14 DAY TRIAL // This past Monday, 54-year-old Gretchen Rell, an animal rescue worker living in New Jersey, US, was taken into police custody. The woman now risks being charged with animal cruelty, and might even be sentenced to jail time if found guilty.
Huffington Post tells us that police officers decided to arrest the 54-year-old woman as a result of their discovering the bodies of over 300 dead birds such as seagulls and pigeons inside the house that the animal rescue worker shared with her 95-year-old mother.
“There’s boxes, piled on top of boxes, piled on top of boxes of dead animals,” Monmouth County SPCA's Chief Law Enforcement Officer, Victor Amato, told the press.
Together with these over 300 lifeless birds, the officers who took part in the raid managed to find and remove a total of 18 feathered creatures that were still alive.
Information shared with the public says that, although she worked as a volunteer for the Monmouth County's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for a while, Gretchen Rell was never given permission to take animals home.
However, it would appear that the 54-year-old woman did so nonetheless, and soon became overwhelmed. Despite her best intentions, she consequently failed to properly look after the animals she was trying to rehabilitate.