Court orders 'Dog Lady' to give up 121 canines

[Champ]

SPCA takes animals; couple faces charges
By CINDY HORSWELL
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
The woman known as the "Dog Lady" in Liberty County has no more dogs.

At a hearing Monday, Patsy Boucher, a 58-year-old retired truck driver, was forced not only to permanently relinquish her 121 dogs; but also three pigs, three guinea pigs, one cat, seven finches and a cockatiel that can whistle the theme to The Bridge on the River Kwai.

Justice of the Peace Burl Thomas ordered the animals turned over to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Houston after investigators testified that Boucher's two-room wooden house and half-acre lot about 35 miles north of Houston was unfit for both humans and animals. Precinct 5 Constable L.W. DeSpain said the stench from the urine and feces inside the house and around the yard was so strong that he vomited after he entered the property with a warrant to temporarily seize the animals June 1.

Boucher, who represented herself at Monday's hearing, berated Liberty County for refusing to spend the money needed to provide an animal shelter for the many strays dumped in the county's rural areas.

"I have done nothing wrong but take stray dogs off the streets with nowhere else to go. I admit to being overwhelmed," she said while crying, "but I have never done anything cruel. I love my dogs. Now they're going to be euthanized."

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2627621

[Heddi]

1. I'm sure she meant well, but she got overwhelmed

and I know people JUST like this woman, although not to the degree of severity that she's shown.

I understand her desire to rescue strays---the desire lives in my heart and is only swayed by the fact that I live in a small apartment with 2 cats, fish, and a husband and we have no room for more.

Good hearted nature can turn sour, though, when one keeps rescuing animals who in turn need rescuing from the rescuer. Overwhelming smell of feces and urine isn't good for animals, or their environment.


In her mind, she's not done anything cruel. However, one needs not beat a dog, or kill a cat to abuse an animal. The article states they (the animals) were well fed, but without clean water and in filthy environments, and many of them suffered from injuries. Injuries which, no doubt, would have been ascerbated by unsanitary living conditions.

ALso, it notes that she just let the animals run wild on her property---which is worse---running wild in the wild, or running wild in an enclosed space?

She should have stopped when she got too many animals to love. To play with. To interact with.

Sadly, most of these animals most likely will be euthanized. THey're unsociable and many will not be able to be broken or trained out of these habits.

She just should have stopped earlier. Realizing you can't save the world is one of the most humbling feelings one can have. You can't save every animal, you cant' save every person. She should have saved as many as she could WHILE still being able to provide love, food, shelter, warmth, and health.

Instead, her overwhelming desire to 'collect' animals (which this was---another form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) has turned her into the person she was saving these animals from.

Sad all around.

[radwriter0555]

2. OCD is commonly manifested in these people who collect these animals.

without giving thought to the care and concerns OF the animals.

It's all about the human, NOT the animals. She was just killing them all one day at a time to fulfill her compulsions.