Suspect in dumpster puppies case relinquishes ownership of 38 dogs
A woman who was arrested for allegedly dumping seven puppies in a Coachella dumpster on April 19 has relinquished ownership of the 38 dogs found in her residence during her apprehension.
54-year-old Coachella resident Deborah Sue Culwell was arrested on April 22. One of the puppies died last week.
Read: One of seven puppies thrown in Coachella dumpster dies
“The 38 seized dogs remain at the Coachella Valley Animal Campus in Thousand Palms. These dogs will be made available for adoption or transfer to the department’s rescue group partner organizations this week,” read the Riverside County Department of Animal Services news release. “Meanwhile, Riverside County Animal Services’ veterinary staff members will coordinate the dogs’ spay and neuter surgeries as soon as possible.”
Culwell relinquished ownership of the dogs on Friday.
During the investigation into Culwell’s alleged instances of animal abuse, she admitted that the puppies originally thrown in the dumpster were from two different litters.
“We’re not surprised by the admission,” Commander Chris Mayer said. “On the day we seized the dogs, we noticed that several of the dogs appeared to have had recent litters.”
{“html”:”n&#lt;iframe width=” 480″ height=”270″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/pH-i6EdZFMw?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”&#gt;&#lt;/iframe&#gt;n”,”version”:”1.0″,”type”:”video”,”provider_url”:”https://www.youtube.com/”,”thumbnail_height”:360,”author_url”:”https://www.youtube.com/user/RivCOanimalsPIO”,”thumbnail_width”:480,”thumbnail_url”:”https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pH-i6EdZFMw/hqdefault.jpg”,”height”:270,”width”:480,”provider_name”:”YouTube”,”url”:”https://youtu.be/pH-i6EdZFMw”,”author_name”:”RivCOanimalsPIO”,”title”:”Dogs Pulled from Coachella home of Suspected Puppy Dumper 4 23 2019″}
Culwell was being charged $570 in board and care fees for each day that the 38 dogs remained in Animal Services custody.
Culwell was released from jail on April 23 after posting $10,000 bail.
Culwell was charged by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office with seven felony counts of animal cruelty and seven counts of misdemeanor animal abandonment.
The puppies are now in great hands, being taken care of by a foster volunteer, who is not planning to reintroduce the two mother dogs to the six puppies, according to Animal Services Director Allan Drusys.
“The woman who has graciously dedicated many hours and a fair amount of her own money toward these abandoned puppies is doing a great job,” said Dr. Drusys, the county’s chief veterinarian. “We don’t want to interrupt her wonderful work with the two mothers, especially since time has passed and the mothers may reject the pups at this stage.”
