Neglect of over a dozen dogs
Wasilla, AK (US)Date: Mar 15, 2003
Disposition: Not Charged
Case Images: 1 files available
Person of Interest: Allan Butts
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It's a case of possible animal abuse and neglect at a dog lot in the Matanuska Valley. Those who reported the case say what they found was shocking and should be stopped. The Fox Run RV campground lies just off the Glenn Highway, at the junction of the Palmer-Wasilla cutoff.
Saturday afternoon, Nancy Taylor and a group of friends decided to stop by. "Both our families are avid RVers and we passed an RV park that we'd never stopped at before," said Taylor. Inside, Taylor says what they found shocked her.
"I looked like a scene from the holocaust," said Taylor. "The pictures that you saw, with the emaciated people with their bones showing. That's how these dogs looked. It was horrible."
Taylor says they saw more than a dozen dogs kept in a small dog lot and took a picture. The dogs, she says, were so weak they could barely stand or walk.
"Some of them were wobbling and falling over. Some of them could not even come out of their boxes," said Taylor. "There was no sign of food or water out there. They've obviously been starved to death and abused for a long period of time."
"We saw between 12 and 15, possibly more dogs chained up," said Joyce Bishop. "They never barked. There were quite a few homes the dogs didn't come out of, and we weren't sure if they were alive or dead."
Bishop was with Taylor that day and after watching the dogs, the two women called animal control. Animal control came to investigate. Taylor says she spoke with an officer named Jim.
"He says it was one of the worse cases he's ever seen," said Taylor. Officer Jim Boyd with the Mat-Su Borough Animal Control initially told Channel 2 News that he believed it was an animal cruelty case. But later in the day, after speaking to supervisors, he would not comment if that was indeed the situation and declined an on-camera interview.
Channel 2 News tried to reach Allan Butts, the dog lot owner and called a number located next to the RV park. A woman at the number said they are in no way at fault and that animal control found no problems Sunday afternoon. The woman declined to comment further.
Animal control says the investigation is underway and should have answers on Monday. Boyd says no dogs have been removed from the property and the investigation is still ongoing. It is not confirmed whether or not the dog owners are also the property owners for the park. References | Channel 2 KTUU |
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