Hearts for Hounds Owner's Hearing Delayed

Bonnie Sheehan, the founder of Hearts for Hounds dog shelter and a Long Beach boarding kennel, was scheduled to appear today for a preliminary hearing in Tennessee on felony animal endangerment charges.

But the Press Telegram is reporting that the hearing was postponed for unstated reasons until March 13. Friends said earlier this month that she'd returned to Long Beach, as had a volunteer and friend, Pamela King-McCracken, who'd been arrested with Sheehan.

With Sheehan at the wheel of a U-Haul truck that towed an SUV, King-McCracken riding passenger, the veteran dog rescuers were pulled over by a state trooper the morning of January 17.

He later said in court affidavits that the U-Haul had been weaving into another lan and tailgating an 18-wheeler on a highway outside Memphis. Contrary to erroneous media reports, he did not report a foul odor; he heard dogs barking galore and asked to open the truck.

Numerous dogs were subsequently taken by Long Beach Animal Services from the Obispo Avenue property that Sheehan vacated in January, the city and Sheehan friends said. The actual owner had hired an employee named Luis to run the "room and groom" kennel, but he was apparently not the proprietor of record.

Sheehan's longtime friend and spokesman Jay Williams of Belmont Heights said Sheehan had left several dogs with the employee because they were either too old or feeble to likely be adopted.

After Sheehan and a Hearts for Hounds volunteer, King-McCracken, were arrested and jailed for several days, the City of Long Beach made a previously scheduled visit and took all dogs into custody. Tom Modica of the Long Beach City Manager's office last week confirmed that the dogs were adopted out to other shelters, where the public may adopt them.

It was  not immediately known why the Tennessee court hearing was delayed by three weeks.