NO, “IT’S NOT JUST A DOG!” . . .

ANIMAL CRUELTY AND BEYOND

By Joshua Marquis, District Attorney, Clatsop County, OR,

Vice President of NDAA’s Board of Directors and

Vice Chair – Animal Legal Defense Fund

 

Albert Schweitzer said, “Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives.”

There is a well established and recognized link between animal cruelty and serial killers, violent criminals, young killers, domestic violence including spouse/partner, child and elder abuse. 

For example prior to the students involvement in school shootings between 1997 and 2001, such as: Littleton (Columbine), CO; Jonesboro, AK; Springfield, OR etc., all of the boys had performed acts of animal cruelty.  These acts included shooting dogs, setting cats on fire, blowing up cows and killing other small animals.  Serial killers such as Albert DeSalvo, the Boston Strangler who killed 13 women; Ted Bundy who killed at least 30 women; Jeffrey Dahmer who killed and cannibalized at least 17 people; and Dennis Rader, the BTK killer in Wichita, KS who killed at least 10 people, all tortured and killed animals prior to killing people.

There is also an alarming association between people who torture, abuse and kill animals and also torture, abuse and kill their spouses and/or partners, children and the elderly.  The abusers seek to control the animals they abuse and likewise want to control the people that they abuse.  

Also, there are many people involved in other forms of animal cruelty that prosecutors, police and others within law enforcement are actively pursuing.  These are in the form of dog and cock fighting (one of the most dangerous environments for law enforcement to infiltrate), Internet use that depicts and promotes animal cruelty, puppy mills and animal hoarding.

The following is a case that I tried about animal hoarding and its effects.

Vickie Rene Kittles, also known as Susan Dietrich, was convicted on 42 counts of Animal Neglect in Astoria, Oregon in February 1995 after five weeks of trial, months of delay, and years of suffering for the animals she claimed to love.

I was in charge of Kittles' case which concluded with what some called the world's longest dental appointment without anesthesia. Kittles was able to drag the case out almost two years through endless manipulation of people and the legal system. She was afforded nine different court-appointed lawyers - none of whom met with her satisfaction, and went through six judges. The judge who tried the case was so traumatized that he refuses to have anything further to do with the case or Vickie Kittles.

Kittles, who has a long criminal record of assaultive conduct dating back to the late 60s, surfaced most publicly in Broward County Florida in the early 1980s when she was charged with various crimes after neighbors complained about the scores of dogs and two horses she kept in her mother's suburban house. Kittles claimed then - and now - that she is the victim of a massive government conspiracy, somehow tied to the Drug Enforcement Administration, that sought to poison her and "her" dogs.

She was eventually run out of one part of Florida only to surface in another with her aged mother, Jean Sullivan, who has not been seen since living in filth with her daughter in rural Manatee County, Florida. From there Kittles (alone) went on to Mississippi, where she convinced some good-hearted souls that she would "save" scores of dogs by taking them to a "no-kill" shelter in Colorado.

From Mississippi she fled to Colorado where she once again claimed persecution. She left a wake of well-meaning vets with unpaid bills and sponsors whom she turned on when they failed to give her everything she wanted. From Colorado in the late 80s she traveled to rural Washington where she and "her" dogs were delivered by a semi-truck. True to form, she was successful in conning some wealthy backers to send her $15,000 which she used to buy a school bus that became her home, and the prison for over 100 dogs. She once again wrung every bit of kindness - and money - out of her would-be benefactor before accusing her too of being involved in a plot.

She then moved across the Columbia River to rural Clatsop County Oregon where she was finally confronted by Animal Control Supervisor Tommi Brunich on April 16, 1993. Brunich found a positively surreal scene in which Kittles shrieked threats at officers and neighbors while grasping a dog that was continually convulsing. The dog, which had received no veterinary care but that "special knowledge" possessed by Kittles, died despite the best efforts of local vets. When the dog was autopsied there was absolutely no food in its system or ANY body fat - a sign of long and painful starvation.

The scene on board the bus was worse - 115 dogs, four cats, and two roosters crammed into a bus caked with urine and feces, stinking so bad that officers used gas masks to go inside. Kittles boasted at trial that she had not let any of the dogs off the bus for weeks to prevent them from getting fleas. The dogs were, however, suffering from almost every other parasite, including hookworm, whipworm, and in at least 16 cases, deadly heartworm.

After Kittles was arrested she threatened to sue anyone who touched "her" dogs. Despite her claims of love for the dogs she visited them only once and actually convinced a judge to FORBID the state from getting medical treatment for any of the dogs.

When I took office in the spring of 1994 Kittles was merrily holding the whole court system hostage, alternately ranting and raving, and filing literally hundreds of self-styled legal motions. Eventually we got the dogs treated for heartworm and fostered out many of them to loving homes.  Despite Kittles best efforts to delay the trial, it was finally scheduled to go to court on August 2, 1994. Despite strong objections from my office the judge had permitted Kittles to live out of state - just across the river, and when the trial date came, Kittles refused to show up, requiring an extradition fight which took 3 months just to get her back to Oregon.

In a trial that should have taken two days, Kittles berated the judge, me, the witnesses, the jurors, and the audience, and only later in the trial was finally sentenced to spend a total of 71 days in jail for contempt. Kittles used every artifice available to endlessly question witnesses about irrelevant material and when her turn came to give her side, she talked steadily for two and a half days. The jury - often the target of her accusations of being genetically deficient - took only a couple hours before unanimously convicting her on all 42 counts.

The case drew huge attention from regional media who sent satellite TV trucks to cover the more spectacular parts of the bizarre trial. Kittles is an animal collector, a title she now proudly wears despite the testimony of Humane Society of the United States Vice-President Randy Lockwood that animal collectors are much like drug addicts in their pathology, and much more interested in themselves than "their" animals. 

As D.A. I usually handle murder cases, and Kittles is in my opinion one of the most dangerous, evil people I have ever encountered. She has enough psychosis to be exasperating, and enough cunning to bend the system to her will. Like any really nasty virus, she needed to be confronted and stopped before she could ruin more lives - of people and dogs.

After spending more than a year in Oregon and Washington jails, Vicki Kittles was released from the Clatsop County Jail after serving her jail sentence for neglecting 115 dogs.  But with her history of animal abuse and hoarding, she is likely to begin the same distructive cycle again.

Although we could have kept her in jail even longer for her continuing refusal to be evaluated or treated for her "animal addiction," to continue jailing her would just inflict cruel and unusual punishment on her jailers and Oregon taxpayers (in fact one fellow inmate had begged to be sent on to the state woman's prison rather than suffer another night in a cell with Vickie Kittles).

Our main concern was that she not bother the brave people who cared for the dogs and brought them into their homes. So on a rainy November morning, Kittles who had enjoyed jail food so much she couldn't wear the clothes she came into jail with, called a cab and loading two huge boxes of what she calls her "critical legal papers" she ordered the cab to take her to McDonalds. We haven't seen anything more of her, and hope it continues that way. If she violates her probation, particularly by harassing the people who helped the dogs, she is eligible to serve at least 5 more years in county jail.

On a cheerier note, some good has come from this mess. As the result of hard work by the Oregon Humane Society's Sharon Harmon and former U.S. prosecutor Charlie Turner and the sponsorship of State Representative Tim Josi, the Oregon legislature passed House Bill 3377, named the "Kittles Bill" by the media. HB 3377 makes particularly aggravated animal abuse a felony and, more directly relevant to the Kittles case, allows a court to care for and foster animals seized while a criminal charge is pending.

 

The overwhelming majority of the surviving dogs have been happily adopted and are living wonderful Kittles-free lives. I have genuinely been moved by the number of people who have volunteered their time, homes, and money to help out helpless animals victimized by Vicki Kittles. One note I received in particular was so poignant that I asked and received permission from the family who sent it to share their words and pictures .

The bottom line, though, with regard to animal abuse is that when people observe animal abuse taking place it should raise a “red flag” that the abuser may also be abusing their family members or may be involved in the commission of violent crimes.  These people should be reported to the police or other appropriate authorities.