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 discovered April 13, 1993 on her filthy
schoolbus parked in rural Clatsop County a stone's
throw from the Columbia River.
To briefly
recap, Kittles was arrested through the diligent
efforts of Clatsop County Animal Control Officer
Tommi Brunick after she learned that Kittles was
cooping up 115 dogs, 4 cats, and two chickens on a
schoolbus she had moved over from rural Washington.
Kittles had accumulated the animals through deceit
and conniving across America, starting in Florida,
where she had been prosecuted for animal neglect
and keeping horses inside her mother's small
suburban home. Kittles, who loves the attention she
can get through manipulating the legal system,
managed to delay the proceedings against her for
months, and finally a year.
When I was
appointed District Attorney in March of 1994
Kittles had already received seven different
taxpayer-paid lawyers, none of whom met her
"standards." She had managed to go through five
judges, claiming each of them was "prejudiced"
against her. The dogs seized off her bus suffered
from gross malnutrition and in many cases
potentially-deadly heartworm. Kittles had managed
to prevent the dogs from getting ANY veterinary
care and they had remained locked up for a year,
since Kittles insisted they be available as
"evidence" if the case ever finally got to
trial.
We succeeded,
over her violent objections, in treating the dogs
for heartworm, and "fostering" out many of the dogs
to loving homes. A trial date was set for August 2,
1994 which Kittles arrogantly refused to attend,
faxing her refusal to "submit" from across the
Columbia River in Washington. Even though she was
only 5 miles away, the fact that she was in another
state required formal extradition proceedings.
Kittles, of course resisted, and was kept in jail
for three months while she fought - ultimately
unsuccessfully - extradition back to Oregon.
Finally in
January of 1995 her trial began and went on for
almost a month, with Kittles acting as her own
lawyer and badgering witnesses with questions that
often went on for hours. Despite Kittles' best
efforts to intimidate harrass and annoy jurors,
they convicted her of all 42 counts of first and
second-degree animal neglect. She got a four month
jail sentence added to the 70 days in jail she
earned for contempt of court during the trial. Her
sentence required her to be examined by a
psychriatist and to avoid any contact with animals
or any of the people who had helped care for,
foster, and adopt any of "her" dogs. She, of
course, refused to submit to any mental examination
and first received an extra months then another
month for probation violation before ever being
released from jail.
Although we
could have kept her in jail even longer for her
continuing refusal to be evaluated or treated for
her "animal addicition," 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 - like it is in 16 other states, and more
directly relevant to the Kittles case, allows a
court to care for and foster animals seized while a
criminal charge is pending.
Update on Vickie Kittles:
The overwhelming majority of the surviving dogs have been happily adopted and are living wonderful Kittles-free lives. I have genuinely 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