By JEFF MORRIS
Penny Berk, the owner of Rescue Right and Northwind Kennels, is scheduled to appear in Bedford Town Court on Wednesday, Sept. 25, at 3:30 pm. The court appearance was originally scheduled for Aug. 28 but was postponed.
Berk was arrested July 18 by the Humane Law Enforcement Unit of SPCA Westchester and charged with five counts of animal cruelty. She pleaded not guilty.
According to Ernest Lungaro, head of the enforcement unit, on Oct. 3, 2023, several witnesses had alerted SPCA Westchester officials to “a dire situation” regarding four sick Bernese mountain dog puppies who were being denied proper medical care at Rescue Right, an animal rescue organization colocated with Northwind Kennels on Route 22 in Bedford.
SPCA officials and staff discovered four puppies and their mother all suffering and in critical condition, with one puppy barely able to breathe and non-responsive.
All were found to be suffering from distemper, and over the next six days, despite round-the-clock care in a veterinary hospital, all had to be euthanized.
Distemper virus is described by the American Kennel Club as highly contagious and potentially lethal, and also one of the most preventable diseases. It is spread through direct contact with an infected animal or object, through airborne exposure, or through the placenta.
The SPCA said the female originated from an Amish puppy mill in Pennsylvania and was brought to Rescue Right along with an unneutered male Bernese mountain dog. Sometime after their arrival in Bedford, according to SPCA, the unneutered male was co-kenneled with the female, who was unspayed and subsequently impregnated.
Lungaro said an investigation had been ongoing since October, and the decision to make an arrest in July was made in consultation with the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office. No reason for that timeline was given.
Rescue Right is a nonprofit that operates within Northwind Kennels, a business founded in the 1920s which was bought by Berk and her husband, Dr. George Berk, in 2006.
In late 2021, Berk was the focus of a GoFundMe effort started to raise money to pay back taxes for Northwind, which at that point had fallen seriously into arrears and was facing eviction. That crisis was averted, with arrangements made to have donors keep both the business and nonprofit afloat.
She has been something of a lightning rod, eliciting many negative and positive opinions.
A large number of posts on social media allege that animals at Rescue Right have been abused and neglected for years, used for breeding, and that conditions were awful. Some claim to have been volunteers at the shelter who left because of the conditions.
Yet others who posted amidst the accusations defended Berk, and predicted she will be cleared once all the facts are known. Some say they have had very good experiences with animals adopted from Rescue Right.
The two sides will be presented in court next week.