KIMI PECK…MOTHER OF THE YEAR OR HOARDER OF THE DECADE? Well, we know she would never be nominated for mother of the year award; however, we know many people who would nominate her for hoarder of the decade award. Here is yet another article on Ms. Peck and her hundreds of animals living with her in Kern County. Fine line between disgusting, criminal animal caretaking BY JAMES BURGER, Californian staff writer jburger@bakersfield.com | Saturday, Aug 16 2008 12:00 PM

Fine line between disgusting, criminal animal caretaking BY JAMES BURGER, Californian staff writer jburger@bakersfield.com | Saturday, Aug 16 2008 12:00 PM Last Updated: Friday, Aug 15 2008 1:15 PM Kimi Peck knows most people would be disgusted by the conditions inside her dog rescue in Tehachapi. Our readers recommend: BCHS football player dies $26 million-plus in defaults posted in northeast Bakersfield Helicopters watch over local law enforcement Two Brighthouse employees robbed and assaulted Inmate at jail’s minimum security section dies Photos: Three dogs sit and bark at the people below from the second-story balcony at Peck’s place Tuesday afternoon. These are just three dogs of the nearly 200 that live in this two-story home that has been converted into a dog kennel. Kimi Peck makes her rounds inside the two-story home where she runs a kennel. There are nearly 200 dogs that live in this home and Peck is working with Kern County Code Enforcement to improve the home for the animals. A chihuahua sits behind a metal grate and barks Tuesday afternoon. This chihuahua is just one of 180 to 200 dogs that live in a two-story home in Tehachapi. Sam Farr pours water into a small bowl for a group of chihuahuas in the front room of a two-story home that has been converted into a dog kennel. The home houses nearly 200 dogs. Sam Farr walks up a small staircase after feeding and serving water to the nearly 200 dogs that live in this two-story home in Tehachapi. Nearly 200 dogs have a run of this two-story home that has been converted into a kennel. Photo by Troy Harvey / The Californian Along with guard dogs, Kimi Peck keeps a .22-caliber rifle on the property. Kimi Peck gives a dog a kiss on the nose Tuesday afternoon. Peck owns a two-story home in Tehachapi where she houses between 180 and 200 dogs. Photo by Troy Harvey / The Californian Sam Farr brings bowls to the front room to feed and water the nearly 200 dogs that live in this two-story home in Tehachapi. Farr works for Kimi Peck, who owns and runs this kennel. Photo by Troy Harvey / The Californian These six collies are just a few of Kimi Peck’s guard dogs, which are housed on her property in Tehachapi. Related Stories: Animal hoarding: Why do they do it? Accused hoarder: ‘I love the animals like they’re my children’ Kern prosecuting more suspected hoarders New animal regulations up for debate Wednesday Almost 200 dogs live in enclosures inside the large home, on its balconies and in its garage. The din of barking dogs is deafening. Feces are smeared on the walls and pools of urine can appear as nature calls. Workers clean the home daily, holding back the filth — if not ever fully eliminating it all. But Peck’s animals are generally healthy, so Kern County Animal Control has not filed animal cruelty charges against her. SILVER SPOON Kimi Peck was a Hollywood child. She grew up in private prep schools, drove jaguars and hung out with Hollywood’s in-crowd. She married Gregory Peck’s son. She went to film school at the University of Southern California. She co-wrote "Little Darlings," a 1980 Tatum O’Neal vehicle. But in her 20s, Peck said, she realized she’d accomplished all her goals in life and still felt empty. “I wanted to fill a void,” Peck said. She started rescuing horses. Then someone gave her 36 chihuahuas. Chihuahua Rescue was born. Peck ran the rescue for more than a decade before, as she tells the story, jealous workers and disreputable business associates soured her reputation with Burbank animal control and drove her out of town. Peck came to Kern County. HOARDER TALK Peck’s enemies from Burbank have labeled her a hoarder — a title Peck rejects emphatically. “I don’t fit the profile of a hoarder,” she said. Over the years Peck has developed her own definition of what one is. “They are the people who were unpopular in school. They had a terrible childhood,” she said. “They can’t interact with humans. They’re paranoid.” And most importantly, hoarders aren’t aware of the situation they’re living in. “I don’t know if they’re crazy and don’t see what it looks like,” she said. That’s not her, Peck said. SANCTUARY When Peck came to Kern County, she told Animal Control Chief Denise Haynes the home in Tehachapi was a sanctuary for the 200 dogs who fled Burbank with her — her personal animals. Haynes told her that if she was running a kennel on the rural property, she would have to apply for a conditional-use permit. That would mean public meetings and, possibly, opposition from neighbors and detractors. Peck said she wasn’t in business. But Peck now admits the property is really a kennel for a new rescue she’s running out of Los Angeles. And all the constant wear and tear on the property is slowly destroying the home. So, while she hasn’t been charged with animal abuse, Peck is still in code enforcement trouble with Kern County. GETTING OUT Sometimes Peck feels trapped by the dogs. She’s trying to get back into screenwriting again. Her career would be easier without the dogs. Haynes has suggested “reducing her herd,” she said. Peck said she’s willing but simply not able. Most of the dogs are biters or too old to be adopted, she said. She can’t see any solution that doesn’t involve calling a veterinarian to her complex with a needle and a big vial of poison. And that’s not something Peck can bring herself to do. So, Peck said, she plans to leave Kern County in three months.

News Two animal cruelty cases linked to same woman, officials say By CHARLES HAND The Valley Chronicle In Kern County, she is known as Anita Gilbert. In Riverside County, she is known as Barbara Ryan. She is known for animal cruelty in both counties. Gilbert was arrested in Tehachapi last week after authorities said they found about 60 live cats and dogs and another dozen dead on her property. Ryan was arrested in 2006 in Riverside County on animal cruelty charges when authorities allegedly discovered 50 and cats and dogs living at her Hemet home. “(Kern County officials) found the same thing we found here,” said Rita Guttierrez, an investigator with Riverside County Animal Control. Ryan disappeared before she could be prosecuted in Riverside County and was not found until she turned up as Gilbert in Tehachapi. Guttierrez said another woman known to Riverside County authorities as Susan Marlowe may have also become a part of the Ryan case. Animals removed from Ryan’s Hemet home and left in Marlowe’s care were among those removed from Gilbert’s Tehachapi property, Guttierrez said. If Marlowe is found to have returned the animals to Ryan, she could face contempt-of-court charges because she never got permission to return the animals to Ryan, Guttierrez said. Also found in Tehachapi were animal transport boxes bearing Riverside County Animal Control identification, she said. The woman known as Gilbert bailed out of Kern County jail on a $105,000 bond – $100,000 of it in Kern County and $5,000 in Riverside County. The 10 cruelty charges lodged in Kern County were added to the five already on the books in the 2006 Riverside case, Guttierrez said. All of the counts are felonies. Guttierrez said she went to Kern County to see whether the woman known there as Gilbert was the one known here as Ryan. “I talked with her at the jail,” Guttierrez said. “It was the same woman.” What her real name may be, though, is anybody’s guess, Guttierrez said. In addition living under two names in the two counties, she used a third name on the lease of her Hemet home, she said. Kern County officials called Riverside County when they found the boxes with the Riverside County markings. Guttierrez said the Hemet case started with a neighbor’s report of a heavy *censored*roach population. Animal control officers found dogs and cats living in filth in Ryan’s house, many of them were tied to cabinets and left to stand and lie in their own urine and feces. The house was roach infested, she said. Their paw pads had been burned by the urine, Guttierrez said, because they could not escape it. The conditions in Tehachapi were much the same, Guttierrez said, except that most of the animals were in a workshop adjacent to the house. Inside the house, trash had been allowed to accumulate, she said. A pre-preliminary hearing has been set for July 29 in Kern County, where a judge refused Gilbert’s request to represent herself because of her courtroom behavior. A public defender was appointed.

First we would like to state that we are posting this information because we feel as if the public has a right to know about Ms. Marlowe, too, especially because Ms. Marlowe is pulling dogs from animal shelters, etc., and presenting herself as a rescuer. We cannot say whether or not Ms. Marlowe is actually a hoarder; however, we can safely say, according to court records and Animal Control officers in Riverside, California, that Ms. Marlowe was very much LINKED to a recent case wherein a woman, Anita Gilbert aka Barbara Ryan, was charged with many counts of animal cruelty in both Riverside County and Kern County. After Ms. Gilbert aka Ryan had her animals taken away from her because of the alleged extremely cruel and inhumane conditions they were living in – in Riverside, California, in 2006, Ms. Marlowe actually showed up in front of a judge at the Riverside Courthouse in 2006, and petitioned the court (even threatened to sue them) to get Ms. Gilbert’s aka Ryan’s dogs and cats into her (Ms. Marlowe’s) own care. Remember, these dogs and cats had just been taken from a horrific situation. Ms. Marlowe told the court she was/is a rescuer and stated they would be well taken care of. In any event, Ms. Marlowe was able to convince the court to give her the abused/neglected animals. What does Ms. Marlowe do next? Well, we are not too sure but we question how these dogs and cats that Susan was able to get from the Riverside Courts ended up going back to the same woman who had been charged with abusing them (by the way, Ms. Gilbert aka Ryan had taken off before the authorities could arrest her). We also question how this woman ended up in Kern County living on property purchased by Ms. Susan Marlowe about the same time this whole ordeal took place. Not surpising, Ms. Gilbert aka Ryan was CHARGED AGAIN with animal cruelty while living on Ms. Marlowe’s property in Kern County TWO (2) YEARS LATER (with many of the same animals rescued from her in Riverside). Plot thickens because we have also learned that Ms. Marlowe went to the Riverside Courthouse back in 2006 with another accused animal abuser, CHARLOTTE SPADARO, former Mayor of Beverly Hills. That’s right, Ms. Spadaro, at that time, had a long list of animal cruelty charges, including dead animals found in her residence. Anyway, here is Ms. Spadaro’s petabuse.com profile, Ms. Gilbert’s aka Ryan petabuse.com profile and Ms. Kimi Peck’s petabuse.com profile. All three ‘rescuers’ who have links to Ms. Marlowe. http://www.pet-abuse.com/cases/3613/CA/US/ http://www.pet-abuse.com/cases/5063/CA/US/ http://www.pet-abuse.com/cases/14138/CA/US/ If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…it must be a duck.

Accused animal hoarder faces similar charges in Riverside — under different name BY JAMES BURGER, Californian staff writer e-mail: jburger@bakersfield.com | Friday, Jul 18 2008 12:37 PM Last Updated: Friday, Jul 18 2008 5:44 PM Alleged animal abuser Anita Gilbert, arrested in Tehachapi Wednesday, may actually be Barbara Ryan, a Hemet woman who officials say skipped out on similar animal abuse charges in Riverside County in 2006. Our readers recommend: Appeals court throws out child rape conviction Man run over by city truck in Jefferson Park dies Valley fever infects brain of Bakersfield teen hospitalized at UCLA Man pleads guilty to shining laser at sheriff’s helicopter Police checkpoint results in dozens of citations, arrests Related Stories: Pets rescued from nightmarish conditions; corpses found in freezer Or Barbara Ryan may be just another alias for the woman. Rita Gutierrez, field services commander for the Riverside County Department of Animal Services, said she is 100 percent certain Ryan and Gilbert are the same person. And in another twist, some of the animals seized in Kern were the same animals seized from her in Riverside County. Kern County Animal Control officers raided a home on Bear Valley Road on Wednesday and discovered Gilbert living in “deplorable” conditions with 15 dogs, 37 cats and 14 animal corpses. Kern County Senior Animal Control Officer Steve Eirich said Thursday that the case was one of the five worst in his 17-year career and described piles of discarded animal food cans two feet deep and feces-covered rooms buried in refuse. During the raid, local officials found pet carriers emblazoned with Riverside animal control’s name and phone number, Gutierrez said. They called the number. That phone call brought Gutierrez to Mojave Friday morning, where Gilbert was scheduled to be arraigned on 41 counts of felony animal abuse. Riverside officers walked back into the holding cells, saw Gilbert and knew they’d finally found the woman who’d been running from them for two years. “It’s nice to know she’s in custody right now and she won’t be hurting any more animals,” Gutierrez said. Riverside officers also discovered that several of the animals taken from Tehachapi on Wednesday are the same ones that were seized from Gilbert’s rental home in Hemet two years ago. In a jailhouse interview Thursday, Gilbert refused to take blame for the animals’ condition. TERRIBLE MEMORIES Gutierrez remembers well the conditions she and other officers discovered in September 2006 when code enforcers called them to rescue pets from a Hemet home Gilbert was renting under the Ryan name. Immaculate on the outside, the home’s inside was filled with trash and feces and the floor was soaked in urine. “Urine from the floor had wicked up into the walls. The drywall was disintegrating,” Gutierrez said. The home and the animals were infested with *censored*roaches and fleas and covered in dried feces. Riverside animal control officers rescued 15 dogs, 23 cats and several cages of mice. Then they came back for Gilbert with an arrest warrant. “We went to arrest her and she was gone,” Gutierrez said. ANIMALS RETURNED Currently animal control officers from both counties are looking into how animals from Hemet made their way back into Gilbert’s hands in Tehachapi nearly two years later. The link may be a woman named Susan Marlowe. John Welsh, public information officer for Riverside animal services, said all of Gilbert’s animals were released to Marlowe after they were rescued from Hemet in September 2006. Two months later, according to documents filed with the Kern County recorder’s office, Marlowe took out a loan to purchase property at 24492 Bear Valley Road. Price confirmed that the address was being rented by Gilbert and was the location Kern County animal officers raided Wednesday. It is where they found the animals that Riverside officials say they put into Marlowe’s care in 2006. Calls to Marlowe’s business offices in Beverly Hills were not returned. NOT IN FLORIDA Gilbert, in a jailhouse interview Thursday, said she wasn’t responsible for the condition of the animals in Tehachapi. She claimed to have been in Florida until 10 days ago, undergoing an experimental chemotherapy treatment for bone cancer. That’s not true, said Norman Maes, who owns the International Home of Pancakes restaurant on Buck Owens Boulevard in Bakersfield. He said Gilbert has been a regular customer all year. “I’ve seen her in there all year — maybe once every two weeks,” Maes said. “She has not been in Florida.” Maes said Gilbert showed a lot of interest in the stray cats that hang out behind his restaurant. “She came in one day and she said to me, ‘Have you seen that black cat? If you catch him could you hold him for me?’” Maes said. Maes said he told Gilbert he wasn’t going to get close to the cat. “She said, ‘I’m coming back later. I’m going to get him,’” Maes said. Open CalaisAdvertisement

Kern County Animal Control continues to ignore the horrific stench that invades their community. Does Denise Haynes really believe that one person can actually care for hundreds of animals? The same person who has a LONG HISTORY of NOT caring for animals? A person who threatens and harasses anybody who she feels is EXPOSING HER FOR WHAT SHE REALLY IS? PLEASE MS. HAYNES…DO THE RIGHT THING FOR ANIMALS…ALL ANIMALS…Again, the reason why people like Ms. Peck, Ms. Haynes, Ms. Gilbert (to name just a few) move in your area is because they feel SAFE (the ‘rescuers’ Not the animals)…

PLEASE READ THE ARTICLE IN THE LONG BEACH PRESS-TELEGRAM. FINALLY, JUSTICE HAS BEEN SERVED FOR THE HUNDREDS OF ANIMALS WHO HAD TO ENDURE CRUELTY AND DEATH WHILE BEING ‘CARED’ FOR BY A ‘SO-CALLED’ RESCUER’ NAMED ALEXIA TIRAKI-KYRKLUND AND HER NON-PROFIT ANIMAL RESCUE ORGANIZATION, NOAH’S ARK…THANKS TO LT. MICHELLE QUIGLEY AND HER STAFF AT THE LONG BEACH ANIMAL CONTROL…THANK YOU TO THE CITY OF LONG BEACH FOR PROSECUTING THIS CASE…

2 convicted, jailed in Long Beach animal shelter abuse case By Hanna Chu, Staff writer Article Launched: 12/03/2007 04:53:02 PM PST Gloria Ramos, left, a volunteer for Noah’s Ark in Long Beach, and Alexia Tiraki-Kyrklund, owner of Noah’s Ark, are taken into custody by deputies after the verdicts were read in the Long Beach courtroom. (Steven Georges/Press-Telegram)LONG BEACH – Alexia Tiraki-Kyrklund, the owner of Noah’s Ark animal rescue shelter, and Gloria Ramos, a volunteer, have been convicted of three felony charges. Both defendants were found guilty of cruelty to a female, black and tan, *censored*er spaniel, a female brown pitbull terrier-type dog, and cruelty to dogs 1 through 152. Tiraki-Kyrklund was also convicted of a misdemeanor charge of operating or carrying a kennel at the location. The jury could not reach a verdict for count 10, cruelty to a feral gray tabby adult cat, or for count 13, cruelty to cats 153 to 299. The charges against the women stem from an August 2006 raid on the shelter, formerly located at 1330 Redondo Ave., in which Long Beach Animal Control seized 299 cats and dogs. The jury began deliberations Thursday afternoon and were unable to reach a verdict until today. Judge Jesse Rodriguez approved the prosecutor’s request that the defendants be held without bail, and the women were immediately handcuffed and taken to prison. "I believe justice was served. Today is a fabulous day for the animals," said Lt. Michelle Quigley of Long Beach Animal Control. The sentencing date has been set for Dec. 20. The court will also hear whether the prosecutor would like a retrial on counts 10 and 13 on that day. The defendants face a maximum of four years each in prison. Unhappy with the verdict, Defense Attorney Todd Krauss insisted

Please visit http://www.stopbemis.com/. As we have said a number of times, Cindy Bemis, another Kern County, in our opinion, HOARDER has been kick out of Los Angeles County. Ms. Bemis, like many other ‘rescuers’ who have been kicked out of other counties due to animal cruelty/neglect, decide to move their operation to, what many hoarders feel is a safe haven…KERN COUNTY. These ‘rescuers’ then set up shop in Kern County. Why are these ‘rescuers’ relocating to Kern County when other counties legally kick them out? Why is Kern County allowing Cindy Bemis to keep animals in her possession while she is awaiting trial for animal cruelty? KERN COUNTY…AGAIN…WAKE UP AND SMELL THE CRAP MOVING INTO YOUR COMMUNITY AND SETTING UP SHOP IN YOUR COMMUNITY… IT’S OBVIOUS THAT KERN COUNTY DOESN’T CARE ABOUT ANIMALS. IF THEY DID, THEY WOULD NOT BE REGARDED AS A HOARDER’S HAVEN.

Kimi Peck’s newest ‘Sanctuary’ is now called The Dog Angels in Tehachapi. This ‘Sanctuary’ is an illegal kennel that has over 200 dogs. Presently, Peck is in trouble with the law AGAIN so we will keep you posted with what happens to this illegal ‘Sanctuary’.

AND YOU HAVE WAY TOO MANY HOARDERS COMFORTABLY LIVING AND HOARDING IN YOUR COMMUNITY!!!! STOP WITH THE EXCUSES AND START DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT! READ MORE ABOUT HOARDING…

Animal Hoarding is one of the worst, yet least understood, forms of animal cruelty. Hoarding affects an estimated 250,000 animals per year in communities nationwide. Isolated communities such as Kern County, California, seems to ignore they have a problem with hoarders in their community. Hoarders keep abnormally large numbers of animals for whom they do not provide adequate basic care. Their animal victims typically suffer horribly as a result, and, unlike most other forms of companion animal cruelty, their misery can go on for years. The animals generally show signs of abuse such as emaciation, open sores, untreated cancers, parasites, rotting teeth and eye disease; however, they do not get taken out of their filthy, crowded and chaotic environments to receive veterinary care. We are not yet sure what motivates hoarders. We do know that 72 percent of hoarders are women and that the most common animal victims are cats, followed by dogs. Most hoarders believe that they are saving animals who would otherwise be killed and see themselves as being persecuted by coldhearted city officials or busybodies. Hoarders are not able to see the suffering that they cause. In addition to the horrific animal cruelty involved, hoarding creates such highly unsanitary conditions that the properties of hoarders, contaminated with fecal matter and urine, are often condemned. What’s more, a single hoarding case involving dozens if not hundreds of animals can bankrupt a local humane society, and the nuisance and cost to local authorities is a major concern. But it is not impossible to nab a hoarder. The Animal Legal Defense Fund recently won an unprecedented court victory in Sanford, N.C., where a unique state law allows any person or organization to sue an animal abuser. In April 2005, a trial judge granted an injunction allowing ALDF and county authorities to remove more than 300 diseased, neglected and abused dogs from the home of a local couple. ALDF was granted custody of the animals, and the hoarders were also found guilty of animal cruelty charges. Almost all of the dogs have been placed into loving foster homes, while the cases are on appeal. Hoarding is very difficult to prevent, but it can be stopped. Local officials need to recognize the basic signs of hoarding. In the short term, neglected and abused animals should be removed from a hoarder’s property; over the long term, animal protection laws need to be modified in order to give law enforcement officials the tools they need to charge and convict hoarders. The recidivism rate for hoarders is almost 100 percent for repeat offenders. Thus, the only realistic solution for stopping their behavior is to prevent them from owning animals. For more information on animal hoarding and legal solutions, contact the ALDF.

Ms. Haynes: Hoarding seems to be popping up everywhere and hoarders seem to flock to your community. Many animal lovers encourage you and your department to attend this free seminar. SAVE THE DATE! HOARDING TRAINING DAY! JUNE 20, 2007 8:00 – 4:30 Practical Coping Techniques For the Consumer & the Professional No charge to attend – Lunch purchase on site For Training Application please call (213) 351-7284 California Endowment Center 1000 N. Alameda Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 Sponsored By: Los Angeles County Older Services Administration Co-Sponsored By: Hoarding Task Force – Older Adult System of Care ***JUNE 21, 2007**** We hope that Ms. Haynes and her department attended this conference and will attend every other conference regarding animal hoarding. We say this because it appears as if Ms. Haynes and other decision making people in Kern County may not truly understand what animal hoarding is all about. Just because you bust one hoarder (after years of allowing this woman to continue to hoard), you still have probably thousands more to bust. If you don’t have the manpower to keep up with the hoarders in your community and the ones that will move into your community, then change the laws immediately. Do it for the animals!