News-Topic Lenoir NC

By Kara Fohner 
kfohner@newstopicnews.com 
Jul 01, 2020 4:57 PM 
A woman who was accused of neglecting a variety of animals denies the allegations and says that the animals were not in her care when their health declined. 
Lisa Marie Hendren, 36, who also uses the name Lisa Lewis, said in an interview that she left her more than a dozen dogs and various other animals with a man she was allowing to live on her property, and it was after she moved that some of the animals began to have health problems. 
Hendren was charged with five counts of animal cruelty in May. She is accused of failing to feed a 6-month-old Holstein cow named Betty, a mixed-breed dog named Patch, a Husky named Mya, a pitbull named Chloe and a 4-month-old Jersey cow named Oscar, according to court records. 
She says she moved in with a friend in November, leaving the animals at her property on Sheriffs Road. She said she had a deal with the man there: He could live there and she would pay the bills if he took care of her animals. 
But after a couple of months, she said, she noticed some of the animals had injuries, and the man stopped allowing her to see the dogs. 
Eventually, the man moved out, leaving the remaining animals, and when she returned to the property the house was damaged, some of her dogs were dead and one had been taken, she said. 
“There was a dead dog in my freezer, which was like skin and bones,” she said. 
The News-Topic is not identifying the man because he has not been charged with a crime. 
Hendren said she contacted Caldwell County Animal Control and the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office, but no charges were filed. 
Capt. Aaron Barlowe of the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office said that Hendren reported April 19 that she had been paying a man to stay at her home, and she said then that up until she moved she had been taking good care of her animals. Hendren told the sheriff’s office that she returned to the home and found eight dogs in kennels, surrounded by over an inch of feces, urine standing in cages, and a dead dog in the freezer, Barlowe said. Hendren also reported that a dog and some electronics were stolen from the home.  
County Public Information Officer Paige Counts, who speaks on behalf of Animal Control, said that after Hendren's report, the sheriff's office contacted Animal Control, who then began an investigation. The investigation is continuing. 
Hendren said she has been providing veterinary care for the remaining animals, but Animal Control seized them anyway. 
“At the end of the day … I’m not the one that caused it. So I’m not going to be the one to go down for something he did,” she said. 
Hendren said she left her animals and moved because she was arrested in November and accused of having sexual contact with a teenage boy who lived nearby, so she decided to stay with a friend to avoid future interaction with him. She is awaiting trial in that case. 
She said she keeps a large amount of animals because caring for them gives her something to do. 
Hendren declined to provide any evidence to support her claims, citing advice from her lawyer. She said she is waiting for the case to unfold in court and that she intends to ask others to testify on her behalf. 
She said she does not know why she was charged, but she thinks Animal Control wanted publicity, as she has been convicted in other counties in cases related to her care of animals. She attributed her actions in those cases to her ignorance of state laws.  
“They feel like they can make a name for themselves for being the one to take me down for what everyone else is saying,” she said. 
After a first News-Topic article reported that Hendren was charged with animal cruelty, people posted her address on Facebook, and someone dropped a note threatening her life in her mailbox. She asked for a follow-up article that detailed her side of the story because she no longer feels safe at home.