Ailing Animals Seized in Raid in Hawthorne

Police and animal control officials raided a Hawthorne home last week, confiscating a yard full of animals they said were malnourished and infested with lice.

Seized were 22 chickens, two goats, a piglet, a lamb, two cockatiels and an Amazon parrot.

Investigators who visited the home Monday afternoon also found two chicken carcasses, four goat skins, dried blood and what they called other evidence that animals were slaughtered in the yard, said Cori Whetstone, an agent with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Whetstone said she intends to request that the city file misdemeanor charges of cruelty to animals against the residents of the home, whom she declined to name.

A resident of the home who said she owns the animals denied that they were kept in unhealthy and unsanitary conditions or lacked food and water.

In a telephone interview Saturday, the woman said in Spanish that she was upset at the way the officials had treated her and planned to consult with a lawyer Monday. She asked that her name not be used.

The home came under scrutiny after neighbors called the SPCA to complain about a foul smell and flies hovering around the back yard, Whetstone said.

Four agents from the animal agency were joined by two Hawthorne police officers in the raid at 2 p.m. Monday. “It was disturbing,” Whetstone said. “There were dead animals, and there was feces smeared on the pens. The stench was very, very strong.”

SPCA agents said most of the animal pens contained no food or water, or the water was contaminated with feces and algae. Lice covered most of the animals, Whetstone said.

According to Whetstone, the three women at the house agreed to let the SPCA agents take the animals, which will be kept at local shelters until they recover and then will be put up for adoption.

But the owner of the animals said officials refused her request to give her 24 hours to move the animals to a small ranch in Palmdale owned by a relative, a move she said she had planned anyway. She said the investigators forced their way into the yard where the animals were kept and threatened to arrest her if she did not cooperate.

‘Wild Stories’

She blamed neighbors for making up “wild stories” about her after one of her baby goats died, and she buried it in the back yard.

About 50 doves and pigeons were to be removed from the yard Friday, officials said. The resident of the house said the birds were moved to the Palmdale ranch.

Whetstone said that although the residents of the house were not arrested, allegations of misdemeanor animal cruelty will be submitted to the Hawthorne city attorney’s office, which will decide whether criminal charges should be filed.

The SPCA asked that the location of the raid be withheld, but the home on Imperial Highway is listed in the telephone directory as a botanica. Botanicas are religious curio shops that often cater to followers of Santeria, a folk religion practiced in the Caribbean that combines animal sacrifice and other African tribal beliefs with a veneer of Roman Catholicism.

The owner of the animals said she had run a small botanica out of her home that sold candles, gifts and perfumes. But she said she ended that business about five years ago.

Saying that the investigators had accused her of killing animals in Santeria rites, she denied there had ever been animal sacrifices at the home.

“The only animals that were killed were for eating,” she said, describing herself as a Catholic. “I’m an American citizen. I came to this country from Cuba 20 years ago. In this country, we have freedom of religion.”