Employees from the Kansas Animal Health Department removed 14 dogs from a site near Mulberry Friday, and owner Rebecca L. Swenson was taken into custody by the Crawford County Sheriff's Department.
At 7:54 p.m., the 37-year-old Swenson was booked by the Crawford County Sheriff's Department on 14 charges of cruelty to animals, one charge of obstruction of the legal process, one charge of illegal display of tags and one charge of having no proof of insurance. As of Friday night, she was being held on $9,000 bond at the Crawford County Jail at Girard.
The KAHD has a statutory duty to investigate those who are licensed by the department, or who fall into the category that should be licensed. This includes those with 19 or more dogs and/or cats, whether holding them as an operating boarding kennel, breeding facility or as pets.
Debra Duncan, director of the Animal Facilities Inspection Program, said that a complaint was made regarding Swenson's dogs, and inspectors first visited the site on Thursday.
"On Thursday department employees found 50 dogs - 41 adults and nine puppies," Duncan said. She added that the animals were observed to be living in unsanitary conditions.
"They were in a ravine in deep muck, in pens that had collapsed," she said. "There were no dry surfaces, and the food was in filthy containers, with feces and urine all over. It smelled like a pig farm."
A mother dog, she said, had been placed in a pen with numerous adult dogs. "She was off in a corner trying to protect her puppies," she said.
Duncan added that she had been working in the animal welfare field for nine years "and these are some of the worst conditions I've seen."
Only 14 adult dogs could be found Friday, and Duncan said that it was unsure where the remaining 27 adults and nine puppies were. "Some are running loose in those woods, and the rest are just gone," she surmised.
"I know Becky didn't turn those dogs loose, because she was with us in Pittsburg all day," said Victor Wirt, Swenson's brother-in-law, who accompanied her to Mulberry Friday afternoon with his wife, Norma. "She has a lot of friends, though, and maybe some of them might have thought they were helping her by doing that."
Karl Gregory, owner of the property where the dogs were kept, said that he strongly disagreed with the charges that Swenson and her husband, Carl, were cruel to the dogs.
"These people were doing, I thought, a justice to these animals," he said. "Those dogs were fat. What do they consider cruelty - feeding them too much or loving them too much? If I had a dog and couldn't take care of it, I'd want these people to have it."
There is no road to the site where the animals were, but Gregory said that Swenson and her husband daily walked up a dirt trail to haul food and water to the dogs.
"They may not have nice dog houses, but they had barrels and a camper shell they could get into," Gregory said. "They also had excellent veterinary care. If one of those dogs got sick, they took it to the vet."
The 14 dogs that were taken will be boarded or placed with humane societies, Duncan said. "We typically do not disclose their location," she said.
The dogs will be held pending the disposition of the matter. "A hearing will be held as early next week as we can get it," Duncan said. "Decisions of the hearing officer can be appealed to the Livestock Commissioner, and those decisions can be appealed to the District Court."
This hearing is totally separate from the criminal charges Swenson faces in Crawford County, she added. References« Back to Search Results
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