PETA complains about cat care
COLUMBIA -- Animal rights activists claim that hundreds of cats in stacked cages at a shelter near Myrtle Beach are being abused, and they want the woman running the facility to face criminal charges.
But a county prosecutor said he has been to the scene and did not see any extreme animal suffering to support immediate seizure of the animals.
The group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, claims local authorities have turned a blind eye as Elizabeth Owen has continued to abuse the 300 cats at her sanctuary for more than six months.
Owen's lawyer said PETA's abuse allegations have no merit. "All of these animals have been cared for," attorney Greg McCollum said. Owen did not respond to phone and e-mail messages Thursday.
"Our job is to turn over the allegations to law enforcement," said Daphna Nachminovitch, PETA vice president of cruelty investigations. "There's no question here that there are violations to South Carolina's cruelty to animal statute."
PETA said one of its investigators has been undercover for six months as a volunteer at Sacred Vision Animal Sanctuary, documenting what he described as filthy conditions and animal ailments ranging from open wounds and gum disease to respiratory distress and seizures.
Spending five days a week at the shelter, PETA's investigator said he had numerous conversations in which Owen admitted not medicating sick animals or seeking care for them.
Saying that Owen is keeping the animals "in squalor and consistent deprivation of everything that is natural to them," PETA, in a letter to Solicitor Greg Hembree, described Owen as an "animal hoarder" who at times doesn't have enough cat food or litter on hand for the more than 300 cats in her care.
PETA said it brought the case to Hembree's office several months ago, asking that animal cruelty charges be filed against Owen for not caring for the animals appropriately.
"They've had ample time to do something," Nachminovitch said. "These cats are dying without help."
The prosecutor handling the case said he spent more than two hours inside the shelter late last year and saw no overt signs of abuse. In November, assistant prosecutor Michael O'Sullivan took a veterinarian and animal control officials with him on a visit to Sacred Vision, which he described as a series of warehouses similar to other shelters.
"I did not observe any unbelievable atrocities," O'Sullivan said. "This is not someone who is out to abuse animals."
O'Sullivan said he looked at each of the more than 300 animals living in tiered crates inside the shelter and saw no reason to remove the animals or evidence of the filthy, cramped conditions PETA alleges.
"I had no reason to think she was abusing these animals," O'Sullivan said. "The day that I went through, it was clean. It was well taken care of."
In meetings with Owen's attorney and representatives from PETA, O'Sullivan said he has tried to work out a compromise to placate the group, suggesting that some of the animals be moved to other no-kill shelters in the area.
But with other Myrtle Beach-area facilities over-capacity themselves, O'Sullivan said he provided Owen with a list of no-kill shelters in North Carolina.
