Animal sanctuary in 'terrible shape'

DU professor, students witness atrocities at Tiger Ranch

By: Maddy Lauria

Posted: 3/27/08

When Duquesne University biology professor Dr. Becky Morrow and several volunteer students assisted in raiding the Tiger Ranch in Tarentum, Pa., on March 13 after months of undercover surveillance, they realized the extent of surfacing one of the largest animal cruelty cases in Pennsylvania.

"In almost 10 years of practicing, I've never seen animals that bad," Morrow said. Although reports vary on the exact number of animals that were found at Tiger Ranch, Morrow said that 406 cats were recovered, although initial numbers cited 600-700 cats were removed from the property.

Tiger Ranch also held nine dogs, eight horses, a goat and a handful of chickens. In the four freezers on the property, 106 dead cats were found. Thousands of dead cats are also suspected to be buried in pits on the property, Morrow said, but they have not been accounted for except by the acknowledgement of the skeletons and protruding limbs in the yard.

When the first 17 cats were found in an isolation room of Tiger Ranch on Thursday evening, Bruno faced at least 14 charges of animal cruelty. She was arrested and posted $50,000 bond on Tuesday, March 18.

"Tiger Ranch became the perfect niche for her," said Dr. Carolyn DeForest, a 2007 Duquesne clinical psychology graduate and volunteer for Voices For Animals, who described Bruno as a hoarder and sociopath. DeForest had been investigating Tiger Ranch and Bruno's case since last summer, when she serendipitously met Morrow, Voices for Animals volunteer Rebecca Reid and former Butler County Humane official Deborah Urmann at a conference.

"It was a perfect meeting of the minds," Urmann said.

"…and consciences," DeForest chimed in.

As disdain followed the mention of Tiger Ranch, the four began collaborating and eventually got an active response from the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PSPCA).

"The move had to be made," Reid said.

Tiger Ranch was run by 45-year-old Bruno (also known as Linn Marie), who used the 29-acre facility to house animals that other people had apparently given up on. Tiger Ranch, which was established in 1994, was intended to be a place where animals could roam freely, or live inside. The actual house consists of about seven rooms, about five outside dwellings and at least one garage. Some feral cats were allowed to wander the property and were considered to be in the best condition, Morrow said. Domestic cats were kept inside of the house, along with two of the dogs.

The sickest cats at Tiger Ranch were taken to a small plywood room in the corner of the garage that Bruno referred to as the "sick room" or the "isolation room." Urmann, Reid, DeForest and Morrow simply coined it the "death room." Highly contagious animals were secluded in the single-windowed room, which, by the time of the raid, was covered with soiled rags and excrements from the sick and dying animals.

Urmann did her best to contain her tears as she described volunteering in the garage while small black paws would reach through the crack between the cement floor and the closed door.

"For the rest of my life, I'm going to be scarred," Urmann said. "I learned that death cry and that look. I would hide and hold them and try to comfort them."

Urmann, as a former Butler County humane official, developed suspicions about the state of living at Tiger Ranch. She used to transport cats to and from the facility, but it wasn't until she was presented the opportunity to volunteer at the sanctuary last August that she realized the extent of the conditions at the facility. From volunteering on Saturdays over the course of several months, Urmann discovered "some pretty horrific things," she said. With Bruno's permission, Urmann gained unsupervised access to Tiger Ranch. She began taking a hidden button camera with her.

The video footage collected throughout Urmann's time as a paid volunteer will be offered as evidence at the preliminary trial on April 3; some has been broadcasted by local news outlets, including KDKA. However, Urmann has been heavily criticized because of the amount of time she spent as a paid volunteer. Urmann claimed she did everything she could, such as giving the cats extra litter boxes and blankets when she came, but if there were dead cats in the litter boxes, all she could do was remove them.

In various news reports, including KDKA broadcasts, Bruno claimed that Tiger Ranch was fully staffed with readily available veterinary care. She even offered her clients a large bound handbook on cat care for $20. But, Urmann stated that she could only account for about five volunteers, including herself. The volunteers played ignorant to the situation, Urmann explained, and are currently supporting Bruno and Tiger Ranch.

After a crew of volunteers, humane officials and law officers decided to overrun the property, voices screaming in protest and support intermingled with the cries of sick and dying animals that made up a small percentage of the thousands of animals that had come through the animal sanctuary. Some locals and clients defended Bruno, saying she accepted animals that were already ill and dying, although other reports claimed Bruno required the cats were to come in perfectly healthy.

"Good shape [at Tiger Ranch] is terrible shape anywhere else," said Steve Barrows, a junior Duquesne biology major who volunteered to assist with the animals during the raid. Barrows, along with the other volunteers, spent hours rounding up the 406 cats that were transported to Clarion County Humane Society. He also assisted the professionals in administering physicals to every animal, and euthanizing the ones that could not be saved.

Barrows and Becky Greene, another Duquesne student volunteer, estimated that they worked on 50-100 cats, saying that physicals for at least half of the animals were completed by the first Saturday after the raid.

"It's about the cats that are there now, but it's about the cats that died and the ones that would have died, [too]," Barrows said.

"It's one of the worst cases the ASPCA has ever seen," Green added.

Disease was prevalent on the site, including symptoms of virulent systemic calicivirus, which is similar to Ebola in humans, and characterized by inflammation of blood vessels and possibly internal hemorrhaging with a mortality rate of 40-60 percent in adult felines, Morrow said. Although there have been only six documented outbreaks of this strand of calcivirus in the past 10 years, Morrow reported that more than 20 cats examined showed symptoms of the extremely fatal disease. Because there is no readily available screening for the disease, Morrow is in the process of receiving help from researchers at UC Davis.

Volunteers said every cat was at least somewhat dehydrated. In addition, other felines suffered from severe muscle deterioration, respiratory diseases, and periodontal diseases. More than three-quarters of the recovered suffered from abscesses due to disease and/or injury.

"There were no healthy cats there," said junior biology major and volunteer Lindsey Nazarek. "Every cat seemed to need some sort of medical attention."

Now that the animals have been rescued, they will be kept in quarantine between one and two months.

"Because [Bruno] didn't separate them, she let the diseases run rampant," DeForest said.

Although Morrow, Reid, DeForest and Urmann have evidence of animal cruelty dating back to 2002, Bruno holds no previous record of abuse. Her legal record is clean, and the humane officials that conducted inspections of Tiger Ranch never cited her for mismanagement. DeForest, although she believes that the Allegheny County Humane Officers received at least two complaints about Tiger Ranch annually, acknowledges that the officers let the sanctuary pass inspection.

"They continued to ignore complaints and not cite her for anything," DeForest said.

"It's ridiculous that no one knew about this," Barrows said. "She was well aware that what she was doing was wrong."

Katelyn Malongowski also contributed to this story.