WILLIAMSON COUNTY — Formal charges are expected to be filed by the Williamson County State’s Attorney’s office against a 51-year-old Creal Springs woman, after officials learned Friday that she had been performing veterinarian work on animals even though she had lost her vet license due to complaints last year.

Williamson County Sheriff Bennie Vick says Elisa Kirkpatrick was holding 41 dogs, 15 cats and several other animals including one bobcat inside her home in the 6200 block of Route 166 north of Creal Springs.

The discovery was made after the sheriff’s office got a request for a welfare check at the home due to odor coming from there.
Kirkpatrick told investigators at the sheriff’s office that she didn’t tell any of her clients about her not being licensed and would go pick up and drop off the clients animals.

Kirkpatrick added that she had performed surgeries on cats and dogs on her kitchen island. The sheriff’s office got a search warrant for Kirkpatrick’s home, barn and vehicle.

Animal Control and the Williamson County Fire Protection District were called in to help. Firemen had to wear bio-hazard suits and full respirators inside the home, where they found it to be full of feces and located several deep freezers full of dead animals along with numerous bags containing dead animals.

Vick says it doesn’t appear at this time that any of the animals were stolen. The animals that were rescued were checked over by veterinarians.

Some were in extremely poor condition. One of the dogs Kirkpatrick performed surgery on died over the weekend. Vick says the removal and placement of the animals at shelters took over 16 hours.