To briefly recap, Kittles was arrested through the diligent efforts of Clatsop County Animal Control Officer Tommi Brunick after she learned that Kittles was cooping up 115 dogs, 4 cats, and two chickens on a schoolbus she had moved over from rural Washington. Kittles had accumulated the animals through deceit and conniving across America, starting in Florida, where she had been prosecuted for animal neglect and keeping horses inside her mother's small suburban home. Kittles, who loves the attention she can get through manipulating the legal system, managed to delay the proceedings against her for months, and finally a year.

When I was appointed District Attorney in March of 1994 Kittles had already received seven different taxpayer-paid lawyers, none of whom met her "standards." She had managed to go through five judges, claiming each of them was "prejudiced" against her. The dogs seized off her bus suffered from gross malnutrition and in many cases potentially-deadly heartworm. Kittles had managed to prevent the dogs from getting ANY veterinary care and they had remained locked up for a year, since Kittles insisted they be available as "evidence" if the case ever finally got to trial.

We succeeded, over her violent objections, in treating the dogs for heartworm, and "fostering" out many of the dogs to loving homes. A trial date was set for August 2, 1994 which Kittles arrogantly refused to attend, faxing her refusal to "submit" from across the Columbia River in Washington. Even though she was only 5 miles away, the fact that she was in another state required formal extradition proceedings. Kittles, of course resisted, and was kept in jail for three months while she fought - ultimately unsuccessfully - extradition back to Oregon.

Although we could have kept her in jail even longer for her continuing refusal to be evaluated or treated for her "animal addicition," to continue jailing her would just inflict cruel and unusual punishment on her jailers and Oregon taxpayers (in fact one fellow inmate had begged to be sent on to the state woman's prison rather than suffer another night in a cell with Vickie Kittles).

Our main concern was that she not bother the brave people who cared for the dogs and brought them into their homes. So on a rainy November morning, Kittles who had enjoyed jail food so much she couldn't wear the clothes she came into jail with, called a cab and loading two huge boxes of what she calls her "critical legal papers" she ordered the cab to take her to McDonalds. We haven't seen anything more of her, and hope it continues that way. If she violates her probation, particularly by harassing the people who helped the dogs, she is eligible to serve at least 5 more years in county jail.

On a cheerier note, some good has come from this mess. As the result of hard work by the Oregon Humane Society's Sharon Harmon and former U.S. prosecutor Charlie Turner and the sponsorship of State Representative Tim Josi, the Oregon legislature passed House Bill 3377, named the "Kittles Bill" by the media. HB 3377 makes particularly aggravated animal abuse a felony - like it is in 16 other states, and more directly relevant to the Kittles case, allows a court to care for and foster animals seized while a criminal charge is pending.