Tiger Ranch Owner Pleads Guilty

Lin Bruno plead guilty to thirteen counts of cruelty to animals, she also plead guilty to two counts of tampering with records.

She will be sentanced Oct 5th and could face jail time, each count carries a five thousand dollar fine, and and two years in jail.If found guilty on all counts, she is facing a max of twenty eight years in prison, and seventy five thousand dollars in fines.

She also must pay $200,000 to the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in restitution for caring for mistreated animals.

This case has dragged on for months, and has caused division among the cat rescue community. Now that it is over, I hope laws can be put into place to stop a travesty like this from every happening again.

http://www.wpxi.com/news/20038405/detail.html

Please take a look at this link as well, it tells the story of how cats poured in to Tiger Ranch from other states, healthy happy cats, who ended up God knows where.

http://www.wpxi.com/news/16264107/detail.html

People were lead to belive these cats were being adopted out.

Dasenbrock said, "We assumed that our animals, our cats were going up and being adopted out on the weekends to homes because we had heard there was a shortage of animals to be adopted up there. We sent beautiful cats up there, very adoptable, very healthy cats up there."

Dasenbrock also said Bruno never turn cats away. "She never said well I can't take any more, so we kept continuing rescuing them here because they would've been just euthanized or gassed here in Georgia," she said.

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Sad and disturbing, a pall has fallen over the rescue community here in Pittsburgh. We are trying to make something good come of this, and make sure nothing like this can ever happen again. The undercover video and the pictures used in court are all over the net, I simply do not have the heart to post them here.

In sadness,
Misty

I don't understand why people would keep sending cats based on assumptions. Does that seem irresponsible to anyone else? No one thought to check the status of the cats that were sent in "van loads"? Yikes. Talk about passing the buck. This should be a lesson to everyone to check up on any groups of cats they might transport to another organization! Keep track of your cats, everyone.

It seems to me that Lin Bruno was trying to do a good thing, but didn't know when to stop... considering she was found guilty of only approximately 3% of the counts she was charged with. I don't believe she was intentionally trying to cause suffering to the animals.

It's sad all around.

considering she was found guilty of only approximately 3% of the counts she was charged with. I don't believe she was intentionally trying to cause suffering to the animals.

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Because as the jury was being choosen for her case, she chose to plead out guilty to some of the charges. That way her case would not have to go before a jury. Her lawyer more than likey told her to plea bargain, so things would not be worse for her. She is facing a max of twenty eight years in prison, and seventy five thousand dollars in fines. She also must pay $200,000 to the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in restitution for caring for mistreated animals.If this case had gone before a jury, and she was found guilty,this would have been much worse, as you can imagine.

A plea bargain is when, to make an agreement in which a defendant pleads guilty to a lesser charge and the prosecutor in return drops more serious charges .

When this was sent to trial, it was because the judge saw intent.

But, yes, there is a lesson to be learned from this case. Investingating where you are sending your cats is just the beggining.

Originally Posted by Misty Fox

When this was sent to trial, it was because the judge saw intent.

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You think she was trying to hurt them and wasn't just in over her head?

When I see strays or ferals, I take note and keep a mental log of where they are. I really wish I could help them all and wonder if I would be able to turn cats away were I to reside at a property large enough to call a "sanctuary". At some point someone had to have realized, "there are too many cats here." That point was probably long before action was taken against Ms. Bruno.

My SO and I have 3 cats at home. When either one of us sees a cat whom we'd like to help, we keep each other in check because we realize that we can't possibly help everyone. We're at our limit for the amount of time, money, and space we have.

I could easily see where someone would keep taking in cats without knowing when to say enough. It'd be easy for someone like that to accumulate cats, and very quickly because of lack of resources (time, space, money) let conditions deteriorate so much that animals go hungry or live in squalor.

Even with just three cats it's difficult to isolate illness. One cat gets a URI, and the virus is who knows where- on the carpet, in the bed, on the cat tree. Despite our best efforts to clean our apartment, wash our hands, isolate, and treat the sick cat it's extremely difficult to keep it from spreading.

I just can't wrap my head around someone keeping so many cats in one place with the intention of harming them. I haven't looked into too many articles on this case (I just don't have the heart), but do you know why they thought it was intentional? And what distinction is made between the charges brought against someone who does something like this intentionally and the charges brought against someone who maybe has a psychological issue and does something like this unintentionally?

My husband and I do the same thing,or we would be over run here as well.
That is how people with a rational thought process in place, behave.

But, talking in six thousand cats a year, and finding homes for fourteen, this info comes from Tiger Ranch records, does not make sense. In the first three months of '08, there were seven hundred cats, again this comes from the Ranches paper work, taken in. That is why the numbers for the "raid" were so askew.

That indeed was long before any action was taken, PA laws did not help the situation, nor did the fact that local agents were called in again and again, and nothing was done. Now they are claiming, after the fact they all told her she had too many cats, yet, continued to take cats to her.

There is a lot of speculation, of what someone could be doing with that many cats, but none of it has been proven. People have taken cats there, and days later, went back to get them, this is just one story.

Former Somerset County resident Karen McCalpin, who now resides in North Carolina, was one of them. In September 2006, she had just accepted a new job, and on the advice of the local humane society, she took seven cats from her farm to Bruno.

"I had a bad feeling about the place as soon as I got there," says McCalpin, who talks about the cats through tears. "I saw some sick cats. ... But because we felt we didn't have any other choice, we left them. I have never forgiven myself for that."

The decision weighed on her all week. The following Saturday, she returned to the ranch to reclaim her cats. When she arrived, she says, there was a line of cars waiting to get in -- including a van from West Virginia that offloaded several cages of cats as McCalpin watched.

Of the seven cats McCalpin had left, only three were still at the facility. One, Foo Foo Kitty, was sick, lying in feces. That cat would have a toe amputated, but survive. One would be euthanized that day. The other was euthanized two weeks later.

"These were all fat, happy, adoptable cats," says McCalpin. "She claimed my other cats were in foster care or adopted, but I don't believe that."

McCalpin, who says she is likely to testify at Bruno's trial, filed a complaint with the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society that day.

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Along with a group of women from DC, who hired a PI,same sort of story.

It is hard to wrap your head around something like this, as is should be.

I do belive Lin Marie started out with good intentions, and I do understand what you are saying about disease, as I am in a professional in the health field. It is boggling to say the very least.

And what distinction is made between the charges brought against someone who does something like this intentionally and the charges brought against someone who maybe has a psychological issue and does something like this unintentionally?

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This will be up to the Judge, testing has been ordered for her, and those results, will reflect in her sentance. When this was ordered to go to trial, that Judge saw intent in the case load of evidence alone, there were hundreds of cats in those freezers, and agonaly sick cats at Tiger Ranch, cats so emaciated, they could not eat or drink, cats so coverd in their own mucus they could not breathe. The pictural evidence, and testimony from witnesses, and Vets is what brought the Judge to her decision. If you would like, I could find her ending statement.

There was more to this case, then we will ever know.

I hope you guys can excuse me for bringing up a semi-old thread.. but OH MY GOODNESS! I had not heard anything about this.

This case seems like a ton of heartache, all around. Surely, she started out with the best of intentions, some kind of idealism that she could save so many cats, and it spiraled out of control. Some people are easily able to step back and seek help when they get in over their heads... and some aren't.

I did a little research, and it seems the surviving cats could be available for adoption as soon as this week! If I lived in the area, I know I'd have to adopt one. Good thing I don't, for my wallet and my sanity's sake! But maybe one of our bighearted members in the Pittsburgh area could open their homes to one of these poor cats. There are before and after photos at the bottom of this page, and upon seeing them.. it almost makes me want to drive up there!