Posted on 10/19/2019 1:56:10 PM PDT by Morgana
VAN ZANDT COUNTY, Texas (KETK) – The president of the Van Zandt County Humane Society has been arrested for stealing dogs.
Cynthia Diane Durham, 61, was arrested Wednesday by Van Zandt County Precinct 2 Constable Jesse Ison and charged with theft of property. She is in the Van Zandt County Jail on a bond of $250,000.
She is accused of participating in a process known as “pet flipping,” or stealing pets to be transported elsewhere for resale as a “rescue.”
According to a press release from Ison, the victim, Jeremy Housden, contacted his office on July 15 to report the theft of the family’s two blue heeler hounds while the family was out of town.
During the investigation, Ison said, Sergeant Deputy Jason Burns received information connecting Durham to the crime scene and the alleged theft.
Burns interviewed Durham, whom Ison said confessed to the theft. Ison said Durham told investigators she believed the dogs were neglected.
Ison said that was disproved during the investigation.
Ison said Durham then told Burns that she had transferred the dogs to a rescue group in Wisconsin where they were being prepared for adoption.
Burns located a photo of the stolen dogs listed for adoption on the “Unchained K-9 Rescue & Rehab” website in Wisconsin. Burns showed Housden the photo and he positively identified the dogs as his stolen family pets.
Burns contacted the rescue group and spoke to the owner, Patricia Junk, to notify her that she was in possession of stolen property. Junk refused to release the dogs to a law enforcement agency and refused to cooperate with the investigation.
Burns also discovered that the suspects posted a photo of the stolen dogs on the rescue group’s website stating “Available soon,” according to Ison.
(Excerpt) Read more at easttexasmatters.com ...
Yikes, what a miserable excuse for a human.
Hands off my pet or I’m coming after you...
I have heard of cat juggling, but not pet flipping.
53-year old Patricia Ann Junk of Merrillan Wisconsin is currently wanted at large for alleged Theft of Property >$750<$2500. The Jackson County Sheriff’s office in Wisconsin is currently searching for Junk and once arrested, she will be extradited back to Texas.
Ah. Cat juggling. Well excuse me.
This must be what replaced dwarf tossing.
Patricia Junk.
what a weird story. how did the lady find those 2 dogs at the guy’s house? how much was she selling them for? what other dogs did she do it to? if she’s at the humane society I’m sure the took the cream of the crop drop offs and sold them as well but, who’s to know since the article is awful
“...two blue heeler hounds...”
Not a smart move to mess with a Texan’s blue heelers!!!!
This doesn’t surprise me at all.
People claim to have “found” kittens in the street all the time. Then add in the profit incentives of “rescues” and it makes sense.
Up here in the Northeast most of the dogs available for adoption are shipped up from the South (or even from Puerto Rico). Joe or Jill Private Citizen often runs the “rescue organization”. These mutts of various ages are often shipped up and immediately sold—forget the “donation” terminology—for $400-500 dollars. The customers are often secured before the dogs are actually shipped up. You can just imagine the Bubbas down South happy to let their dogs breed for their cut of that. Likely a fair amount of dog swiping goes on too.
They Will Take Your Dog and Make You Apologize
https://dogbitelaw.com/blog/they-will-take-your-dog-and-make-you-apologize
IMO most pet ‘rescues’ are little more than dog trafficking operations. Their inventory is donated and then sold for $100 or more.....
People who do this would probably acid wash their hard drives or visa versa.
I guess this is why the pound only has pit bull mixes... any cool breeds get sold.
Heck of a story....it has a perp named Junk along with an author named Necessary.
not a smart move to mess with people’s dogs from Texas period.
Windflier texas ping please.
“author named Necessary.”
Yes I did notice this while posting.
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