Skip navigation

Ore. woman obsessed with bunnies back in jail

47-year-old who neglected hundreds of rabbits found hiding more in hotel

Image: Miriam Sakewitz
AP
Miriam Sakewitz, who was arrested in 2007 with more than 250 rabbits in squalid conditions, has been arrested again.
Special feature
Tales of survival
A gator victim who got a new high-tech hand; a mom who woke from a coma; a police officer who flatlined twice. Learn how all these people and others came through life-threatening situations.
Slideshow
Image: A fan in Times Square reacts to a play while watching the New York Yankees play the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 before going on to win the 2009 Major League Baseball World Series in New York
  The Week in Pictures
Yankees fans, Pakistan train crash, festival of lights, Iran protest, rodeo clowns, H1N1, toddler bowling and more news and feature photos from around the globe.

more photos

updated 5:47 a.m. ET July 3, 2009

PORTLAND, Ore. - An Oregon woman obsessed with bunnies has been ordered back behind bars after police found her in a hotel room with more than a dozen rabbits.

Washington County Circuit Judge Gayle Nachtigal ruled Thursday that 47-year-old Miriam Sakewitz violated her probation by having the rabbits. The judge sentenced the woman to 90 days in the county jail.

Police arrested Sakewitz June 16 after she called a maintenance worker to her room in the Portland suburb of Tigard to fix a broken television set. The worker saw and smelled the rabbits, some of them hopping free.

Story continues below ↓
advertisement | your ad here

The woman's legal problems began in 2006, when Hillsboro police found more than 150 rabbits in her home and dozens more bunny bodies in freezers. She was arrested on accusations of animal neglect. After pleading no contest, she was placed on five years probation, with one condition being that she stay away from rabbits.

Tigard Police spokesman Jim Wolf said Washington County animal control officers removed eight adult rabbits, five young ones and a dead one from the hotel room in the latest incident.

Washington County probation officer Bob Severe said Sakewitz had undergone a court-ordered mental evaluation but that no treatment was recommended.

More on: Bunnies

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Sponsored links

Resource guide