More in depth article:

Iowa woman arrested in dogs’ deaths

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By Staff reports
The Grand Island Independent
Posted Aug 02, 2008 @ 11:40 PM

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GRAND ISLAND —
An Iowa woman was arrested by the Hall County Sheriff's Department Saturday afternoon in connection with the death of 23 dogs whose bodies were found in a cornfield a quarter-mile west of Quandt and Prairie Roads last Thursday.

Denise Withee, 45, of Mapleton, Iowa, was arrested and placed in the Hall County Jail.

A press release issued by the Sheriff's Department said a microchip implanted in one of the dead dogs led the department to Withee.

The new release said Withee reportedly is in the business of buying and selling dogs in and around the state of Iowa.

At the time of her arrest, an additional 13 dogs were seized. Those dogs are being cared for by the Central Nebraska Humane Society.

The Sheriff's Department said it cited Withee for three counts of animal abandonment in that serious injuries to the animals resulted after the act. The potential charges are Class IV felonies.

The press release said it will be up to the Hall County attorney's office to decide what charges to file against Withee. It said the county attorney's office very well could file additional charges against Withee after it has an opportunity to review all the Sheriff's Department reports on the incident.

The press release said it may be possible for other people to be arrested and face charges in connection with the case.

The news release said both the Hall County Sheriff's Department and the Central Nebraska Humane Society are continuing to investigate.

The case began when a dog was spotted Thursday afternoon near the corner of a cornfield north of Prairie Road by two people who were driving by the field.

When those people stopped to investigate, they saw more dogs, which resulted in the Central Nebraska Humane Society and Hall County Sheriff's Department responding to the scene.

Eventually, 23 dogs were discovered in the cornfield. Three dogs were alive, but two of them died while people were still working at the scene. A third dog, which was pregnant, died en route to the Grand Island Veterinary Hospital.

The veterinary at the clinic took tissue samples to try to determine the dog's cause of death.

A syringe without a needle was found in the cornfield. It was confiscated to see if it has any connection to the dogs' deaths.

The animals, none of which were puppies, were a variety of breeds: pugs, Yorkies, terriers, terrier mixes, dachshunds and labradoodles

None of the dogs had identification tags, but authorities said in their initial follow-up report on Friday that one of the dogs had an implanted microchip.

Although the chip wasn't registered, Jane Kuehn of the Central Nebraska Humane Society said on Friday that officials might have a lead on where the device was sold.





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