Greyhound Friends Director Charged With Animal Cruelty, Defends Shelter And Hopes To Re-Open

HOPKINTON, MA — The director of a local shelter that focuses on rescuing retired and homeless greyhounds has been charged with one felony count of animal cruelty by the Animal Rescue League of Boston.

Louise Coleman, director of Greyhound Friends, based in Hopkinton, was charged with a felony county of animal cruelty in Framingham District Court on Tuesday, reports Milford Daily News. Greyhound Friends places retired race dogs and mixed breed hounds in homes, and has been operating since 1983.

Local police worked in conjunction with several other departments, including the Animal Rescue League of Boston, to investigate mistreatment of dogs at the shelter. The kennel license was suspended by the town last month, and a cease and desist order has been issued to the facility, reports CBS Local. Board of Selectmen Chairman Brian Herr told CB Local that "animal neglect or cruelty will not be tolerated in Hopkinton."

Following the suspension and closure last month, Coleman told FOX25 Investigates that she was looking forward to bringing the kennel back up to code in order to re-open, and denied any mistreatment of the animals.

Coleman posted on the Greyhound Friends' Facebook page urging support for the shelter, and asking those supporters to write letters to the editor to local media. "The GHFs' Board and I are greatly encouraged by your positive responses in the media and on Facebook," she wrote. "This is certainly a challenging time. Our highest priority is requesting that the Cease and Desist order be lifted so that the greyhounds and hounds can come here to be adopted. GHFs is making every effort to comply with the requirements of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources."

Former Greyhound Friends' board members spoke with FOX Investigates about problems they had reportedly witnessed. One board member complained that some of the dogs had been in the shelter for many years, and other complaints included small cages.

On Wednesday, in an interview with WCVB, Coleman said that they hadn't done anything "intentionally wrong" but there are always ways to "have things better." A member of the governing board shared with WCVB that it had spent more than $50,000 to comply with orders from the inspectors, and that they had gone beyond those repairs and updated the entire kennel.

In a statement issued on Feb. 28, Coleman said, "Greyhound Friends Inc. has come under criticism recently from another shelter in Massachusetts for the practice of keeping long term/hard to place dogs. The concern of extended stay is important to our organization with our best efforts made to find suitable situations for these hard to place dogs. The care of these dogs is of the highest standard."

She said the facility has 30 units and a six-unit isolation unit.

"Sometimes dogs come to Greyhound Friends in extremely damaged emotional and physical states and it can take a long time for our staff and volunteers to make it possible for them to be adopted," she wrote. "When they are transferred to foster homes or other shelters it is after they have been given love, good food, exercise and all that we can do to help them. They don't go to other situations without a lot of effort having been made to realize the dog's potential. Our organization has been able to accelerate the rate of adoption of these hard to place dogs."

Coleman added that the facility recently underwent extensive renovations to meet standards and regulation, and that there are no dogs at the facility during the re-organization.

"Greyhound Friends has placed thousands of dogs from the new kennel facility and with the tremendous support of our extended community of friends and adopters the organization looks forward to a quick review by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources so we can return to our work," she wrote. "Greyhound Friends encourages any of our supporters to make their voices heard concerning their positive experiences with our organization."

Inspectors are expected to visit on Thursday and make a recommendation to the Board of Selectmen.

Photo Credit: Getty Images News, Spencer Platt