Pontiac woman facing felony for 37 animals in home, disputes charges

Woman accused in animal hoarding case defends herself

The Pontiac woman facing charges for animal abuse and running an illegal shelter wanted to have her say with FOX 2.

PONTAC, Mich. (FOX 2) - Karmen Schooly showed FOX 2 inside her Pontiac home, Thursday, where she was accused of hoarding 37 animals, cats and dogs, which have been removed.

"You can see into my kitchen and into my dining room that there’s no mess in here," she said. "I’m glad the dogs are gone because they should be in a situation where they’re getting adopted."

Schooly vehemently believes she is being unfairly treated.

Now facing a felony charge of failing to provide adequate care to 25 or more animals and a misdemeanor charge of operating an unregistered animal shelter.

Schooly said she runs an animal rescue and not a shelter, and she has only been trying to care for the animals and get them adopted.

FOX 2: "How did you end up with so many animals?"

"They were born by pregnant dogs and they didn’t get adopted and what was I supposed to do?" she said. "Open the gate and let them go?"

Schooly said she tried her best to get help from the Oakland County Animal Shelter and Pet Adoption Center back in March.

"Their animals aren’t getting adopted so they should understand that, our adoptions are slow too," she said. "I've been asking them for help since March in taking these dogs - I have it in writing, month after month, asking Oakland County Animal Control for help.

Photo courtesy of Oakland County Animal Control

"Somebody dumped little puppies over my fence. Two days in a row I contacted animal control, no response."

FOX 2 checked with Oakland County, they confirm Schooly did reach out in March, but a spokesperson said it was full at the time, and could not take the animals.

When the animals were seized the county’s shelter head said The conditions these animals were found in, was unacceptable.

Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said they were deplorable, but Schooly says that is not true.

"Most of the cats are outdoor cats as you see from their little homes out here," she said. "I feed them because I feel bad for them. I get them fixed because I don’t want to feed 100. Most of them are outdoor cats.

FOX 2: "How many do you have left?"

"Six, they left six to die," Schooly said.

Oakland County said it took all of the animals that were inside the house and spotted one cat outside the property, but couldn’t confirm if it was a neighborhood cat or not.

Schooly’s attorney said in summary, prosecutors failed to provide any medical records on the animals and that several of them have health conditions that Schooly cared for on a daily basis.

The attorney said there’s a lot more to the story and they have video evidence of how the animals were doing. In order to to prove that, he says he looks forward to their day in court.

"You can see the condition of my home," she said. "It’s not what they’re making it out to be - there was not feces."