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APNM Active in Raids Statewide
Help APNM Help Animals
APNM provides hands-on support to help animals in hoarding or fighting situations anywhere from two-to-six times per month, as part of the all-volunteer Attorney General’s Animal Cruelty Task Force (ACT).
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APNM's cruelty case manager attempted to get the owner of these Dobermans in Hobbs to relinquish ownership of both dogs, but he only allowed the emaciated female to go to Doberman Rescue in December 2008. She had been used as a breeding dog.
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At the scene of a crime, such as a hoarding or fighting scenario, one APNM staffer, also a member of the ACT, typically coordinates raid operations with law enforcement, animal control for the area and area shelters. Everyone knows who is responsible for what, when the team is to descend on the target property, and where animals will go when removed from the site. APNM helps to direct proper evidence gathering, and provides information on animal-related crimes when needed by authorities.
Another APNM staff member is responsible for handling the calls to the AG’s animal cruelty hotline 24/7, which receives approximately 100 calls per month. She is APNM’s cruelty case manager, who takes detailed information from callers and passes it along to the appropriate authorities anywhere in the state. Then she follows up to try to ensure the case and the animals involved are receiving the attention they deserve.
Some of those hotline calls result in a press release and an offer of a reward from APNM for information leading to the arrest and conviction of people involved in cruelty or fighting cases.
Help APNM Carry the Burden
For helping New Mexico’s animals in some of the most desperate situations imaginable, APNM receives no compensation. APNM is not funded by the state or any state agency, but must constantly appeal for funding through grants and private donations.
We depend on people who care deeply about animals for support. Sometimes our work is about creating and implementing policies that protect animals. And at times like that on June 1 in San Miguel County, our boots are on the ground helping dozens, or sometimes hundreds, of animals maybe not so far down the road from where you’re sitting now.
We try not to publish material inappropriate for viewing by anyone in your households, therefore, we do not publish graphic photos of the most horrific scenes we come upon in a day’s work—even if those photos might draw an extra $10 out of your pocket. We try to keep the worst of these nightmarish sights to ourselves.
Consider funding the gasoline for an APNM staffer to participate in one raid in Doña Ana County: $260. Consider funding an afternoon of staff time for answering hotline calls for help: $75. PLEASE consider giving something, so we can continue this work that matters to you and to us!
Please consider APNM worth your help.
Thank you very much.
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APNM Part of Rescue Team
In San Miguel County Animal Crisis
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The television set was on when animal rescuers showed up on the Ribera, NM, property on June 1.
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Early the morning of June 1, a team of animal rescuers drove to a six-acre property in Ribera, NM, to capture 60 dogs that had begun to roam the countryside in San Miguel County. The hoarding situation attracted a neighbor’s attention when 20 of the dogs showed up on his porch.
When the neighbor drove to the home he suspected as the dogs’ residence, he found the doors open, the television on, and water running in an overflowing bathtub. Dogs wandered through the garbage-filled house. The neighbor told the state police officer who responded to his call that he’d expected to come across a human corpse.
Rescuers from the Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society, arrived at the mobile home, to see over 60 dogs running loose on the property—Chihuahuas, Jack Russell terriers, fox terriers and combinations thereof. The home’s battered interior was carpeted in feces and wall-to-wall in grime and garbage. Evidence of some of the dogs having cannibalized others was obvious in the scattered remains of approximately 10 dogs.
Typical of any hoarding scenario, filth is inescapable in a home's interior, as was the case in Ribera, NM. Serious health hazards for humans and animals are a reality in settings such as this.
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Although the home looked as though it had been overrun by dogs for months, the property owner had been hospitalized for only two days before being contacted about his dogs by state police. He relinquished ownership of the dogs, which means that, although a few of the dogs will go to an Oregon terrier rescue group, most of the dogs will eventually be available for adoption from the Santa Fe Animal Shelter.
Joining State Police and San Miguel Animal Services in the call for help for the hoarded dogs were Animal Protection of New Mexico, representatives of the Attorney General’s Animal Cruelty Task Force, The Santa Fe Animal Shelter, and Santa Fe County Animal Services.
Also see:
APNM Assists in Cibola Co. Hoarding Raid - Hoarding victim is face of suffering on new APNM anti-cruelty billboard (July 13)
APNM Offers $2,500 Reward
In Valencia County Cruelty Case (May 29)
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