Sled dog neglect
Kodiak Island, AK (US)

Incident Date: Monday, Sep 13, 2004
County: Kenai Peninsula

Disposition: Not Charged

Person of Interest: Sig Stormo

A musher who recently got his dog team back after more than two months in the custody of the Alaska Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals relinquished the dogs to authorities last week.

Sig Stormo of Funny River gave up most of his dogs to Kodiak animal control officers who responded to two complaints of "extremely thin huskies," according to Kodiak Police Department spokesperson Paul Smith.

"(The officers) found 15 dogs all chained together with no doghouses, food or water," Smith said.

One dog with a neck wound immediately was confiscated. A few days later, on Sept. 13, Stormo turned over all but three of his dogs to animal control, Smith said.

The dogs were taken to the Humane Society of Kodiak animal shelter, and Stormo was issued citations for cruelty to animals and for having no doghouses for the three dogs he kept, Smith said.

This is the second time this year Stormo's dogs have been taken by authorities. On June 11, Alaska State Troopers turned his 15 huskies over to the AKSPCA, believing them to be abandoned at Stormo's residence in Funny River. It turned out, Stormo was working in Kodiak, and the caretaker he hired failed to attend to the dogs.

After an investigation, no charges of animal cruelty or neglect were filed. However, the AKSPCA wanted to charge Stormo $10,000 for taking care of his animals. The parties eventually came to an understanding, and the AKSPCA returned Stormo's dogs free of charge.

Stormo declined, through his employer on Kodiak, to comment on the current situation. But his employer, Anita VanRonk, had a wrinkle to add to the story. According to VanRonk, one of Stormo's dogs is missing.

VanRonk visited the Kodiak animal shelter Saturday, where she expected to find 12 dogs. She took roll of the dogs she's come to know and came up with 11.

"I counted them on my little fingers and I counted one short," she said. "One dog, 'Coyote,' is missing."

VanRonk said she doesn't know when or how the dog got loose, but he has been reported seen along the roadside.

Smith said animal control only is responsible for the dogs it picked up, and its records show no missing animals.

"Eleven dogs were surrendered," he said. "If there's a missing dog, it's not one of ours."

The saga of Stormo's dog team may come to an end this week. The 11 dogs in the Kodiak animal shelter's custody are scheduled to be ferried to Homer, where Kasilof musher Tim Osmar will pick them up today.

Osmar used to own a number of the huskies and agreed to give them a home to get them out of the shelter system.

"It seemed like the most sensible thing to do, rather than send them back to Anchorage," Osmar said.

He said he keeps a competitive team of between 30 and 40 dogs but had some work to do to prepare for the additional 11.

"I'm getting some doghouses together as we speak," he said Monday.

References

• - Sept 23, 2004
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