Animal Rescuer Arrested for Allegedly Medicating, Sheltering Hurricane Pets Without Permit

A North Carolina animal rescuer is facing criminal charges for allegedly practicing veterinary medicine without a license while sheltering pets in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence.

Tammie Hedges runs Crazy’s Claws N’ Paws (CCNP), a no-kill animal shelter and rescue group operated as a volunteer-based non-profit.

Hedges was taken into custody on Friday, Sept. 21, after providing care to several dozen animals for owners who evacuated before Florence made landfall.

Wayne County authorities allege Hedges illegally gave animals in her custody antibiotics and tried to illegally procure controlled medication.

“At this time, Ms. Hedges has only been charged with (12) counts of misdemeanor practice/attempt veterinary medicine without a license and (1) count of solicitation of a Schedule 4 controlled substance. Ms. Hedges is considered innocent until proven guilty,” said the Wayne County Government in a statement.

Hedges said she acted to save the animals, some of which were sick or injured.

“Myself, along with independent rescuers and volunteers came together during this natural disaster to save animals,” she said in a statement.

“The owners got to evacuate. They got to save themselves. But who’s going to save those animals? That’s what we did,” Hedges said, USA Today reported. “We saved them.”

Hedges said that Wayne County Animal Services showed up at the property on Monday and told her they had received a report that the building was flooded and were there to carry out an inspection.

Hedges used a warehouse that she planned to convert into a legal animal shelter to house animals whose lives were threatened by storm-driven floodwaters.

“We had the calls for help, but we didn’t know where to put the animals. Since we recently remodeled our indoor yard sale, very little had been moved back in. We decided to use this space as our emergency disaster center. We were not open as a shelter, although we are remodeling to become approved by the state as a shelter location,” Hedges said.

“Our mission was to save as many animals from the flood that we could,“ Hedges said, according to USA Today. ”We went through Hurricane Matthew and it was horrible. There were many preventable deaths.”

She told the publication that an elderly couple had left 18 animals with her, some of which were sick or injured.

CCNP volunteer Leona Mozingo told HuffPost that it would have been impossible to get to a vet during the storm.

“Everything was closed, and a lot of the roads were closed,” she said.

Wayne County animal control agents questioned Hedges and inspected the warehouse she was using to house the animals.

“Upon entering the facility they developed serious concerns regarding the practice of veterinary medicine without a license and the presence of controlled substances,” said the Wayne County Government.

Hedges relinquished many of the animals to the authorities.

“All animals who were NOT owned by Ms. Hedges were voluntarily surrendered to Wayne County Animal Services. There was sufficient availability at the Wayne County Animal Shelter for all animals surrendered and no boarding fees were charged to the owners. All animals surrendered were checked out by a licensed veterinarian and Animal Services is working to reunite them with their owners.”

Hedges has been released from jail on a $10,000 bond.

She is due to make a court appearance on Oct. 17 the Wayne County Courthouse.