just terrible

i heard about this at my church on sunday and didnt know what to think. the version i heard was much worse than the paper makes it sound. this article didn t hit the paper until tuesday, and the gentleman who told me about it was on sunday just after it was discovered. i am more inclined to believe his version. some poor teenage volunteer walked into the shelter around 5am on sunday to feed the animals and found untter devestation. animals were killed and lots of dogs had been set loose, files were dragged out of file cabnits and strewen everywhere, food had been poisened and everything there had been messed up somehow. this poor teenage volunteer was quite shaken. the shelter had a kitty that had been born there and lived at the sheleter hanging around on the front counter to greet everyone and it had been killed. we even made the sana antonio news on tuesday, and they dont report on new braunfels stuff unless it is river or tourism related, so that was big.





Vandals leave shelter in desperate position
By Leigh Jones
The Herald-Zeitung

Published July 18, 2006
Cheryl Krueger alternated between smiling expressions of gratitude and floods of tears Monday as she stood in the reception area of the New Braunfels Humane Society Animal Shelter.

The heart-felt “thank-you’s” were directed to the citizens who brought car loads of pet food donations throughout the day. The tears were for the animals killed and maimed by vandals who broke in over the weekend and unleashed a torrent of destruction.

“It’s so hard,” Krueger said, her voice cracking under the strain of describing the situation. “I just can’t understand why anyone would want to do this to the animals. They basically destroyed the shelter.”

The suspects broke into the facility sometime between 9 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. Sunday. Not content with hurting the shelter’s four-legged residents, they also poisoned the food supply, contaminated the store of cat litter and defaced the rest of the shelter’s rooms and offices. Krueger, the facility’s executive director, estimated 5,000 pounds of food and 1,200 pounds of litter was destroyed.

Volunteers began cleaning up the mess first thing Sunday, but the shelter is expected to remain closed through today.

“Every surface has to be wiped down — cages, walls, floors, desks,” Krueger said. “And the remaining animals have to be bathed again.”

New Braunfels police Detective Jesse Villarreal, who is investigating the case, would not give any details as to the number of animals killed or injured, the agent used to poison the food or the nature of the damage done to the facility. He did verify the building was quite a mess.

“When I walked up, I just prayed that it was under construction or something. That’s how bad it was,” he said.

Although volunteers have made progress in their cleanup efforts, Krueger is asking for more volunteers today to give any time they can to help clean and ready the shelter to open Wednesday. In addition to manpower, the shelter needs donations of dog, puppy, cat and kitten food and cat litter to replace the stores staff members had to throw out. Cleaning supplies and cash donations also are desperately needed.

“So many people helped us during the hurricane evacuation situation. We just hope they’ll be generous again,” Krueger said.

The loss of supplies comes at a difficult time for the shelter. Every spare penny was being saved for their future new location, a dream that somehow seemed farther away Monday.

Although the board of directors has discussed potential new security measures, including an alarm system and video surveillance, they have not made any firm decisions yet.

“We’ve just never had anything like this happen before,” Krueger said. “It’s heart-wrenching. For someone to come in and do what they did ... it’s just unbelievable.”

HOW TO HELP
The New Braunfels Humane Society Animal Shelter needs the following items to help recover from this weekend’s vandalism:

n Dog and cat food
n Puppy and kitten food
n Cat litter
n Cleaning supplies
n Cash donations
n Volunteers willing to donate a few hours of “elbow grease” to help clean the building today

Donations can be dropped off at the shelter, located at 1920 Kuehler Ave., or at the Herald-Zeitung offices at 707 Landa St.


here's another story:

Residents donate items to Humane Society
By Jessica Sanders
The Herald-Zeitung

Published July 19, 2006
Trouble is one lucky dog.

The 7-month-old Labrador mix was one of the animals at the New Braunfels Humane Society to escape death or injury at the hands of vandals Saturday night.

But all that seems a distant memory to the dog who bounced around her kennel Tuesday afternoon, ecstatic to see a parade of volunteers — many carrying dog food.

“I love animals and I hate seeing on (TV) that people do nasty things to them,” said volunteer Taylor Devillier, 13. “When I heard that something like that happened in the local area, I really wanted to help.”

According to police, the vandals broke into the shelter between 9 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. Sunday. They killed and injured animals, ransacked the facility and destroyed thousands of pounds of food and cat litter.

Theresa Nitschke, chairman of the Comal County Crime Stoppers, said the group is offering a reward up to $1,000 for information that leads to the arrest and indictment of people responsible for the crime. Crime Stoppers can be reached at 1-800-640-8422 or 620-8477.

New Braunfels police Detective Jesse Villarreal said because of the investigation he cannot release the number of animals killed and injured. A few pieces of evidence are being processed, but most evidence was destroyed.

“I can confirm that none of the animals were poisoned,” he said.

He said that the entire supply food was replaced as a precautionary measure, because the shelter did not want to risk feeding the remaining animals food that may have been contaminated.

Fortunately, the shelter has been overwhelmed with donations and support.

“I would say we’ve replaced the 5,000 pounds of food that we lost, and then some,” said Billie Zercher, the facility’s assistant director.

Donated food fills all the available storage space, and a donated storage bin has been added behind the building. Another storage room houses a tower of cleaning supplies about 7 feet high. Extra supplies will go to the San Marcos Humane Society, which lent food to the New Braunfels shelter during the weekend.

Cheryl Krueger, the shelter’s executive director, said the outpouring of support has been amazing. People lined up throughout the day Tuesday to drop off donations, and phones were ringing off the hook.

“It’s been like this all day,” Krueger said, with tears in her eyes.

Kathy Pearce and her husband Craig said they couldn’t stay home after they heard what happened at the shelter. They spent Tuesday stockpiling pet food and helping with the cleanup effort.

“We read about this in the paper and said, ‘let’s go,’” she said. “Since we got here, there’s just been a continuing mass of people with donations and cleaning supplies.”

After a thorough cleaning by several volunteers, the New Braunfels Humane Society will reopen to the public today.

A handful of dogs and several cats and kittens are available for adoption. Villarreal also confirmed that Booger the Macaw parrot, a well-known permanent resident of the shelter, escaped harm.

“He’s alive, alert and he will bite,” Villarreal said.

It won’t be easy for the Humane Society’s staff to forget the cruelty that took place this weekend. Krueger said she was not ready to talk about the injured animals, but confirmed that they were still receiving medical treatment at a veterinary facility.

“What we need now is for people to listen and hear if anybody is talking,” she said. “We want to catch the people who did this to our animals.”

so now everything is oaky for the shelter. things are getting back on track and they have had $15,000 donated and lots of dog food and cat litter and they are saving up again to move to the new location they have been working for. i still find it hard to believe some one did that here in our town.