(Tewksbury) A South Dakota woman is facing animal cruelty charges after she allegedly left 15 dogs and three cats in her van for several hours in a motel parking lot in Tewksbury on Tuesday, causing the death of one of the dogs, authorities said.
Margaret Nickerson-Malpher, 71, told police she was driving back to South Dakota from her other residence in Maine when she stopped at the motel to get some sleep, Tewksbury police Lieutenant Scott Gaynor said.
Police found many of the animals in the van in the Motel 6 lot on Main Street just before 1:15 p.m., and saw that some of the dogs were in cages and appeared to have trouble breathing, according to the office of Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr.
All of the van’s windows were closed, even though the temperature outside was 85 degrees, Leone’s office said. The van also smelled of feces and urine, according to authorities.
Police later found the deceased dog inside Nickerson-Malpher’s motel room, prosecutors said, though it had been inside the van previously.
Nickerson-Malpher was arraigned yesterday on 18 counts of animal cruelty in Lowell District Court, according to Leone’s office. She pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on $1,000 cash bail. She is due back in court for a pretrial conference on Aug. 9.
Her lawyer at the arraignment, Paul King, could not be reached for comment last night.
Rob Halpin, MSPCA spokesman, said that all 17 surviving animals are expected to live.
Whay would anyone think this is ok? Like she sat there and thought, ‘if I keep the windows closed no onw will know they’re in there’! until the melted animals start to drip through the floor boards. Now, if you don’t think it gets hot in a car quickly, I ask you to go out to your car this afternoon when it is 90+ degrees and sit there with the windows closed for ten minutes. Go ahead, time yourself!
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