Waterford woman charged with mistreating dogs

Police charges include cruelty to animals

Waterford — A Quaker Hill woman is due in New London Superior Court Wednesday after police said she treated four dogs so poorly that one collapsed while officers loaded it into a truck.

Police went to 54 Old Norwich Road, the part-time home of 46-year-old Jennifer Burdy, after a woman on July 15 saw two gaunt, injured dogs roaming near the driveway.

Police said the large, longhaired black dogs were dehydrated, dirty and covered in ticks. One had many “old” lacerations on its head, neck and ears, the other had an infection in both ears.

Police lifted both infected, smelling dogs into the truck and took them to Pieper Memorial Animal Hospital in Madison.

Police proceeded onto the small farm property, where two more long-haired black dogs, four goats, two sheep and about 20 chickens were fenced in. Police said the farm animals did not appear to be in poor health but the dogs did.

Veterinarians later said the third dog had a lame rear leg, likely because of an injury that went untreated for years. The fourth dog had lesions that suggested it had been poorly cared for, veterinarians said.

Burdy, who told police she couldn’t take the third and fourth dogs to the veterinarian, signed over ownership and allowed police to remove them from the farm.

Police said they didn’t see food for any of the animals and their water bowls had about 2 inches of dirty water.

All four dogs tested positive for heartworms and parasites.

A friend who helps Burdy take care of the animals, described as witness No. 1 in the police report, told police Burdy was going through divorce and spending most of her time in Plainfield.

Burdy told police she cares for the dogs daily and that they had just run out of food that day. Police said she told them she hadn’t taken the dogs to a veterinarian in more than a year and cleaned their cuts on her own.

She allegedly said one of the dogs is 12 years old and “should have been euthanized last year.”

Police charged Burdy with two counts of allowing a dog to roam, four counts of failure to have a current rabies vaccination for a dog, four counts of failure to license a dog and four counts of cruelty to animals.