges: Misdemeanor, Felony CTA
Disposition: Convicted

Defendant/Suspect: Kelly Schreck

Case Updates: 3 update(s) available

In what Anne Arundel police are calling the worst case of animal cruelty in county history, the home's owner has been charged with 27 counts of the crime after officers' grisly discovery in June 2007.

Kelly Schreck of the 7400 block of East Furnace Branch Road was jailed on July 6 on $800,000 bond - the highest ever in Anne Arundel for animal cruelty. County District Court Judge Robert C. Wilcox refused to lower Schreck's bail for fear that she may pose a danger to herself, her two children or society.

"I don't want to run the risk of her getting out and harming herself or others," Wilcox said.

An attorney for Schreck argued that the bail should be lowered because she does not pose a flight risk, after depicting Schreck as a divorced mother of two who suffered from severe depression.

Schreck, who lived with her daughters, first came to the attention of animal control in April 2006 when officers responding to a complaint found she was keeping eight dogs - twice the number allowed by county law, based on the size of her home, said animal control field supervisor Mark Smith.

The county denied her application to have more, so she got rid of four dogs, Smith said.

Following up on another complaint, officers found an emaciated dog in Schreck's yard May 1 and ordered her to take it to the veterinarian, said Smith.

The veterinarian said the dog had minor medical problems and offered to keep the animal as a pet, so Schreck left it there.

Tipped off by an anonymous caller, an officer returned June 13. No one answered the door, but she saw an emaciated Harlequin Great Dane sprawled on a bed surrounded by his own waste and trash, according to court documents.

After smelling decaying flesh and seeing flies and blood splattered on the outside basement walls, police said, she called for backup.

Fearing the owner might be dead, police said, officers forced their way into the home and found five dead dogs and four others that were extremely malnourished, and the four skinny cats.

Five Great Danes and a German shepherd were found in the basement. The only one alive was a malnourished black male Great Dane locked inside a wire cage with a dead dog.

It later died at an Annapolis veterinary hospital, weighing 31 pounds. Healthy dogs of that breed weigh between 120 and 130 pounds.

On the main floor were three thin female dogs, also Great Danes. Two were in cages, and the third was locked in a bedroom, according to court documents.

When neighbor, Stacie Moorhead, 31, stepped outside her door that afternoon, the odor from four houses away hit her.

"The odor coming from that place smelled like somebody had died," she said.

Animal control officers took the pets to veterinary hospitals. County police at the time said they were trying to determine who was responsible for the property and animals.

Following their investigation, they charged Schreck on Monday, and she turned herself in Thursday.

"This is the worst case and the highest bond," Smith said. "Even if the judge lets her out, there's no guarantee she won't get more [dogs]. We can't stop her."

Wilcox rejected her attorney's argument that the dogs died of hookworm and ringworm.

"That's what parents do - they make sure their children don't have these afflictions," Wilcox said. "Whatever these dogs had doesn't address the issue of fecal matter and blood on the walls."

A small group of animal rights activists and Great Dane owners showed up at the court hearing yesterday to show their support for the animal control officers.

"We're devastated as a community and as human beings," said Karen Quataman, 45, a county resident and member of the Great Dane Club of America. "We're not letting this drop and want to make sure animal abuse is a felony in all states."

Case Updates

While the amateur dog breeder from Glen Burnie stayed with her new boyfriend in Harford County and took trips to New York, she left the five Great Danes and one German Shepherd in cages without food or water.

And when friends and neighbors offered to help Kelly Lynn Schreck, 28, care for the dogs, she turned them down - telling some she had sold the dogs.

"She needs to be in her own cage," Assistant State's Attorney Kimberly DiPietro argued yesterday inside the county's Circuit Courthouse in Annapolis. "At least, she'll know she'll get fed."

Mrs. Schreck, the mother of two girls, pleaded guilty yesterday to two counts of animal mutilation. She was ordered to serve three years in prison and was led from the courtroom in handcuffs.

Nathan Schreck, Kelly Schreck's estranged husband who lived in the house for one week while the dogs were dying, also pleaded guilty yesterday to three lesser charges of misdemeanor animal cruelty. He was sentenced to nine months in jail, but Circuit Court Judge Paul Hackner suspended the entire sentence and allowed him to return home on probation.

"This is the worst case I've ever heard," Judge Hackner said before ordering Kelly Schreck to prison, to not own any dogs for five years and to pay back the county almost $8,000 in veterinary fees.

Specifically, he sentenced Schreck to six years in prison, but suspended half of the sentence and gave her credit for more than 300 days she served on house arrest.

The sentence for Schreck, who claimed she was so depressed last spring she didn't notice the stench of rotting flesh in the house, ranks among the harshest for an animal cruelty case in Anne Arundel County.

Robert Lee Grim, 29, of Pasadena, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2005 for slashing a dog's throat in Millersville. And Michael Alan Poole, 26, of Glen Burnie, was sentenced to three years in 2007 for stomping two cats to death in Annapolis, but a county judge initially only required him to serve two of those years.

Dennis Cuomo, Schreck's attorney, said he respected the judge's sentence but thought he was too harsh on his client. He noted that some people convicted of hurting other human beings don't get three years in prison.

State sentencing guidelines recommended Kelly Schreck serve up to six months at a county jail.

"I think it sends a message," said Karen Quatman, an Annapolis dog lover who attended the hearing. "It's not acceptable. It's just blatant, blatant cruelty."

Ms. DiPietro said Animal Control officers found five dead dogs, four live dogs and three live cats on June 14, 2007, after receiving an anonymous tip that Schreck had stopped caring for the animals. Ms. DiPietro said there were animal feces throughout the house and that flies were swarming around the building.

"The stench was evident out on the street," she said.

Two dogs were found in cages in the front room of the home on Furnace Branch Road; another was found locked in a bedroom; and six more were found in cages in the basement.

Firefighters initially thought all of the dogs in the basement were dead, but were surprised to move one of the cages and see an emaciated black Labrador open his eyes.

Veterinarians and animal control officers eventually nursed that dog, named Parker, back to health. He has since been adopted.

A sixth dog - a Great Dane named Hannah found locked in the bedroom - didn't fare so well. The dog, which was supposed to weigh 100 to 120 pounds, was only 49 pounds when she was taken from the house. She died shortly after arriving at Animal Control.

Ms. DiPietro said Schreck was trying to breed the Great Danes at her house. She said that in the past four or five years, Mr. and Mrs. Schreck bought the dogs - ultimately collecting eight Great Danes, one German Shepherd, one black Labrador and three cats.

Animal Control officers first learned of Schreck in April 2006. The officers found she had too many dogs, but because they were in good health they began helping her get a special license. Ms. DiPietro said Schreck never actually obtained that license.

In the next several months, Mr. and Mrs. Schreck's marriage fell apart and Mr. Schreck moved out of the house with their two children.

Animal Control returned on March 21, 2007, to find the dogs gone, and again May 1 to find a very thin Great Dane. The officers ordered Schreck to take the dog to a veterinarian, but when she did the next day she gave the animal a fake name and said it wasn't hers - that someone had just dropped it off at her house.

Ms. DiPietro said the dog, named Quinn, should have weighed more than 100 pounds, but weighed only 86 pounds.

Ms. DiPietro said Mr. Schreck moved back to the house June 4, 2007, but left again after a week. During that time, he said he didn't notice the dead dogs.

When Mr. Schreck didn't hear from his wife after he moved out, he returned to the house to feed two dogs he knew were in cages in the living room. At that time, he found a third Great Dane locked in a bedroom.

The next day, June 11, he found the rest of the dogs in the basement. Ms. DiPietro said that rather than call police, Mr. Schreck unsuccessfully tried to carry the dogs outside and bury them.

Veterinarians determined some of the dogs in the basement had died more than two months before they were found. Ms. DiPietro said it took months for the dogs to starve to death.

"It is long and painful and torturous," she said.

Ms. DiPietro added that Schreck repeatedly turned down help from neighbors, lying to some and saying she had sold the dogs.

"She had many avenues for help," Ms. DiPietro said. "She chose to lock them in cages and ignore them."

Mr. Cuomo acknowledged the "terrible facts" of the case, but he argued Mrs. Schreck's mental state mediated her crimes. He said she shut down emotionally.

"I didn't have malicious intent to harm them," Schreck said in a letter read by her attorney.

Ed Middlebrooks, Mr. Schreck's attorney, noted how his client did try to feed the dogs he found upstairs in the house.

"He thought he was doing the right thing," he said.

Mr. Schreck said he now realizes he should have done more and taken the dogs to a vet.

"I'm sorry for not taking the right measures," he said.

Judge Hackner said it was "inconceivable" Mr. Schreck lived in the house for a week and didn't notice the stench coming from the basement or the half-dead dog in a bedroom.

"You put blinders on. ... You didn't want to know," he said, before ultimately following the prosecutor's recommendations and letting him go with a suspended sentence.

As for Kelly Schreck, Judge Hackner said the protracted time during which she allowed the dogs to starve warranted significant punishment. He described Schreck as narcissist and said that even the most clinically depressed people will have good days and realize what is happening around them.

"She was really callous and indifferent to the fact living creatures were dying in her care," he said.

Source: Hometown Annapolis - May 30, 2008
Update posted on May 30, 2008 - 3:14PM

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Neighbors of the Glen Burnie woman accused of what police called the worst case of animal cruelty in Anne Arundel County history had offered to help her care for her pets, but she lied and said she had sold or given them away, a county prosecutor said yesterday.

"Meanwhile, these animals were in the house starving to death," Assistant State's Attorney Kimberly DiPietro said in a brief court hearing.

She depicted Kelly Lynn Schreck, 28, as a woman who "chose" to let six of her dogs die, while Schreck's lawyer, Dennis Cuomo, described a woman who had "become acutely depressed over situations in her life."

She had recently been hospitalized for depression and was about to start outpatient treatment, Cuomo said, when animal control officers broke in on June 13 and found nine dogs and four severely malnourished cats. Schreck was charged early this month with 27 counts of animal abuse.

Yesterday, Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Pamela L. North agreed to Cuomo's request to reduce Schreck's bail, cutting it from $800,000 to $250,000, on the conditions that she be on house arrest and no pets be there.

But Cuomo said she lacked resources for that bail.

"We were hoping that she would be placed on pretrial release, but I understand the judge's concerns," he said after the hearing.

North said the case seems to "shout" mental illness to her. An evaluation ordered by a District Court judge last week indicated that she is competent for trial.

Her Glen Burnie home was vacant when animal control officers, alerted by complaints about the odor, forced their way in to find five dead dogs and four more that were severely malnourished, and four emaciated cats, according to court documents.

One dog, a Great Dane in a cage with a dead dog, weighed 31 pounds when it died shortly afterward at a veterinarian's office, about a quarter of what a healthy dog of that breed weighs, the court documents said.

It was the second visit to her home in a few weeks. On May 1, officers had found an emaciated dog in her yard, and ordered her to bring the animal to a veterinarian, they said.

Source: Baltimore Sun - Jul 18, 2007
Update posted on Jul 23, 2007 - 11:51PM

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To contact the prosecutor in this case, write to:

The Honorable Frank R. Weathersbee
States Attorneys Office
(410) 222-1740
Fax (410) 222-1196
Night Recording (410) 222-1160
E-mail Address: [email protected]

Update posted on Jul 16, 2007 - 5:08AM

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References

	Baltimore Sun
	Baltimore Sun

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Hoarding - 9 dogs found, 5 deadGlen Burnie, MD (US)

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Hoarding - 9 dogs found, 5 dead
Glen Burnie, MD (US)