Bail kept at $50k for Sky Valley woman charged with animal cruelty
A judge today kept bail at $50,000 for a 64-year-old SkyValley woman charged with animal cruelty for allegedly neglecting dogs on herproperty.
Mary Bernadette Schwenn was arrested at the Indio branch of theRiverside County Law Library on July 25 on 30 animal cruelty-related countsfiled by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. She pleaded notguilty Monday.
At a bail review hearing today, Riverside County Superior Court JudgeRonald L. Johnson kept Schwenn’s bail at the previously set amount of $50,000and denied her attorney’s request that she be released on her own recognizance.The judge reiterated that Schwenn must not have contact with animals if sheposts bail. She is due back in court Wednesday for a felony settlementconference.
Schwenn is charged with 10 felony and 20 misdemeanor counts of animalcruelty and failure to provide proper care or attention for animals. She couldface a sentence ranging from probation to nine years in custody if convicted,prosecutors said.
County Animal Services officers seized 10 dogs on Schwenn’s propertylast week, District Attorney’s spokesman John Hall said. Animal Servicesspokesman John Welsh said the dogs were in protective custody in a non-publicarea at one of the county’s shelters.
The investigation into Schwenn’s activities started in April, when theAnimal Services department got information about more than 30 dogs livingunattended and abandoned on Schwenn’s property near Thousand Palms Canyon andDillon roads.
“During the subsequent investigation, numerous puppies and adult dogswere found to be either suffering or deceased,” Hall said.
Schwenn was ticketed or told by Animal Services officers to treat thedogs humanely or get them veterinary care, “yet she neglected to do so,” Hallsaid.
According to a declaration in support of last week’s arrest, a womantold Animal Control Officer Rita Gutierrez in late June that she saw dead anddying dogs on Schwenn’s property, and “thought more would succumb that daybecause of the extreme heat.”
One dog was found with a gash on its hip, Gutierrez wrote.
“Litters of pups suffered and died. … Ms. Schwenn refused to improvethe living conditions for her animals. Ms. Schwenn also ignored follow-upinstructions given by her vet, allowing her dog to suffer,” Gutierrez alleged.
Kitty Pallesen, who has known Schwenn for at least five years, wrote ina statement to officials in May that she drove to the property one day in Apriland saw roughly 30 dogs “with not a drop of water or bite of food anywhere.”
“I started going up almost every day and then every day for the past 11/2 weeks, because every time I went up there, the food and water would becompletely gone,” she wrote. “There were many days in a row that it was over100. I could not tell when I went back up that Bernadette or anyone had beenthere at all.”
A few weeks later, Pallesen said she went to feed the dogs because itagain appeared they had not been fed or given water.
“There are not enough bowls to do this up there in the camp, and whenthe food goes down, there is lots of scrambling and fighting. They are reallyhungry, and they fight over who gets to eat first or at all,” Pallesen wrote.
Welsh said Schwenn had been ticketed for having unlicensed dogs withoutrequired vaccinations and not having a kennel permit. Animal Services officersmonitored the property for several months, Hall said.
Schwenn also was arrested July 1 at her property on suspicion ofmisdemeanor animal cruelty and posted a $2,500 bond. She is facing twomisdemeanor counts in that case.
According to a declaration in support of Schwenn’s July 1 arrest, one ofher dogs had an infection and was euthanized in May, authorities said.
Welsh said that Animal Services officers would keep checking Schwenn’sproperty for dogs.
“The property does not have proper fencing and, for years, the dogshave been allowed to freely roam the open desert,” he said.
At Schwenn’s arraignment, Johnson dismissed municipal code violationsagainst her, citing lack of prosecution.
