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Elderly Woman Charged With Animal Cruelty After Pets Found In ‘Deplorable’ Home
September 1, 2018
An elderly woman has been charged with a dozen felony counts of animal cruelty after a dead dog was found in her kitchen and a dozen animals were found living in squalor.
Janice Skinner Wilson, 80, was charged with 12 felony count for her alleged mistreatment of two cats and 10 dogs in her home. She was released on a $12,000 bond in the case that was directly filed by the State Attorney’s Office.
An Escambia County Animal Control officer reported the smell in Wilson’s home was unbearable with small dogs “popping out of everything” in generally deplorable living conditions.
A dead dog was found under Wilson’s kitchen sink. She told the animal control officer that rats killed and were eating the dog, according to court documents.
The report states the house was covered in furniture, old food, clothes, paper and trash. As authorities were inside the home on a court order, they found a severely injured animal hiding in the trash and debris. It has been attacked by another animal and had not been taken to the vet, according to animal control.
All of the animals were removed from the property. The injured animal and a dog who went into labor were provided care by a veterinarian.
Court documents indicate Wilson was under a previous court order not to posses any animals.
Wilson’s address was listed as both Ernestine Road off Olive Road and Stacey Road in Cantonment on court documents. She was released from the Escambia County Jail on a $12,000 bond.
Comments
22 Responses to “Elderly Woman Charged With Animal Cruelty After Pets Found In ‘Deplorable’ Home”
My initial reaction was: shock, judgement and disdain for the person/persons who could willfully inflict pain and suffering on innocent animals. Was this a willful act? We don’t know.. I trust our legal system, and hope this woman gets the help she needs. Grateful for animal rescues, responders and compassionate givers. Namaste
Please post my first comment. This is a bunch of messed up unthruths . I believe the person who picked up my dogs the first time wrote a bunch of them because things have been said by her that no one else even knew. Initials only for name!!!!!!
I have never abused any animal. They always loved me. They were my security when my husband was working in Asia and other parts of the US and I was living alone. One dog was 22 years at death, several others died of old age at 16,18 10,12
and other old age. I have rented homes for over 53 years and have helped many people in many ways. I buy things at bargain prices and give away a lot of things to people who need them. I also buy things I know I may need later for my rentals. I take good care of them, I’ve had 3,6,7 year rentals same peoole. Me bad person????? .
This poor lady needs help..perhaps everyone knew it and did not want to address it or know how. The money paid to the courts and legal system now could have been used to get her help. NEVER SEEN So MANY NAsTY UNFEELING people on this subject.
Good greif. And we say we are civilized
I lived on this ladies property in the 90’s,she was a hoarder then and would not let her children or husband throw anything out, she had dogs at that time and spent lots of money with DR Windley at Companion animal in Cantonment , I do know that she loved her animals at that time and took care of them, I don’t know what has changed but she obviously has some type of mental issue , so sorry for her and her animals, I will be praying for you Jan .
It WAS a follow up by animal control that discovered the deplorable conditions. That’s how she was caught.
Although the true cause of hoarding is not known, they demonstrate characteristics from one or more mental illness models, which is why they are used to evaluate hoarders. Most hoarders are aware of their actions and not sufferers of dementia.
She has shown complete disregard for the injunction against owning animals which led to the death of an animal in her care. Does she need jail time? Maybe, maybe not. But at what point do the animals receive justice?
We should be thankful that we have animal cruelty investigators like the one who worked this case and prosecutors like the two that prosecute animal crimes in Escambia County.
@ grand locust
Take note in the article that she was under a previous court order for the same thing. So you are not correct in saying that no attempt was made at a graduated punishment. That measures put in place last time obviously didn’t work. As for the felonies, law enforcement doesn’t decide what is a felony and what isn’t. They charged her for what she did. In fact, they gave her the absolute minimum bond allowable – $1,000 for each count. It is up to the judge to decide how to handle the case. He can impose supervision and monitoring, the deputies cannot do that. Their only job is to bring the case before the court for the judge to handle. Had the deputies done nothing, THAT would have been the “easy way out.” But when they do nothing, they are lazy. When they do SOMETHING they are overzealous…. I don’t believe anythjng would have been satisfactory to you.
If she was under previous court order to not possess any animals, as it states in the above article, why wasn’t that monitored? And for all of you above, who feel sorry for a poor, little ol’ lady living alone, and with dementia, read Christine’s post above ~ she has a husband, family, and this is apparently repeat behavior. However, I believe if she has been arrested for this same behavior before, and is under court order to not possess any animals, someone should have been checking on that!
This is so very sad. She was under a court order prohibiting her from processing animals. This was no accident and she is a twisted individual for putting these poor animals through such torture. I pray a rescue has stepped up to help the poor animals. If a rescue has indeed stepped in, please message me. I’d like to help with a monetary donation or a food donation.
This lady doesn’t have dementia. She is mentally ill though. I’ve seen this in my own family, with a close relative keeping over 40 cats in her trailer, along with her young daughter. The child constantly smelled of cat. The mother did too. Both of them were covered with bites and scratches.
Why didn’t I do something? Why didn’t other relatives do something? Believe me, we tried. A person with this mindset will attack if you interfere with what they consider their business. And she did, repeatedly, denying the mess in the trailer, accusing us of unjustly persecuting her. We tried to keep the child out of the mess as much as possible, without calling DHR. If we’d done that, the child would have been placed in foster care until we were deemed fit to have her. That thought terrified me.
The cats were finally removed by relatives that literally stormed the place. Many of them were sick and dead. The woman and child had to move into different housing. The trailer they had was ruined. And you know what? Within six months she had eleven cats in her new trailer. She didn’t pay for new housing. I did. And she agreed, NO MORE CATS. She lied. And then she started hiding the cats when visitors dropped by, until the odor became impossible to hide.
She went on to be homeless, living in her truck. The only positive thing is that her daughter finally broke away from her, which is the only chance she had for a normal life.
Don’t blame relatives. I wasted thousands of dollars trying to help a person that can’t be helped. She doesn’t want help. She wants somebody to take care of her, let her stay high all the time and not interfere with how many cats she has. Put the blame where the blame is due, on the person that willfully harms helpless animals then denies there is a problem. It is a form of mental illness, but it’s also just pure evil.
You people and your comments about how she needs help and don’t charge an 80 year old woman with a felony, etc. You don’t know what you are talking about. She has been given MANY chances to not do this and continues to get more animals and abuse them. She has hidden them from the authorities before at different places to avoid being caught, she knows what she is doing, and will continue to get them and neglect them if she is not finally punished. This is no sweet little old granny. This is a woman who deliberately neglects animals. I am speaking from first hand knowledge here. She has a history of this stuff. This is not her first time, not oh granny got caught trying to take care of all these animals and couldn’t do it. She has had many animals taken away from her over and over again and she still does it. And to the ones who say we are putting animals first God loves all his creatures.
the county should have done thier part and checked on this person yes she has a problem and she knows it . help is what she needs and supervision . jail wont help the problem . dont feel sorry for this lady get her help god knows she needs it !!!!!!
I had the same issue with my step mom and cats about 26 of them ,her family didn’t help at all when I had the opportunity to go there when she wasn’t home, i realized there was 3 cats living in the bathroom that NEVER went outside, i opened the back door ,grabbed the broom, ran them outside and that was the end of that. Old folks get carried away sometimes you have to be stern
Charging an 80 year old woman on 12 counts of felony, when it appears that people in power had knowledge………….I am amazed that grown adults cannot resolve common sense problems without over charging stupidity, and why no attempts were made at a graduated punishment which hopefully could have monitored her behavior……but that would have been HARD HARD work……nope……. 12 felony charges…..hit the easy button.
She is not some lonely sympathetic person. She has family. She has a husband. She has been caught, warned, and arrested before for this same behavior. I have spoken to her before and she does not have dementia, she is very lucid. She is a horrible person with no care or concern for the creatures in her care.
Sounds like she needs to be in a supervised senior home not a jail cell.
This woman knew what she was doing and already was under a previous court order not to posses any animals. She needs to do some jail time to fully understand the consciences of her actions. Do be fooled by her age.
I agree with Fred. I love my animals but too much emphasis is placed on animals these days instead of humans. Sounds like this poor lady needs help and not punishment.
This was not dementia. Our Rescue has dealt with her on previous actions against her. This is pure evil. She knows exactly what she is doing.
she needs help not jail time or felony charge.some people that age just dont see what they doing.its a sad thing i know but her family she have been more concerened and helped her if she had any. god bless the animals and they will get the help they need as well as her.sounds like she dont need to be living alone.
This starts out with the elderly becoming so lonely but ends like this when the people can’t remember nor afford to feed the animals. I’m certain the dementia makes the problem even worse. I can’t be mad at this lady, she needs help.
This sounds more like advancing dementia than cruelty. Hopefully her family will come and care for her. I’ll bet a lot of the papers were unpaid bills and other things she can’t handle any more.
Damn granny!