Court orders 'Dog Lady' to give up 121 canines [View All]

SPCA takes animals; couple faces charges
By CINDY HORSWELL
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
The woman known as the "Dog Lady" in Liberty County has no more dogs.

At a hearing Monday, Patsy Boucher, a 58-year-old retired truck driver, was forced not only to permanently relinquish her 121 dogs; but also three pigs, three guinea pigs, one cat, seven finches and a cockatiel that can whistle the theme to The Bridge on the River Kwai.

Justice of the Peace Burl Thomas ordered the animals turned over to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Houston after investigators testified that Boucher's two-room wooden house and half-acre lot about 35 miles north of Houston was unfit for both humans and animals. Precinct 5 Constable L.W. DeSpain said the stench from the urine and feces inside the house and around the yard was so strong that he vomited after he entered the property with a warrant to temporarily seize the animals June 1.

Boucher, who represented herself at Monday's hearing, berated Liberty County for refusing to spend the money needed to provide an animal shelter for the many strays dumped in the county's rural areas.

"I have done nothing wrong but take stray dogs off the streets with nowhere else to go. I admit to being overwhelmed," she said while crying, "but I have never done anything cruel. I love my dogs. Now they're going to be euthanized."

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2627621