Crime & Safety

Thousand Palms 'Dog Camp' Owner Arrested on Animal Cruelty Charges

A 64-year-old woman who kept about 20 dogs at her Thousand Palms property was arrested Monday on suspicion of animal cruelty.

Mary Bernadette Schwenn was taken into custody at 8 a.m. at the property, an unincorporated parcel of land near Thousand Palms Canyon and Dillon roads. The Riverside County Department of Animal Services has been investigating the property since April, spokesman John Welsh said.

"The property does not have fencing and her dogs are allowed to roam freely," he said. "The property does not have proper housing or sufficient services."

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Schwenn has been visited and cited by code enforcement officers, and animal services employees gave her a notice of violation for not having a kennel, Welsh said. According to a warrant in support of her arrest, one of her dogs had a uterus infection for an extended period, and had to be euthanized by a private vet in early May. Welsh said Schwenn is suspected of failing to provide the animal proper care.

Kitty Pallesen, who has known Schwenn for at least five years, wrote in a statement to officials in May that she and others gave the woman rides when she hitchhiked from her property and gave her food for the dogs. One day in April, Pallesen said she drove to the property and saw roughly 30 dogs "with not a drop of water or bite of food anywhere."

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"I started going up almost every day and then every day for the past 1 1/2 weeks, because every time I went up there, the food and water would be completely gone, " she wrote. "There were many days in a row that it was over 100. I could not tell when I went back up that Bernadette or anyone had been there at all."

A few weeks later, she said she went to feed the dogs because it again appeared they had not been fed or given water.

"There are not enough bowls to do this up there in the camp, and when the food goes down, there is lots of scrambling and fighting. They are really hungry, and they fight over who gets to eat first or at all," Pallesen wrote.

While there, she saw a female dog that looked like she was dying and took the animal to a vet.

"The doctor was there and looked at her, and he agreed that she was really in bad shape. For one thing, every time she was picked up, she was dripping blood from her bottom quite severely -- leaving a trail of blood everywhere she was carried," Pallesen wrote.

If convicted of misdemeanor animal cruelty, Schwenn would not be able to legally own a dog for five years, Welsh said.

Animal Services Cmdr. Rita Gutierrez said the department was contacted by national rescue groups and local animal advocates, some of whom called weekly or daily.

"We hope they are satisfied with how we built our case and that we will continue to do daily checks on all the dogs remaining on the property," she said.

Welsh said a friend of Schwenn's is caring for the 15 to 20 adult dogs at the property, and animal services officers will provide proper food and water if none is visible.

Schwenn was booked at the county jail in Indio and posted a $2,500 bond. She is expected to be arraigned on Sept. 3 at the Larson Justice Center in Indio, according to jail records.

– City News Service.


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