Supporters defend longtime dog rescuer convicted of animal neglect by Katerina Lorenzatos Makris
Sitting in the courtroom a couple of weeks ago, waiting for the start of that day’s proceedings in the animal neglect trial of Alice Via, a woman in a seat near mine passed me a note.
“Alice watched two of my dogs when I had surgery,” Michele Erwin had written. “She is very caring, loving, and not guilty of the horrible things she is being accused of.”
Erwin was one in a group of between eight and twelve supporters who attended nearly every session of Via’s five-day trial as well as her arraignment and pre-trial hearings. They will probably be on hand for her sentencing today, and they are outspoken in their defense of a woman they see as an unjustly prosecuted hero.
Numerous additional supporters have contacted me to describe the dogs they adopted from Via over the years, the miracles they say she performed in healing and rehabilitating hundreds of animals, and the volunteer work that they themselves contributed to Via’s Boxer Rescue San Diego.
Via supporters with dogs adopted from her Photo: K.Makris/AnimalBeat.org
The same shelter workers who often “exited” dogs to Via later testified against her
Last week jurors in the El Cajon, California trial convicted 62-year-old Via on five counts related to failure to obtain a kennel license and failure to care for animals, the result of a March 2010 raid on her two-bedroom home wherein animal control officers found 62 dogs, some of whom they alleged lacked proper care.
But to many in the San Diego pet rescue community, Alice Via is a hardworking animal lover who took in, cared for, and found new homes for some 1,500 dogs over 17 years of operating Boxer Rescue.
They are angered by the fact that the county has prosecuted her, and that shelter workers, who often called Via to take problematic animals off their hands—239 such dogs over the years—testified against her in court.
They are baffled as to why animal control officers did not give Via time to place many of her foster dogs with other rescue groups, which they say the county often does in such cases, and which they say Via was in the process of doing when a prospective adopter made a complaint about unsanitary and unhealthy conditions she said she observed at Via’s home.
“My understanding is that if you’ve got a lot of animals, the county gives you some sort of warning,” said Kara Shenk, a former volunteer at Boxer Rescue who now lives in Arizona, but traveled to San Diego for the week so as to attend the trial. “They’ll say, ‘OK, get your numbers down, this is unacceptable.’ They don’t just go out, guns blazing, knock on the door, and take everything that you have, everything that you are. And that’s exactly what they did.”
Via faces sentencing today with a maximum of 2.5 years of incarceration, plus restitution fees of more than $100,000 to reimburse the county for its expenses in the care of the 62 dogs confiscated from her home and kept in county shelters for several months.
Approximately $10,000 of that restitution would be for veterinary treatment of Maggie Mae, one of Via’s four personal dogs taken during the raid, according to a county document. Maggie Mae died of cancer while in county custody last year.
Witch hunt?
“My husband and I have been friends and advocates of Alice for almost 13 years since we adopted our first boxer from her in 1999,” another supporter wrote me in an email. “Over the years, we have adopted two other boxers, dogs that have been loving family members, and without Alice, would have most likely been put to death. She saved them!!! I cannot understand why San Diego County wasted the taxpayers’ money on a witch hunt. They should be giving Alice a public service award! I don't even want to think of the number of dogs that have suffered and died since her arrest last year...suffered and died because she wasn't allowed to save them.”
Via rehabilitated aggressive dogs
During a courtroom break last week, Donna DeGutis told me why she wanted to attend Via’s trial. “I’m very disturbed by this. I think what Alice does for animals is unsurpassed.”
DeGutis said that she visited Via’s house numerous times and never saw evidence of animal neglect or uncleanliness. “I feel a huge sadness for someone like Alice who has done nothing but good for animals, and taken care of animals that most other people would just throw away. She takes them and she gives them an opportunity for a good life.”
DeGutis said that she adopted her Pomeranian, Ted, from Via after the shelter asked Via to take the dog from them.
“’This dog is going to be put down,’” DeGutis said that Via was told by a shelter worker. “’Would you please take him? Look how cute he is, but he’s aggressive and we can’t adopt him out.’”
Via accepted the dog from the shelter, said DeGutis, and later told her that she knew she was taking him “for someone special.”
That someone turned out to be DeGutis.
“I was going through a real big health challenge,” she explained, “and I called Alice up and I said, ‘When I get finished with this I’m going to get a dog. I’ve been without a dog for a long time. When I get through this I’m ready to have one again.”
She told Via she wanted “a little lap dog,” a Pomeranian—a red one to match her own hair color at the time.
To her surprise, Via answered, “I picked up your dog yesterday.” By coincidence, Via had just gotten Ted out of the shelter the day before—the dog who was about to be euthanized for aggression, but who otherwise happened to match DeGutis’s specifications.
“Alice worked with Ted to get him to become more people-friendly,” DeGutis explained, “and kept him for a period of three months. I would go and visit the dog, so that we could get acquainted with each other.”
The training worked, DeGutis said, and Ted is now very much a lap dog.
‘Where are the people who put the dogs in this predicament?’
“Alice is wonderful at staying on top of dog care,” former volunteer Shenk told me over a lunch break during the trial. “She’s very structured and organized. If a dog came in with medical issues, each dog had its own little tray with what it needed to be medicated or whatever. As for cleanliness, it was great. It was a constant rotation of cleaning. Every dog got a new blanket every day, so it’s constant laundry, constant cleaning, and constant picking up of poop in the backyard. It was just a constant cycle that she was amazing at. I don’t know too many people who could do that. The dogs definitely got the love and the care in a loving, clean environment at Alice’s, which they wouldn’t get at a shelter, regardless of what people think.”
“Alice has done so much good for almost 20 years and has rehabbed dogs that people have just thrown away,” Shenk continued. “They’ve got somebody on trial who takes these dogs in, rehabs them, and gives them medical care, gives them a hug, and gives them a second chance, sometimes a third chance.”
“Where are the people who put these dogs in this predicament to begin with?” Shenk asked. “Why are they not standing on trial right now?”
