CROSBY, Texas — A tip led animal rescue personnel to about 1,000 dogs, rabbits, hamsters and birds in dirty, cramped conditions in northeast Harris County.

Meera Nandlal, with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said the home in the Crosby area was raided Thursday night.

Nandlal says the animals, allegedly for sale to pet stores, were found in cages and left in storage sheds. She says many did not have adequate food and water.

Temperatures in the Houston area late Thursday topped 90 degrees.

SPCA officials in Houston took custody of the animals during the investigation into whether the owners will face charges.

Crosby is about 20 miles northeast of Houston.

A woman who served a year in the Baxter County jail after her conviction in one of the largest animal cruelty cases in the nation was transferred to a Missouri jail Friday to face additional charges.

Tammy Christine Hanson, 43, is charged with three felony counts of theft of an animal and a misdemeanor charge of failure to appear in court in Mount Vernon, Mo. She was taken to the Lawrence County jail in the southwestern Missouri town Friday afternoon and held in lieu of $25,000 bond, a jailer there said.

Lawrence County Sheriff Ed Weisacosky was unavailable for comment Friday, his office said.

Hanson was convicted in January 2006 in Baxter County District Court of 20 counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty. Her husband, William Hanson, was also convicted on the animal-cruelty charges.

Authorities found more than 500 neglected dogs,many that were rescued from Hurricane Katrina, on her property in Gamaliel near Mountain Home.

“It was absolutely horrible,” Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery said of the conditions where the dogs were penned. “You can’t describe how bad it was.”

Both Hansons fled before their sentencing dates andlived in hiding for 3 1 /2 years.

Tammy Hanson was arrested July 18, 2009, in Caledonia County, Vt. Her husband was arrested in Missouri in September 2009.

Tammy Hanson had filed appeals of her conviction in Baxter County Circuit Court and requested a jury trial. On Thursday, she accepted a negotiated settlement, Montgomery said.

Neither Prosecuting Attorney Ron Kincade of Mountain Home nor public defender Lou Marczuk, who defended Hanson, returned telephone messages seeking comment Friday.

In exchange for her dropping her appeals, she was given credit for the time she has been in custody since July 18, 2009.

Hanson earned eight days of “good time” for work she did while in the Baxter County jail, allowing for her release Friday, Montgomery said.

“This took five years,” Montgomery said. “People have asked was it worth all the time for a misdemeanor. If you were there and actually saw that compound, you’d know it was the right thing to do. We brought that woman to justice.”

Tammy Hanson will remain on supervised probation with the Baxter County District Court until she pays her fines, court costs and restitution.

ST. LOUIS — Scientists and animal rights advocates have enlisted DNA evidence to do for man’s best friend what the judicial system has long done for human crime victims. They have created the country’s first dog-fighting DNA database, which they say will help criminal investigators piece together an abused animal’s history by establishing ties among breeders, owners, pit operators and the animals themselves.

Called the Canine Codis, or Combined DNA Index System, the database is similar to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s digital archive containing the DNA profiles of criminal offenders. Scientists say that by swabbing the inner cheek of a dog, they will be able to determine whether the animal comes from one of several known dog-fighting bloodlines.

“People are not generally going to the pound and buying pit bulls to fight — these dogs are from established bloodlines,” said Tim Rickey, senior director of field investigations and response for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. “And if a suspected dog fighter’s animal matches one of those bloodlines that would be a key piece of evidence.”

The database, a joint effort by the ASPCA, Louisiana SPCA, the Humane Society of Missouri, and researchers at the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at University of California, Davis, was developed during an investigation last July that resulted in 26 arrests and the seizure of more than 400 dogs. The investigation, which stretched across seven states, from Iowa to Texas, resulted in the largest dog-fighting raid in U.S. history, the authorities said.

”We ran the DNA to see if we could connect the different crime scenes and 400 different dogs, which we were able to do,” said Dr. Melinda Merck, a forensic veterinarian for the ASPCA. “A lot of times defendants will claim not only that they are not dog fighting, but also that they’re just breeding, and they don’t know each other.”

The DNA showed otherwise, indicating that many of the dogs were related. The July raids have yielded at least 17 guilty pleas, and while the DNA evidence did not conclusively prove a relationship among defendants, it certainly suggested one. Investigators caution that DNA evidence alone will rarely make a case, though many juries have come to expect it.

”There is definitely a CSI effect,” Merck said. “Juries want to know that if you have evidence you’ve run every possible test. The DNA is just one more tool in our kit that can bolster our cases.” She added, “I do think it’s something that is going to make the dog-fighting world very nervous.”

Illegal in all 50 states, dog fighting rose to prominence in 2007 when Michael Vick, then the star quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, pleaded guilty to federal dog-fighting conspiracy charges and went on to serve 21 months in prison.

Investigators say the multimillion-dollar industry is often associated with other illicit activities like drug trafficking and gambling. But the real money comes from breeding the animals, which investigators say can fetch up to $50,000 for a champion fighter.

”There’s a lot of money that’s made on the fight purses and the side wagering, but the goal for these dog fighters is to breed a champion or a grand champion,” Rickey said. “It’s not uncommon to get $5,000 for a puppy. Over a dog’s lifespan, that can be in the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Researchers say the database, which contains the genetic profiles of nearly 400 of the dogs recovered in the raid, will become more useful as it grows.

Beth Wictum, who directs the forensic unit at the University of California, Davis, where the database is stored, hopes to “identify other lineages that are in the West.”

Investigators add that the database may also prove useful in forensic investigations of blood samples found at a dog-fighting venue to establish the presence of a particular dog.

”One of the challenges in a lot of these fighting pits is that the losing dogs are often executed and dumped along the side of the road somewhere,” Rickey said. “This database may provide a useful tool for tracking down where the animal was bred and maybe the owner.”

Nearly 250 of the animals recovered during the July 2009 raid have been rehabilitated, and are now living as pets, service or therapy dogs.

”These animals were horribly mutilated — missing ears, missing eyes, missing parts of their legs,” said Jeane Jae, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of Missouri, which housed the animals that contributed to the database. “But when given a choice, many will choose not to fight — that’s an animal that’s capable of rehabilitation.”

One such animal, a brown-and-white pit bull that now goes by the name Reggie, still bears a trace of fight scars across his face. The animal cowers at the sound of cheering crowds, which his owner, Gale Frey, believes he associates with the roar of the fight pit.

Nevertheless, Frey says that Reggie has made great strides, and he is now being trained to work as a therapy dog in St. Louis-area hospitals.

”We’re moving forward,” said Frey, who runs Phoenix Pack, a nonprofit dog rescue service in St. Louis. “The pit’s in the past.”

LITTLE ROCK — Authorities say they’ve raided a cockfighting ring at a Saline County home.

Lt. Mike Frost of the county Sheriff’s Office says officers received a tip about the ring. He says when deputies arrived, they found 25 roosters, the ring and other fighting materials. Officers seized about $3,800.

Frost says two men escaped and authorities are looking for them.

A homeless man used a kitchen knife to stab the throat of a puppy, killing it, as he burglarized a southwest Little Rock house early Wednesday, taking only a deck of cards and a ball cap emblazoned with a skull, police said.

As detectives led Adam Lee Waller, 28, to a police truck headed to the Pulaski County jail, a television news cameraman asked him whether he was guilty.

“Man, I didn’t kill any f *****g dog, no!” Waller said.

Police charged Waller with one count each of burglary, theft of property and felony aggravated cruelty to an animal.

The puppy was a mix of pit bull and mastiff, according to a police report, which noted that the dog’s owner described it as “extremely nonviolent.”

The puppy was locked in the fenced yard behind 7102 Mabelvale Cutoff when police say Waller broke in through a glass patio door about midnight.

According to the report, Waller approached Gary Bise, 50, Tuesday night and asked him to make a gift of the cap. Bise refused.

Bise is moving out of the house, police said, and had left the property when he realized he had forgotten something and returned home 15 minutes later.

That’s when he saw the lights on.

“The corpse of [Bise’s] pitbull/mastiff puppy was found nearby with the above listed kitchen knife sticking out of its throat,” officer Stephen Lichti wrote in his report.

Police searched for the burglar without luck. Then a neighbor called police Wednesday morning to say a man matching a description of the burglar was wandering around on the street.

Police arrested Waller a little after 8 a.m.

Two Johnson County women charged with felony animal cruelty for running a mass dog breeding operation were sentenced to probation and given fines after they pleaded no contest to all eight counts against them.

Deputy prosecutor Bruce Wilson said Christine Yarrington, 60, and Lynn Burkett, 51, were sentenced Wednesday in Johnson County Circuit Court to five years’ probation and were fined $1,500 each, plus court costs.

They also were prohibited from having any animals in their possession and were ordered to undergo counseling on proper ownership and treatment of animals, Wilson said.

The women also were given 41 days’ credit for time served in jail pending trial, he said. If convicted at trial, the women could have been sentenced to as many as six years in prison and fined up to $10,000 on each count.

The sisters were arrested and charged in October with cruelty to animals after Johnson County sheriff’s deputies and members of the Humane Society of the United States raided their property north of Lamar and found 96 dogs, five cats and two guinea pigs living in squalid conditions.

Those who went onto the property found the animals, primarily Shih Tzus and Chihuahuas, emaciated, with skin and eye infections and heavily matted fur. Many lived in wire cages with floors covered with several inches of fur, dirt and feces, and many had feces tangled in their fur.

An affidavit for arrest warrants stated that nearly all of the animals needed medical treatment. It said the animals suffered from dehydration, dermatitis, flea infestation, severely overgrown nails, ear mites, ear infections, dental disease, untreated skin conditions and extreme matted fur from neglected grooming.

About 40 people from the Humane Society, United Animal Nation, Emergency Animal Rescue Service and Pet Smart Charities as well as area veterinarians and volunteers cared for and treated the animals after they were taken from the sisters’ property. The sisters relinquished ownership of the animals to the Humane Society.

Yarrington and Burkett were arrested again in April when one of the women was seen carrying a puppy in the Johnson County courthouse. A condition of their bond when they were released after their initial arrest was that they have no animals in their possession.

They had remained in jail after that arrest until their plea on Wednesday, Wilson said.

After getting preliminary care in Arkansas, the animals were sent to a shelter in the Washington D.C. area for additional treatment and socialization.

BECKLEY, W.Va. — Her first name was borrowed, appropriately as time would tell, from Summer Bartholomew, the 1975 winner of the Miss USA Pageant.

Her last name is Wyatt.

“Just like Earp,” she smiled, explaining the spelling that mirrors that of the legendary lawman who joined his brothers and Doc Holliday in the famed Gunfight at the OK Corral.

Except in Summer Wyatt’s case, all similarities with one of the Old West’s larger-than-life figures end there.

She totes neither a badge nor a shooting iron in her many investigations over hill and dale, often in the backwash of West Virginia, looking for evidence of animal mistreatment ranging from neglect or outright abuse.

And just as in her 2007 reign as Miss West Virginia, the former beauty queen logs thousands of miles each year, often staying in motels, in her role as state director of The Humane Society of the United States.

In her formative years, she spent summer vacations and holidays with a grandmother, Libby Safewright, in Tazewell, Va., watching her as a volunteer in humane investigations, laying the groundwork for what would develop into a personal mission and ultimately a full-time job with the humane society.

“She was always very loving and protective of people and animals,” Wyatt said of her grandmother.

“She helps anyone and everyone she can, and she still does today, and she’s in her 70s. So we took care of animals that had been abused or abandoned, or that were being processed for court cases, whether it was a puppy mill or farm that let their animals starve.”

At times, the two dealt with exotic animals that needed to be put in special homes, zoos or reserves.

“I just grew up with the knowledge that you need to do all you can for people or animals that can’t help themselves, and it kind of stuck,” she explained.

Standing side by side with her grandmother in such outings, Wyatt was privy to some ugly cases of animal mistreatment, impressions that endure to this day.

“I think that’s what prepared me for this job,” she recalled.

“Almost on a daily basis, you see very terrible things that most people can’t even imagine happen in this world to animals. I’m not going to say it doesn’t affect me, because it does. It’s kind of like I’ve grown up with the knowledge that it happens on a daily basis.”

For some owners, it comes down to a case of simply not providing sufficient food and water for their animals.

“I’m seeing a ton of starved horse cases right now,” she said.

“A lot of people hoard animals and they’re not treated as they should be. They’re not fed. They’re not watered. They’re not socialized with humans. And that’s a huge problem. Even if we get these animals out of the homes, they’re not socialized.”

Absent the close contact with humans in a socializing atmosphere, the animals can digress to the basic instinct of the wild, Wyatt explained.

“Dogs get into that pack mentality after you have so many and you can’t spend quality time with a dog or a cat, or some other animals that you would spend time with if you had one or three dogs, so they begin to invert back to that pack mentality,” she said.

Even in her days as Miss West Virginia, she invested much time on behalf of safeguarding animals. When the humane society was in the market for a state director, she was invited to apply, and the rest, as some are wont to say, is history.

Wyatt can pursue suspicions of animal mistreatment, but, lacking the powers of a police officer, cannot actually file charges.

“I can go out and investigate if I’m available to see animals from the road, or the person will let me onto their property,” she said.

“It’s not like I can go with a warrant or a badge. But I do investigate cases where I can and get those pictures or evidence to authorities and see what we can do further on this case.”

The job isn’t always the most pleasant one.

“Before I had this job, I had clashes when I would volunteer with my grandmother,” she recalled.

“People are not so happy that you’re trying to take their animals, even though they’re abusing their animals. Even when I was Miss West Virginia, there were some people on forums on the Internet saying some nasty things about me because I wanted to regulate the owners of exotic pets. I viewed that some exotic pets can be dangerous to human health as well as other animals’ health because they’re not natural, native species to the state of West Virginia. I feel there should be some type of regulation. And some people who don’t feel the same way as I do said some icky things on the Internet. But, it happens.

“No one is ever going to be loved by everybody or be in agreement with everybody. I try not to step on anybody’s toes or offend anyone. I also try to do what’s best for animals in all cases.”

Wyatt lobbied intensely, in vain as it turned out, for legislation that would make it a felony to engage in cockfighting, by amplifying a bill so that any type of animal combat would put owners into prison.

Since dogfighting already is a federal felony offense, the bill’s underlying intent was aimed at cockfighting and not only covered the actual bloodsport itself but the possession of the tools of the trade the tiny weapons attached to their legs when thrown into the ring. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor, one that hardly acts as a deterrent when one considers thousands of dollars can change hands in wagers placed on fighting cocks.

That bill, sponsored solely in the Senate by Judiciary Chairman Jeffrey Kessler, D-Marshall, easily cleared his chamber but never saw the light of day in a House committee.

Ditto for a House bill, whose lead sponsor was Delegate Virginia Mahan, D-Summers, and would have imposed regulations on dog breeding facilities, or “puppy mills” as the humane society dubs them. As for both, the humane society plans to renew its efforts in the 2011 session.

“We feel that a lot of times, these large breeding operations can be abusive,” Wyatt said.

“Animals are not always socialized. Sometimes they’re used only for breeding and not exercised. They’re kept in pens because they’re a breeding agent. That’s all they are. We worry about these animals, of course, for their health. But also, when this happens in a county, and the county has to crack down on this facility, it costs counties thousands of dollars to go in and take these dogs out and have these dogs evaluated and send them to animal shelters, get them adopted out and all the court proceedings that go with it. What would be better for the state as a whole if these breeding facilities that have 20 to 50 adult breeding dogs to have regulations out in place.”

Besides those two headlining bills, Wyatt says the humane society can work on other legislation involving animal care and protection.

“Whether it’s defining certain words in our current code, such as shelter or chaining,” she said.

“We don’t define those. So it’s hard for an animal control officer to go and write someone for not having a proper shelter for their animal because we don’t define shelters in the state of West Virginia. There’s a lot of issues that could be defined within our code and there’s a lot of issues that could be added in our code.”

Wyatt works out of her home as the base of humane society operations.

Since her residence is rental, she cannot keep pets of her own, but ultimately hopes to buy some farm property and run a horse animal rescue operation.

“It’s sad I can’t have one of my own,” she said of animals, “because I spend all my time protecting other ones.”

For those fortunate to have the necessary space and time to maintain a pet, the experienced Wyatt offers some advice.

“Please know it’s a lifetime duty, a full-time job,” she said.

“And if you’re thinking about it, consider our local animal shelters. These animals are just as good as animals that you would buy. They just happen to be in a different situation. If you can’t take care of your animal, please don’t do something bad. Go to your local authorities. Go to your animal shelter. Contact me. And please, be as considerate of animals as you are of people because they feel, like we do.”

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Three members of a family preparing to move from Port St. Lucie to North Carolina have been charged with packing more than 20 cats in poorly ventilated wooden boxes.

The new owner of a Port St. Lucie home spotted three wooden boxes stacked near her neighbor’s yard on Saturday. Animal control responded and freed several cats. Authorities say 34-year-old Jessica L. Eskew arrived in a van with dogs and cats inside. The van was towing an open trailer, which was carrying a wooden box with 20 more cats. Some of the cats were close to heat exhaustion.

Eskew’s parents, 59-year-old James F. Eskew and 56-year-old Shelia N. Eskew, arrived and all three were charged with felony animal cruelty.

A total of 32 cats and two dogs were taken by animal control officers.

In the wake of the beating of a puppy, a California lawmaker has proposed the creation of a registry of animal-cruelty offenders, akin to those that list sex offenders.

California Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez, a Bakersfield, Calif., Democrat, has proposed legislation to create an animal abuse registry, the first in the country if approved. People convicted of felony animal cruelty would be required to list their address and criminal history on a registry.

The bill follows the recent conviction of a former Los Angeles County firefighter who beat his neighbor’s dog so severely it had to be euthanized.

Now-former firefighter Glynn Johnson was sentenced to three years parole and community service working with dogs. A jury found him guilty of felony animal cruelty for beating the dog, Karley, with a rock. Johnson said he was defending himself after the dog latched onto his hand. He was required to pay for the family’s veterinary bills.

Florez said animal cruelty offenders often escalate to violence against people. The bill is also designed to increase adoption restrictions.

Johnson’s attorney, John Sweeney, said the registry would not be meant for people like Johnson and would not be retroactive. Johnson had no prior criminal history before his conviction and retired from the fire department after the dog’s death.

“I don’t think Mr. Johnson fits the description at all of a dangerous animal abuser,” Sweeney said. “He was a model citizen who rose to the top of the Fire Department. He is not at all the poster child of their cause.”

The bill passed the Senate’s Public Safety Committee by a Democratic party majority but still must clear the Appropriations Committee and be approved by the state Assembly.

The cost to establish and administer the registry would be covered by imposing fines of $200 to $500 when people are convicted.

Several groups have opposed the bill, including PetPac and the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU opposed listing offenders on the registry, Florez said.

Other groups have questioned if the fines will be enforced to pay for the registry.

PetPac, a political action committee representing pet owners, opposed the bill and its funding. PetPac chairman Bill Hemby said only 3 percent of the funding from fines pays for the registry while the remainder goes to spay and neuter programs.

“It has nothing to do with animal cruelty programs,” Hemby said “When you take almost 100 percent of the money and put it against a non-criminal justice issue with no strings attached, we call that a sham.”

Hemby said the funding would better be served for counseling programs for offenders or school education programs.

The registry would include felony offenders for up to 10 years. Law enforcement would be notified, and the offender would be required to submit name, address and place of employment to the state Department of Justice. The database would include the person’s photograph and the date and type of the offense.

Anyone who failed to register would be punished with a civil fine but would not face jail time, according to the bill.

Stephan Otto, director of legislative affairs for the advocacy group Animal Legal Defense Fund, said similar bills are pending in Tennessee, Louisiana and New York.

“Fundamentally, it’s about safety and reducing costs. Those who abuse animals are at risk of re-offending,” Otto said. “There’s likelihood to them being violent to others as well. The goal is to reduce the cost at shelters and reduce the number of new victims.”

Karley’s owners, Jeff and Shelley Toole, said they would not have moved next to Johnson if he had had a history of animal abuse. They cited a 12-year neighborhood feud where the family argued with Johnson and were harassed over their animals running loose.

“I feel that anything we can do to help stop animal cruelty is beneficial to the average citizen who might be moving next door,” Jeff Toole said. “When people abuse animals, that’s a start of sociopath behavior where they might abuse people as well.”

The Animal Legal Defense Fund is working with the Toole family to draft “Karley’s Law,” which would entitle pet owners to additional civil damages associated with losing an animal in an animal cruelty case. The proposed bill has not been sponsored by a legislator or introduced into the Assembly or Senate.

Current law only allows damages equal to the value of the pet. The family has a pending lawsuit seeking unspecified damages for emotional distress and the loss of their home and wages.

Johnson has filed a countersuit seeking reimbursement for legal fees and alleging defamation of character.

Barbara Blanco, an animal law professor at Loyola Law School, said both proposed laws may have momentum. She said most of society has a large attachment to animals, but courts and laws have not recognized that in the past and only recognized them as property.

“Animals have assumed a much better status as a family member to a large percentage of Americans,” Blanco said.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missourians seeking new restrictions on the state’s dog breeders delivered tens of thousands of signatures in more than two dozen boxes to get their proposal before voters.

The group was among several that are trying to beat the clock and deliver their initiative petitions before the 5 p.m. Sunday deadline. Two already have been filed — on dog breeding and earnings taxes in the state’s major cities — and several more could be submitted.

Supporters of the dog breeding restrictions took photographs and posed with several dogs outside the secretary of state’s office building near the state Capitol. Boxes were wheeled in on carts and given to state election officials.

Barbara Schmitz, the campaign manager of Missourians for the Protection of Dogs, said she was “overjoyed.” She said the measure is designed to strengthen the state’s laws to ensure dogs are treated humanely. It would be called “Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act.”

“We’re tired of being known as the puppy mill capital of the country,” Schmitz said. “We’re tired of having dogs being treated in such a substantial and cruel way.”

Missouri has been estimated to have more than 4,000 shoddy and inhumane high-volume breeders, and state officials been cracking down on them.

Under the ballot measure, dog-breeders could only have 50 breeding dogs and would be required to feed animals daily, provide annual veterinary care and not breed animals more than twice every 18 months. Breeders also would have to follow rules for the dogs’ living space and house animals indoors with unfettered access to an outdoor exercise yard.

It would apply to people with at least 10 female dogs for breeding. Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and face up to 15 days in jail and a $300 fine.

Dog breeders and many Missouri farming groups have sharply criticized that initiative petition and warned it could be a harbinger for other efforts to restrict livestock production in the state.

Karen Strange, the president for the Missouri Federation of Animal Owners, said Sunday that the changes would affect licensed dog breeders who already follow the rules and make it more expensive for people buying pet dogs. Strange said many of its provisions already are followed and that she feared the ballot measure’s supporters had mislead some who signed the petition.

“They are targeting the legal, licensed professional breeders that do it right,” Strange said. “I don’t think it’s fair to limit a legal industry.”

Schmitz denied that the group was targeting agriculture. She estimated that about 190,000 signatures had been submitted for the proposed dog-breeding law.

However, a lawsuit over the description of the petition that would appear on the ballot has not yet been resolved.

To get an initiative petition on the ballot to change the state constitution, organizers need signatures from more than 8 percent of the votes cast in the 2008 governor’s election from six of Missouri’s nine congressional districts. For petitions changing state law, it takes more than 5 percent of the total votes from the 2008 governor’s election in six congressional districts.

That amounts to between 146,907 and 159,359 for constitutional amendments and 91,818 to 99,600 for statutory changes. Election officials have until Aug. 3 to determine whether the initiative petitions qualify for the ballot.

Another group — supporting an effort to call a referendum on earnings taxes in St. Louis and Kansas City — said it submitted more than 210,000 signatures last week. That measure would have all Missouri voters decide whether those living in St. Louis and Kansas City should cast ballots on the cities’ earnings taxes every five years during municipal elections. If local voters decide to scrap their earnings tax, it would be phased out over a decade.

Supporters of the earning tax ballot measure say they want voters to decide whether to keep the tax. But critics warned that eliminating those cities’ earning taxes could pose significant budget trouble and gut vital services such as police and fire protection.