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Rabbit Hoarder Jailed Again

Woman Once Kept 250 Rabbits At Her Home

POSTED: 9:58 am PDT June 17, 2009
UPDATED: 5:56 pm PDT June 17, 2009

A woman with a history of hoarding rabbits was arrested again Tuesday after 14 rabbits were found in her hotel room, Tigard police said.

Miriam Sakewitz once kept 250 rabbits -- 100 of which were found dead in freezers and refrigerators -- in her Hillsboro home. After she was convicted, a judge ordered her to stay away from animals.

On Tuesday, however, police said they found eight adult rabbits, five baby rabbits and one dead rabbit and called for an animal control officer.

An employee at the Homestead Suites, an extended-stay hotel on 68th Parkway, tipped off police after seeing the rabbits caged in the hotel room, said Officer Jim Wolf in a police department news release. The employee was conducting maintenance on the property.

Officers forcibly entered the room when they arrived and discovered several cages and a small kennel housing rabbits, police said. Some of the rabbits were roaming the hotel room and one baby rabbit was found dead, according to the police department.

Debbie Wood, a representative of the Washington County Animal Shelter, said they may not have been in the hotel room for very long.

"When we arrived there, one baby had already died. But since then, they seem to be perky, they're eating, looks like things are going to be just fine for the remaining rabbits," Wood said.

The Homestead Suites caters to guests who stay for an extended time. Tigard police said Sakewitz had been living at the hotel for several months.

The 13 rabbits were taken by Washington County Animal Services, the same organization that once held a rabbit adoption event to find homes for 139 rabbits seized from Sakewitz's old home.

"We were able to convince the woman to sign the rabbits over to us. So there is not a long legal issue going on here," Wood said.

"Hoarding animals is a mental illness. One we really don't understand too well. She has a court order that she cannot have rabbits because of her prior convictions on animal neglect," Wood said.

Sakewitz was taken into custody by Tigard police officers on a charge of parole violation because she was in contact with animals. She was booked into the Washington County Jail.

On Wednesday afternoon, the rabbits were transferred to the Humane Society in Portland for potential adoption.

Rabbit Hoarder Jailed Again

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