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November 27, 1995
Web posted at: 1:00 p.m. EST
ANDALUSIA, Alabama (CNN) -- Six-hundred dogs and 300 cats are part of a legal dispute in which the state of Alabama is embroiled. The animals live at the "Love and Care Animal Shelter," a no-kill facility in the eastern town of Andalusia that until now has survived on private donations.
Ann Fields opened it in Georgia a quarter of a century ago, but then was forced out because of zoning problems and neighbors' complaints about the barking. "They have pushed us to the point that it looks like to me that they want us off the face of the earth," Fields once said.
She did move the animals across the border to Alabama, and there they've stayed for the last several years, with expenses rising to as much as $60,000 a month. The money was raised privately, but questions also were raised. Alabama Attorney General Jeff Sessions alleges all the money raised with direct mail appeals that were misleading was not used in the shelter's upkeep. (136K AIFF sound or 136K WAV sound)
Some of the money, the attorney general believes, may have gone to support Fields' lavish lifestyle. She had actually been living in California until her death last month.
What's left, according to authorities, is 900 mostly old dogs and cats, a fundraising organization under investigation in three states for fraud, and $500,000 owed in back taxes. "Right now, we have no money. Everything is tied up in court and we have no operating money whatsoever," said Allan Cory. He has been appointed temporary trustee of the facility by the state.
But Fields' daughter and son-in-law, who had previously managed the shelter for her, are trying to reclaim it. They question Cory's motives. "Because for anybody to take on a shelter of that magnitude with the legal problems it's got ... he's either not running on all cylinders or rather he's out for the money," charged Ronnie Denney, Fields' son-in-law.
In the meantime, 900 dogs and cats are wards of the state. Unless someone makes a large donation to keep the no-kill shelter running, or the animals are adopted, they will be euthanized, according to the Humane Society. (80K AIFF sound or 80K WAV sound)
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