Contact 6 investigates Society of St. Francis Animal Shelter

The owner of a Kenosha County animal shelter is known for having a rough attitude, but as Contact 6's Katrina Cravy found out, she really tells it like it is, and doesn't care what you think.

Sometimes, she's very caring, very loving, and very sweet. At other times, she just seems rude.

One thing is for certain: Cindy Schultz will give you her opinion!

"Look, I am in this for the animals. I am not in this to make people happy," Cindy Schultz, from the Society of St. Francis Animal Shelter said.

Schultz runs the animal shelter in Kenosha County. It's located a little more than a mile north of the Illinois border.

FOX6's Contact 6 has received complaints about the shelter over the years, from people like Christina Dresen, who says she had a very negative experience at the shelter, with Schultz's sister.

"She said 'that is NOT your dog. You will NOT be getting him back. You don't try nothin' funny and you get OFF my property, right now!'" Dresen said.

Dresen had given her former dog, Riley, to another family member for personal reasons.

That was about three years ago.

This September, the micro-chip company called Dresen, saying Riley had been abandoned, but found, and taken to Schultz's shelter.

"You couldn't imagine how excited I was to have a second chance to have this dog that I regretted getting rid of," Dresen said.

The reunion at the shelter, was anything but happy.

"They had 10, 15, 20 dogs in each cage. I went to love him right away, and he was extremely filthy. I took my hands off him and it was just black. He was just absolutely filthy, and has mats in his fur and stuff," Dresen said.

Dresen wrote to FOX6's Contact 6, and when Katrina Cravy looked more closely at Dresen's complaint, there was mention of a website called "Citizens Against Cindy." It's an entire website slamming the shelter owner, calling her a "ruthless tyrant" and her staff "vigilantes."

"I thought 'somebody's gotta do something about this,'" Dresen said.

FOX6 dug a little deeper, and found a report from July. Agents from the state's Animal Health Division got an anonymous tip that several dogs were suffering from heat exposure. That's when Contact 6's Katrina Cravy called Schultz, and asked to see the conditions for herself.

Schultz says she has nothing to hide regarding any of the allegations, including what was in the state's report: poor ventilation, dirty drinking water, and tarps weighed down with excess water.

"This had all fallen in from the thunderstorm, and they came here two minutes after the thunderstorm, so there's nothing we could do about it that fast," Schultz said.

Schultz says she relies on volunteers to keep the shelter going, and there were more than 90 dogs at the shelter during FOX6's visit.

During the visit, FOX6's Cravy had some questions for Schultz.

Katrina Cravy:  "How about 'Citizens Against Cindy?'  A whole web site."

Cindy Schultz:  "Yeah.  Well, I mean, how can you comment on something like that?" "There's nothing you can do about that, other than sue them and stop them from doing any more damage."

That is what Schultz is doing - suing the website's owner, who would not return FOX6's phone calls.

As for Dresen, the woman who launched this investigation...

Katrina Cravy:  "She seems like she really cares about the dog."

Cindy Schultz:  "I don't care what she cares about."

Katrina Cravy:  "She'd be ecstatic to get that dog back."

Cindy Schultz:  "Yeah that's nice, what about the dog?  What about the dog?  I'm not in this for her ecstacy.  I'm in this for the dog."

Schultz says she will not allow anyone who has given up a dog in the past to adopt a pet. Schultz says Dresen's former dog now has a new owner.

As for Schultz's attitude...

Katrina Cravy:  "The complaints I've gotten over the years is that you're just rude."

Cindy Schultz:  "Yeah, I can be very rude."

Katrina Cravy:  "And they don't like that.  They feel like they're not being treated properly and that's why they're going to come to me."

Cindy Schultz:  "Too bad.  Too bad.  Some of them deserve it."

"I have to sleep at night.  I have to know that, when these animals leave here, they are going to a good place.  I'm not putting them in the same garbage they were in before they got here.  They can call as many Contact 6s and Katrina Cravys and the State of Wisconsin as they want, and that's the way it is," Schultz said.

That is Cindy Schultz: unapologetic, doing what she thinks is best - like it or not.

The state is deciding whether Schultz's current conditional license will be upgraded to a full license, or if she'll face penalties.

That report has not yet been released.