Horse deaths prompt animal control review

Region

Related Photos

Larry Fleis Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump
Frederick Keeslar

March 20, 2012

Horse deaths prompt animal control review

County to department: Make sure it doesn't happen again

BY BRIAN McGILLIVARY bmcgillivary@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Tue Mar 20, 2012, 07:50 AM EDT

TRAVERSE CITY — Some Grand Traverse County officials said they're troubled two horses starved to death in Fife Lake Township, but remain wary of adding staff to the Animal Control department.

Commissioners want a report from Animal Control staff detailing what went wrong in the handling of the horse deaths in early January. Last week they told health department officials who run the office to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"This board has a duty to the citizens of Grand Traverse County, and the animals of Grand Traverse County, not to let them starve to death," Commissioner Larry Fleis said.

Fleis proposed shifting the Animal Control office to the county Sheriff's Department, but Sheriff Tom Bensley isn't interested. Fleis also proposed cross-training deputies as animal control officers, but county staff told him that would create jurisdictional problems.

Commissioners want to know what happened between Oct. 4, when an Animal Control officer first went to Danelle Round's Fife Lake Township property on M-113, and Jan. 7, when a deputy was called to the property and found two horses down on the ground. The animals had to be euthanized.

"That's where we dropped the ball," Commissioner Addison Wheelock Jr said.

In early October Animal Control Officer Ed Hickey reported one horse was "thin." But food, water, and pasture were available to the animals and fresh droppings indicated they were eating.

Three months later, a sheriff's deputy called to the property by neighbor Cora Wilson discovered two horses on the ground and five others malnourished. When the deputy called for an animal control officer, he was told they don't work weekends.

Round pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of abandoning or being cruel to animals. She was sentenced this month to 14 days in jail and two years of probation when she cannot own any animals.

"Had someone done something on Oct. 4, those horses probably wouldn't have died," Fleis said.

Wilson provided the board copies of two emails she sent to Hickey in early December concerning the animals' deteriorating conditions. One had an invalid address and Hickey said he never saw the other one, and county computer experts didn't find it on his computer, Health Department Director Fred Keeslar said.

Hickey handled things appropriately when he first visited the site, Keeslar said, but may have made a mistake going there in the first place. Animal abuse and cruelty complaints are supposed to be handled by law enforcement under an agreement with the sheriff.

"Ed went out there as a preliminary check, just because he had been out to the property several times before on dog complaints," Keeslar said. "That's the rub. Once you go off of the track you kind of own it."

The county website directs people to contact Animal Control to report abuse.

Keeslar acknowledged the policy needs clarification, but Animal Control doesn't have the staff or expertise to conduct criminal abuse cases. Two officers work 37.5 hours a week with no overtime. That's down from three officers, a manager and a full-time jail trustee in 1998, Keeslar said.

The two officers spend about 25 percent of their time caring for the animals at the county shelter. In 2011 they seized 328 dogs, returned 110, issued more than 170 citations and investigated about 180 animal bites.

"Things are down to the very bare minimum," Keeslar said. "If I had another clerk who could answer all the calls and enter all the data, maybe help out with other things ... that would be a great help."

But board members aren't convinced.

"I think it's a training issue, not a staffing issue," Commissioner Christine Maxbauer said.