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Pets stuck in no-dog's-land are rescued

By Molly Moorhead, Times Staff Writer
In print: Tuesday, May 27, 2008

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ADVERTISEMENT [Molly Moorhead | Times] Rick Chaboudy, director of the Suncoast Animal League, nuzzles one of the female miniature pinschers removed from a filthy house Monday.

NEW PORT RICHEY — Three of Carrie Posey-Feddersen's dogs are on their way to a new life.

The animals — a Rottweiler and two miniature pinschers — were removed from Posey-Feddersen's Oelsner Street home Monday after she went to jail over the weekend on animal cruelty charges. Police said her four dogs were left alone and starving for weeks in a house filled with feces and urine. One died.

Rick Chaboudy, director of the Suncoast Animal League in Pinellas County, read about the animals in the newspaper Monday and came to the rescue. Authorities had nowhere to take them because the city's contract with SPCA Suncoast had lapsed.

"The dogs are sort of the innocent victims in all this," Chaboudy said.

He and a couple of other workers from the nonprofit rescue group pulled up in a van about noon, not knowing how they'd be received. But as soon as they cracked the door, three noses poked out.

"They were standing there waiting for us," said Chaboudy, who got permission from police and the landlord to take the animals.

Chaboudy said the dogs appeared to have some skin problems and were underweight, but otherwise their conditions were better than he expected.

After being loaded into Chaboudy's van, the dogs paced around inside their cages and bounced excitedly when people came near. One of them nuzzled with Chaboudy.

He said the dogs would first go to an emergency clinic to be checked out. Then he'll begin the process to gain custody, have them sterilized and finally, he hopes, adopt them out.

Chaboudy also took a white rat — apparently another pet — and an aquarium with fish from the house.

Posey-Feddersen remained jailed Monday. The 26-year-old, who is listed as a dancer at a club called Silk Stalkings, faces one felony charge and three misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty.

Robert Wincz, who owns the Oelsner Street duplex, said Posey-Feddersen was months behind on her rent, but he didn't know about the animal problem until neighbors complained about the odor. He went to the house Saturday, found the dogs and called police.

Posey-Feddersen hadn't been seen in weeks, and the electricity had been shut off.

But it was restored that night, and neighbors called police about 11 p.m. to tell them Posey-Feddersen had returned home. She put her children, ages 4 and 5, to bed in the feces-filled house and told police she was starting to clean up.

The children were taken in by a neighbor. Sgt. William Barrus said Monday that a child protective investigator had visited and decided the kids could remain with the neighbor.

Their mother's bail was set at $5,450.

Molly Moorhead can be reached at moorhead@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6245.