Seized dogs in court cases test Cedar Rapids shelter and its volunteers

CEDAR RAPIDS - Authorities raided a southeast Cedar Rapids home on Feb. 17 and seized 32 dogs, two cats and a parrot that authorities say were being kept in unacceptably unsanitary and unhealthy conditions.

That was the easy part.

As for the hard part, thank goodness for the animals that the volunteer cadre, Critter Crusaders of Cedar Rapids, is around, says Diane Webber, manager of the city's Animal Care and Control operation and shelter.

Two months after the animal seizure, the city's animal shelter continues to be responsible for the seized animals as the case of the animals' owner, Jennifer Wood, of 308 30th St. Dr. SE, works its way through Linn County court system.

Under normal circumstances, the need to house and care for the seized animals would challenge any shelter's limited space. But the seizure is a particular test now for the Cedar Rapids' shelter because it is operating in small, temporary quarters as it awaits the construction of a new shelter to replace one ruined in the June 2008 flood. The new shelter may not be in place now until 2014.

Seized dogs at a temporary shelter with its own regular stream of incoming strays and dogs and cats surrendered by their owners seems the perfect reason to resort to putting dogs down more frequently.

But the truth has been anything but that, say Webber and Chuck Mincks, recently retired Cedar Rapids police lieutenant and board chairman of Critter Crusaders.

Mincks and Crusaders Jan Erceg and Doug Fuller say the shelter crunch has only made them work harder than ever with their in-house rescue operation to move dogs out into adoptions and into a network of responsible dog rescue operations locally and throughout the Midwest.

“We're in overdrive,” explains Erceg, an Area Ambulance Service paramedic.

In one recent week, Fuller, a retired Cedar Rapids police detective, says Critter Crusaders moved 10 dogs from the shelter to the care of responsible rescue operations, one as far away as New York State.

Even so, Fuller says, “We really do have a crisis situation here with all these seized dogs. It's been going on for more than two months now, and nobody knows how much longer it will continue.”

Fuller, Mincks and Erceg say they would like nothing more than to get the court case with the seized dogs settled, hopefully so they can work to get the seized animals placed in new homes.

“They're wonderful dogs,” says Mincks.

Shelter manager Webber reports that 23 of the seized dogs - in an assortment of sizes - and the two seized cats and the seized parrot are now at the shelter, with nine other dogs under the shelter's responsibility being boarded at two local veterinarian clinics, with two receiving critical care. To date, defendant Wood owes the shelter $41,000 for shelter care provided to the seized animals, Webber adds.

Critter Crusaders ' Erceg notes that the volunteer group at the shelter formed as a non-profit group in 2008 before the flood in June 2008 under the name Friends of the Cedar Rapids Animal Shelter. In the spring of 2010, the group changed its name to Critter Crusaders, and since February of 2010, the group has successfully placed more than 160 dogs and 66 cats from Cedar Rapids to reputable rescue operations throughout the United States.

Critter Crusaders uses donations to the group to pay for non-routine medical care of animals it places, to transport the animals to their placements and to reimburse the Cedar Rapids shelter for what it has spent for medical care.

The group's work has contributed to what Mincks and Fuller say is a little-known and remarkable fact - that the city's animal shelter is forced to euthanize only a third of the dogs as similar animal shelters across the country. They credit the shelter's Webber with setting the standard.

Webber says Critter Crusaders ' work has helped make a difference. No dogs are euthanized today at the city's shelter because of a lack of space, she says. She adds that she seeks the advice of Critter Crusaders ' members before dogs are put down because of medical problems or bad temperaments.

To learn more about Critter Crusaders, click

here.