Local Group Saved Starving German Shepherd

A woman who nearly starved her German shepherd to death was sentenced today to 30 days in county jail.

Kimberly Kimiko Nizato, 27, was also ordered to serve three years on probation by Norwalk Superior Court Judge Robert Higa and ordered to pay restitution to the Newport Beach organization that rescued the dog.

Nizato, of Bellflower, who had previously worked as a technician at a veterinary hospital in Irvine, pleaded no contest June 27 to an animal cruelty charge.

The dog—known at the time as Bosco but since renamed Courage—was kept in an animal carrier case in Nizato's garage, animal control officials said last year.

Authorities said a veterinarian who examined the dog determined there was no evidence of food in his system, but that hair, dirt and rocks were found in the animal's stomach.

It was unknown exactly how long the dog had gone without food, Capt. Aaron Reyes of the Southeast Area Animal Control Authority in Downey said at the time.

The dog weighed 37 pounds, about half his normal weight, when found
April 6, but has more than doubled his weight since then. The dog underwent extensive emergency treatment, including blood and plasma transfusions, and has since been adopted, according to the German Shepherd Rescue of Orange County.

Courage was cared for by Shawn Hollub, and was formally adopted by Lisa Whiseant, both of whom are volunteers with the Newport Beach organization.

“I honestly didn’t think he would make it, based on his initial condition,” the rescue group's director Maria Dales told i Love Dogs.com. “I had resigned myself to the fact that he was going to have some major organ failure, perhaps kidney or pancreas shut down. We just kept plugging ahead ... it’s really very remarkable that he doesn’t have a serious intestinal or kidney condition, given how long he was deprived of food.”

—City News Service contributed to this report