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A friend to the four-legged set

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BY CHERYL BENTLEY

SUNCOAST NEWS STAFF

Published: May 10, 2008

The smell of bleach, urine and feces all mixed together will never go away.

"At some point, you'll be doing something, and that smell will come back to haunt you," said Rick Chaboudy, who is executive director of Suncoast Animal League and also a court-approved humane officer, allowing him to investigate animal cruelty charges.

Chaboudy was describing the odor he encountered last month at an alleged puppy mill operating at a home in the East Lake-Tarpon Springs-area.

The Suncoast Animal League removed 121 small dogs from the home. It has since filed for custody of the dogs and is awaiting a date for the hearing.

It is also waiting to hear from the Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney's Office regarding possible charges against the owner of the establishment.

Following the rescue, volunteers flooded the league's tiny Palm Harbor-area headquarters. Some bought supplies. Others sat in shifts with the new animals both to socialize them and accustom them to the presence of humans.

In one room, they quietly celebrated when a Pomeranian began to play with a toy that had been in her cage for a couple of days.

Prior to that moment the dogs appeared to have no idea what to do with toys, said Annette Dettloff, a league board member.

"They're learning how to be dogs," she observed.

Thus far, 97 of the rescued animals have required medical care. As of last week the league had spent about $9,000 it had raised especially for the dogs, Chaboudy said. That, however, is only the beginning, he said.

"We haven't even gotten into the big stuff."

One big-ticket item is knee surgeries. Many of the animals suffered knee damage from the wire-bottomed cages in which they were kept and a lack of exercise.

The procedure costs between $850 and $1,000 per knee, he said.

Chaboudy appears not to be intimidated by such challenges.

One of his biggest ones was co-founding the League in December 2006 after a 20-year stint as director of the Humane Society of Pinellas, in the Clearwater area.

The league has space for 50 animals of varying kinds, ranging from dogs to iguanas. It boards others with some of its approximately 90 volunteers, many of whom followed Chaboudy from the Humane Society.

Going independent has been a challenge, he said. Money comes from fundraisers, adoptions fees and donations.

He and his gregarious pet goose George are popular presences at Palm Harbor-area events. Vendors at Old Palm Harbor Main Street's First Fridays events vie to have their tables located next to the popular George.

"He was my gold watch," Chaboudy quipped about the goose, who came with him from the Humane Society when he left that organization.

George lives with Chaboudy, along with assorted dogs and two other geese who, unlike George, don't enjoy hamming it up with humans.

Recently, pooch Roo and her eight puppies camped out in Chaboudy's living room when their human foster mom had to travel.

Chaboudy had answered the call from Levy County Animal Services to rescue Roo and her puppies, who were found starving in a field. Chaboudy had to make an emergency trip to the Levy County shelter, in Bronson, southwest of Gainesville, for fear the animals could not survive through the night.

He is often called upon by other animal organizations to help when they don't have the facilities to care for difficult rescues, he said.

Soon after the rescue of the dogs from the alleged puppy mill, Chaboudy, who had not slowed down for days, reflected on the role of animals in his life.

He has learned from "their ability to accept everyone with no questions asked. You want to pattern yourself after them. I am a better person because of them."

For more information visit

www.suncoastanimalleague.net or

call 727-786-1330.

Cheryl Bentley can be reached at 727-815-1069 or cbentley@suncoastnews.com.

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