January 19, 2010

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/ct-met-0120-petrescue-20100119,0,1705037.story
chicagotribune.com

Bloomingdale shelter will hand off animals to others
Deal reached with operators accused of neglect

By Art Barnum and Vikki Ortiz Healy, Tribune reporters
January 19, 2010

An animal shelter in Bloomingdale whose operators have been accused of neglect will turn over nearly 200 animals to other shelters under a deal reached in court Tuesday.
Pet Rescue, 151 N. Bloomingdale Road, will give its current collection of 149 cats, 29 dogs, 15 doves, two guinea pigs and one rabbit to animal shelters approved by the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
The state had taken away the shelter's license last year, but the operators were able to keep the animals they had.
Criminal charges filed in 2008 against the operators — owner Dale Armon, 74, of Berkeley, and director Penny Horak, 69, of Winfield — are still pending.
Both have been charged with more than a dozen misdemeanor charges of animal neglect. The charges stem from complaints of crowding and insufficient care of the animals, resulting in some of them being euthanized.
Neither was in court today or could be reached for comment. The shelter has been in operation since 1973, according to court records.
Tuesday's ruling means that Armon and Horak will be responsible for arranging the transfer of animals from their shelter to other Illinois shelters in good standing with the Department of Agriculture. Because there are so many animals, they'll likely be dispersed across several shelters, said Colleen O'Keefe, division manager of food safety and animal protection for the department.
Kerry Vinkler, executive director of DuPage County Animal Care & Control, said the judge's order comes as some shelters are struggling with an influx of animals given up for economic reasons, with the cat population exceptionally high.
But both O'Keefe and Vinkler said there are enough shelters to handle the Pet Rescue animals.
If the DuPage County shelter — the only shelter in the county that cannot refuse an animal — is asked to assist in rescuing the animals from the Bloomingdale shelter, employees would likely divide the animals up between 150 rescues and shelters in the DuPage Animal Sheltering Alliance, Vinkler said.
"It would be a huge rescue effort, but … I think that we would absolutely be able to manage this," she said.
abarnum@tribune.com
vortiz@tribune.com
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