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Photo: Matej Divizna/Getty Images
A failed animal rescuer will be charged with animal cruelty after crates of dead birds were pulled from the house she shared with her elderly mother. Of the hundreds of pigeons, seagulls, loons, and a few other animals the 54-year-old Gretchen Rell was apparently hoarding, only 18 birds were found alive. Rell, a 15-year volunteer with the Monmouth County SPCA who worked nearly every day at a bird care center, will now be barred from volunteering. “This is what happens to people that are well intended that get overwhelmed,” said an SPCA enforcement officer, in a bit of an understatement.
