Woman Who Took Money, Dumped Dogs Is Sentenced

A 58-year-old woman whose fraudulent home-finding service for unwanted pets was exposed by an animal rights group’s “sting” operation was sentenced Thursday to three days in jail for abandoning five dogs in parks after accepting money to find new owners.

Whittier Municipal Judge Patricia J. Hofstetter also ordered Margarita Sorzano, a wheelchair-bound West Los Angeles woman, to pay the Fund for Animals $8,500, the amount the group estimated it spent trying to snare her, and $3,000 more in fines and restitution to Los Angeles County.

The unexpectedly tough sentence was greeted with jubilation and hugs by more than a score of members of the Fund for Animals. Some members later followed Sorzano to an elevator and bitterly bid her goodby as the doors closed on her.

“You witch!” screamed one.

“You won’t hurt one more animal!” shouted another.

Sorzano, who pleaded guilty in April to nine counts of misdemeanor animal abandonment and petty theft, had long advertised that she would pick up dogs or cats that owners could no longer keep. For a donation, she promised to place them in good homes.

Activists said they had suspected for years that Sorzano, who advertised her service extensively in veterinarians’ offices, was dumping animals.

However, it was not until the Fund for Animals hired a private detective last summer and had several members do business with Sorzano that enough evidence was obtained to convince the district attorney’s office to file charges.

Neither the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ellen Aragon, nor the county Probation Department recommended jail time for Sorzano, in deference to her age and her doctor’s statements that arthritis requires her to use a wheelchair.

Gretchen Wyler, vice chairwoman of the Fund for Animals, said before Thursday’s hearing that all she wanted was a condition of probation banning Sorzano from soliciting money for animal protection.

But Hofstetter--a veteran judge who noted in court that she had once sent a man to jail for repeatedly letting his dog run through a neighborhood--said a short jail term was required to make Sorzano acknowledge the heartbreak she had caused. The judge stayed the jail sentence until May 22 and said Sorzano can serve her time in a county hospital’s jail ward, if necessary.

Sorzano’s motives remained a fuzzy issue.

Her attorney, Irving Osser, characterized his client as an animal-lover who had spent many years finding homes for more than 1,000 animals, only to temporarily go astray. He noted that she is now undergoing psychiatric therapy.

Aragon described Sorzano as a “somewhat mixed-up” woman who at some point “got more interested in money and didn’t want to be bothered” with the chore of finding homes for animals.

Veterinarians and some animal rights volunteers who had dealt with Sorzano have said they believed that she was sincere and were surprised by the charges.

However, Hofstetter said she believes that Sorzano “has totally rationalized this entire activity and that what she did was right. . . . To say it doesn’t count because her heart’s in the right place . . . doesn’t wash.”