Animal neglect charges have been filed against 63-year-old Dennis Goodrich of Webster City. Police and the Animal Rescue League of Iowa recovered nine dogs from Goodrich’s home last week.
Robyn Dobernecker is the animal welfare intervention coordinator for the ARL and helped with the rescue. “The conditions were deplorable and so we did remove all nine dogs,” Dobernecker says, “and then Webster City did a great job, of course, in investigating and then charging the owner.” She says there were four adult dogs and five puppies living in a filthy, cramped wire kennel.
“It certainly was not good for them, obviously,” Dobernecker says. “On top of just the start of it wasn’t a clean environment for them at all. The space that they were kept in was also very small for this number of dogs and the size of the dogs that he had.” The dogs are being treated at a vet clinic. Goodrich is scheduled for a pretrial conference on the charges next week.
(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)