Good Samaritan speaks out after stopping couple from 'dumping' kittens in dirt field
Elisabeth Lomeli was driving along a main road in San Bernardino, California, when she suddenly saw two people "dumping" cats in a dirt field, she told ABC News on Thursday.
The incident occurred on May 30, when Lomeli and her friend saw a woman allegedly abandoning four kittens and a cat in the field, where she said they were exposed to triple-digit temperatures and coyotes.
"If they would have been left out there, they would have never had a chance," Lomeli told ABC News.
Lomeli said she immediately began recording the couple allegedly attempting to leave the cats, then started honking and urging the woman to take the animals to a shelter instead. When the woman allegedly refused to stop, Lomeli and her friend exited their vehicle to talk to the suspects, she said.
The woman claimed that she had "already taken them to a shelter" and that they "won't take them in," but could not name any of the shelters she allegedly checked, according to Lomeli. She went on to say the cats were "from the neighborhood and she just picked them up" and told Lomeli that she was going to dump an additional 11 cats, Lomeli said.
The female suspect was accompanied by a man, who said he drove the woman to the field but was not participating in the abandoning of the cats, Lomeli noted.
As her friend was talking to the female suspect, Lomeli left to find a box to place the kittens in, since the suspects did not want the hand over the cage that originally carried the animals., Lomeli said.
Lomeli said she and her friend were able to rescue the four kittens, but in the process the adult cat -- the mother of the younger felines -- escaped and has not been located since.
The kittens were taken to the San Bernardino City Animal Shelter and were then picked up by a local rescue service, Lomeli said. The cats appeared to be malnourished, dehydrated and had eye infections, according to Lomeli.
Lomeli said she encouraged the shelter to contact police on this incident, but "they weren't doing it," so she reached out to officials on her own on Monday.
She said police were able to identify the suspects and they were arrested on Tuesday. According to ABC Los Angeles station KABC, the couple was arrested on misdemeanor charges. San Bernardino Police Department and San Bernardino Animal Services did not immediately respond to ABC News' requests for comment.
"It's not humane and it's not OK. Nothing justifies what she was doing at all," Lomeli told ABC News.
