Shelter files suit against volunteers

BURBANK — The director of a Chihuahua rescue shelter, which operated out of Burbank for more than four years, has filed a 10-party lawsuit against some of her former volunteers, accusing them of a smear campaign that tarnished her business reputation.

Kimi Peck, director of Chihuahua Rescue — which relocated to Tehachapi after a court order forced the shelter out of Burbank — contends in her lawsuit that former volunteers committed slander and defamation against her when they told police in 2005 that Peck kept Chihuahuas in unsafe and squalid conditions. The volunteers also alleged that Peck was hoarding dogs rather than finding them new homes.

After Burbank Police and animal control officials investigated, Peck was charged with having insufficient food and water for her animals, failing to maintain sanitary and safe conditions and keeping insufficient records for her animals. She pleaded no contest to the latter charge in June 2005 and the other two were set aside.

By October 2005, she had cleared out of her Burbank facility, moving to Tehachapi, where she says her rescue operation has suffered as a result of the complaints of the volunteers.

"It's been very painful, very hard," she said "And I can handle everything, but it has affected the dogs, and that hurts me."

But attorney Larry Rudd, who represents the 10 defendants named in the suit, said that Peck has no evidence of defamation and slander and that the law protects the rights of people to make critical statements to authorities about bad business practices.

"This is an attempt to harass people who only sought the best interest of the animals," he said. "These are people who left because of despicable conditions."

Volunteers reported seeing dogs that were seldom released from their cages, living in their own feces, he said. A veterinarian who leased a space next door to Chihuahua Rescue on Moss Street terminated his portion of the lease, saying he could no longer carry on his practice so near to the shelter's conditions, Rudd added.

"Kimi Peck, in keeping with her prior actions, files suits against anyone who disagrees with her, anyone who comments about her poor care and treatment of animals," he said.

Rudd is filing a motion disputing Peck's complaint as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation suit, which is a litigation strategy intended to stifle or intimidate the critics of the plaintiff. He will also pursue Peck for his attorney's fees and may pursue her attorney on grounds of malicious prosecution.

"This is just an absurd suit and it should never have been brought," he said.

Peck grabbed headlines in 2003, when she saved 170 Chihuahuas from being euthanized after Los Angeles County animal control officials confiscated the dogs from breeder Emma Harter. Harter was subsequently convicted of animal abuse for housing 235 Chihuahuas in fetid, unsanitary conditions.

But two years later, Peck found herself the target of accusations from volunteers at her own shelter, which ultimately drove her from Burbank.