Cat breeder arrested, accused of animal abuse
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SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- A Springfield woman who breeds cats was arrested Monday afternoon for allegedly throwing two cats into the Willamette River, Police said.
Witnesses said that two abandoned Persian cats were found inside of a trash bag that was snagged on a tree branch near Island Park.
Responding officers from SPD immediately set to work trying to rescue the cats from the Willamette. They managed to retrieve both felines, who officials said were scared but safe.
Further investigation lead police to Betty Ann Gould, a Springfield cat breeder who handles similar breeds of Persians. Police officials detained her Monday for attempted aggravated animal abuse.
Gould plead not guilty to attempted animal abuse on Wednesday.
Police said that Gould had several cats in her care at the time of the arrest. Brian Austin with the Springfield Animal Control said that they are now working to transfer those cats into their custody.
"We cannot take the cats until we have a court order to do so,” Austin said. “Until she is convicted of this crime we will not be able to do anything officially. We will hopefully try to talk her into surrendering the cats so we can get them to good homes."
Austin said the cats (who are sisters) are both healthy and are nearly inseparable.
Both of the Persians will be put up for adoption after a full investigation of the incident is completed.
this woman is crazy. if she is willing to kill animals. she can have a mind set to think about hurting humans.
This woman is out of her mind and should be put in jail for awhile and then never be able to own an animal again. my mom bought a cat about 4 years ago from this lady and the cat died in just a few days. She is one sick woman
Thank goodness someone saw the whole thing and reported it. She should be charged with animal abuse and not allowed to breed anymore animals!
kudos to the cops for rescuing the two kitties!!!!
What a discusting looking creature and poor excuse for a human!!! She has most likely done it before. If she kills animals, she is willing to kill humans!!!
 @Barbieboy =/ Well that's a bit far. Yes, she did a horrible thing to the cats, but it doesn't automatically mean she'd be willing to kill people.
My daughter in law and i both bought kittens from this lady or should i say wacko and now not only have both cats died from disease related to interbreeding according to our vet. It makes me really sick that she not only charges alot for these pets but we believe she knew thay were ill. We should have known better when she wanted to meet us in a parking lot. I called her when we found both cats showed symtoms of being ill all she would do is hang up on us. She is just a very, very evil woman. I hope and pray all the animals she has are surrendered to the authorities. It makes me wonder how many animals she has done this to without being caught.Â
This woman does hair in Springfield. It's "Hair by Betty" at 1790 1/2 S A St.Â
 @PleaseBeSmart this article hit a nerve with you.  You must be a vegan.  If you do eat meat are you sure the animal you last ate did not suffer? The lady did bad, printing her address is over the line.
 @drinkmorewater  @PleaseBeSmart seriously!!! printing her address is just plain evil!!! you don't even know this woman so if something happens to her place of business rest assured your name will be at the top of the list as to who gave it out in a public forum!!!
 @Jenny Teague Vinyard Considering that it's all over the pet section of Craigslist, I highly doubt that. Like it or not, sharing that information is not a crime lady. Funny, everyone was ALL ABOUT making sure people knew that guy who raped the stripper in Springfield owned a Mexican restaurants. :) Feel free to take your sanctimonious outrage over there.
@drinkmorewater @PleaseBeSmart Yes, I agree that is over the line too. Her family's livelihood may depend on that business, since her cat breeding business was obiously not working out. Double and triple jeopardy can be more horrible than the crime involved. Let's not be too quick to crucify this woman. Many other people just take there pet for a ride where they end up dying slowly or cause an accident before becoming road kill. She may have found the by- products of an accidental brother-sister union to be a terrible abomination and did not have the money to put them down at the vet. Perhaps, she was bound to some old wive's tales handed down from former generations....
In my rural neighborhood in Japan, the elders would throw their dead cats in the river to purify their spirit, lest the pets haunt the family. Such a practice is not strange in a nation that believes their dead ancestors spirits come to stay with them at their home every August.
Let's please not dial up the overkill for this woman until we know her true motivations-- however mentally ill-guided they may be.Â
And, maybe that is her daughter's business. We can choose our friends, but we can't choose our elders.
 @peace  It's not her daughter's business. I would never be so reckless as to post someone's business unless I was sure it was them. You can reserve judgement if you want, but I'm not going to give someone the benefit of the doubt when it comes to throwing cats in a river.Â
@SwiftlyJust Since you have already diagnosed her as crazy, then she needs psycho-therapy as a precondition of her release back into society. If as you say she is evil, then we are no better than her by judging her before  we find out that she is just a nut job. In the great gerontocracy of Japan elder does imply older and wiser. But the reality is far different.
I too share your contempt for what this woman did, but exposing her business and drowning her family in poverty before she is given a chance to pay for this crime is vengence and not proper  punishment. Maybe we should just be draconian and waterboard her so she can know what the cats were feeling that day. I'm game! You tie her up And I'll get the holy water!
 @peace It's ILLEGAL in this country to torture and kill animals. I don't care what this broad's "motivations" are. What she did was inhumane and wrong.  She is being "crucified" because she is an evil, heartless person who did a heinous deed. Those cats are VERY adoptable and there was no reason for her to turn them out or drown them. "Elder" implies that someone is older and wiser. She is clearly NOT. She's just a crazy, mean old coot.
 @drinkmorewater HAH. No, I'm not a vegan, nor a vegetarian. I do tend to pay more for my food to ensure it's not factory-farmed frankenfood, but that's about it. So yeah, I'm fairly certain the chicken I cooked last night didn't suffer unnecessarily. Also, killing an animal for food is far different than killing animals that you simply no longer have a use for. I would NEVER post someone's home address, but this is a business and people need to know. I posted the address because I wanted people to know which shop it is. If I were trying to incite something I would have posted the clearly listed phone number. =/Â
Despicable, utterly despicable. I'd agree with throwing her into the River but why pollute the Willamette with the likes of that POS? Obviously she is one of those who breed and sell animals for the money only and not for the love and advancement of the breeds. She should be jailed with a bunch of rabid crazy- cat-ladies.Â
 @the buttcut luckily it was springfield so they will at least get her paper work done before she gets out
Throw her in the river!!!
One in 25 working Americans are Sociopaths. America has the highest population in the world for Sociopaths. And that population is growing. This woman is one of them. Aside from abusing humans, they abuse animals and have no emotion about it. They are born, like this woman, without a conscious.  A good resource to learn about Sociopaths is: "The Sociopath next Door" By Martha Stout, Ph.D. Dr. Stout says that as many as 4% of the population are conscienceless sociopaths who have no empathy or affectionate feelings for humans or animals.
@Jayne Miller---makes sense to me given the likely possibility that our small children may have witnessed and been traumatized by such an horrible torture of those adorable furry friends. I seem to remember there always being one kid in a class of 20+ that liked to torture cats. 4% sounds about right. Sadly, it is often child abuse that makes the kid this way. But, there may be people that are just born bad and need to be removed from the gene pool "humanely".
 @Jayne Miller You should read 'Without Conscious' by Robert D. Hare, PhD. He developed the Psychopathy Checklist which is the diagnostic criteria routinely used for identifying and diagnosing psychopathy.Â
 @PleaseBeSmart  @Jayne Miller I trapped a gopher and a mole today. I ask do I classify as a physco?
 @drinkmorewater Nope. Just a troll.
 @drinkmorewater I really think you've picked the wrong article to try raise awareness on, or you're just going about it in the wrong way. Cruelty to animals IS a cause for alarm for psychopathy and mental disturbances while trapping pests and killing for food in humane ways is NOT. It's the method, not the animal in this case. If you were doing to moles what she did to cats, I'd suggest you have might have some mental issues as well. And there are cats all over my neighborhood too... doesn't bother me any more than the other animals around. I'm not particularly fond of cats, but I really just see them as part of living in/close to the city.Â
 @PleaseBeSmart  @drinkmorewater . I could probably make some habitat and make pets out of the mole and gopher.  Cats are pests in my neighbor hood because of owners lack of consciousness relating to gardens, birds, late night cat fights etc.  If my dog was cut loose to do as he wished he be rounded up and killed at the pound. No I do not believe tossing cats in river is good, just trying to raise folks awareness if they are cat owners.  If you are one of the owners that lets there cat roam get a dog and be responsible.
 @drinkmorewater Are you suggesting that trapping pests is on par with tying your cats in a trash bag and throwing them in the river?
 @Jayne Miller when you bite into a chicken, cow, pig etc. I guess one can call you a sociopath. This is what folks did before animal shelters.  I do not condone animal abuse. How do you address neighbor hoods over run with cats? I am not trying to be a smart ass.  We have a huge problem with cat owners that let there cats roam and think nothing of it.  It is a hard topic to talk to folks about. I understand why. I think you are going a bit over board on the sociopath path.
 @drinkmorewater Um, no. Even before animal shelters people still tried to kill animals in a quick, humane way, just like hunters do today. I don't think Jayne went too far with the psychopathy comment. There are, indeed, a large number of them and callous disregard for the agony she put her cats through would certainly be indicative of psychopathy.Â
 @drinkmorewater Me thinks you've gone over the edge a bit there. =/Â
 @PleaseBeSmart  @drinkmorewater unless folks are vegetarians I guess we are all psycho and fascists.  Animals are the best therapists there are.  I am not a hater of pets. When folks talk about immigration it parallels unwanted domesticated animals. Dogs, cats, horses(which get sold as meat), pigs etc.  The subject brings up several ethical animal issues. Â
there is a special place in heII for animal abusers. I'm glad Springfield could do and did something about it. No such luck with Lane County or Eugene, they have the most pathetic animal welfare system around. LCAS needed work but they were better than the pitiful patchwork system here now. Kudos to the cops who took the risks to rescue the cats and too bad they couldn't keep that horrid woman in jail longer. She should not be allowed to own, breed or sell animals of any kind.
A year ago my landlady bought a Persian kitten from this monster but had to put the little guy down because he had Parvo and the vet told her that he was sick when she bought him. Where does one go or what does one do when you run into an unprofessional breeder like this?Â
 @Deedledeeds Notify the Cat Fancier Association. She claims to have certification as a "Cattery of Excellence" as certified by CFA. Apparently, she used to show her cats before she allowed her entire operation to go to hell.
 @Deedledeeds The Humane Society.
Glad the woman was caught and the cats saved. Kudos to the person(s) responsible for witnessing and reporting her. I wonder how many times she has done this before and escaped detection. She should be jailed and fined, and then banned for life from owning any animals.
I am so glad she was caught and jailed and so sad she is already out,she deserves more than a couple hours in jail,oh wait its springfield so she is likely still in
They need to put her in a bag and throw her into the river!