Dog Rescue Group Disputes Donations -- Group Refuses To Reimburse Volunteers

Donations for dogs

The address for donations to help dogs seized from a puppy mill is: Pend Oreille Dog Rescue Fund, P.O. Box 30971, Spokane, WA 99223.

NEWPORT, Pend Oreille County - Officials here are trying to redirect donations to help dogs seized in an Eastern Washington puppy-mill raid, because of a dispute with Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue.

With the blessings of the county, the Seattle-based group has raised $104,429 in donations to help the 205 dogs seized.

But the county says the dog group is refusing to reimburse volunteers $1,384 for the costs of removing the animals from Mountaintop Kennel early last month.

Volunteers rented trucks and paid for gasoline and other items to transport the dogs from Newport to locations throughout the state after the Jan. 4-5 raid.

Sheriff's deputy Andrew Fritz, who organized the raid, said the dog-rescue group has also refused to tell him how much it raised from animal lovers after the sheriff's office publicly endorsed it to receive donations.

Fritz said he had to contact bank officials to learn the amount raised.

Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue spokeswoman Gretchen Schumacher confirmed the amount raised.

County law officers said they submitted the $1,384 in bills for transportation of the dogs, which the rescue group is declining to pay.

"It is our presumption that it is a prosecution expense," Schumacher said. "We just don't do police work."

She said the dog rescue organization fears breeders will view it as an instrument of the police if it pays bills related to the criminal investigation.

The dog rescue group has paid $8,998 in bills submitted by two kennels paying for the dogs, she said.

Pend Oreille County officials have set up their own fund to raise money for the animals.

A trial date of May 12 has been set for Sven and Jeanette Bergman of Newport, owners of Mountaintop Kennels.

Bergman, 48, and his wife, 45, are charged with 21 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and six counts of illegally cropping ears of mastiffs.

A hearing is scheduled on March 27 in which the Bergmans intend to argue that the search warrant on their property was illegal and that the case should be dismissed.

Law officers raided Mountaintop Kennels on Jan. 4 and seized about 230 golden retrievers, English bulldogs and mastiffs that were being bred for sale - for as much as $1,200 each - across the nation.

About 25 were in such poor condition they had to be killed, while others were suffering from malnutrition, cold and other problems.

Pend Oreille County Prosecutor Tom Metzger said earlier that a controversy in which the operators of a Monroe kennel were reportedly refusing to release about 104 of the dogs until they were paid had been resolved.

The owners of Myownly Boarding Kennel will release the dogs to Pend Oreille County authorities next week, Metzger said.

"That was a tempest in a teapot," Metzger said. "It was not a hostage situation."