Local animal control officials arrived at a kennel just outside Fairbanks in May to find 40 sled dogs and five puppies living in filthy conditions. Some were also malnourished. The Fairbanks North Star Borough animal shelter veterinarian’s final report said there was a “clear pattern of neglect,” but that the dogs weren’t in imminent danger.
Borough personnel said they couldn’t seize the animals, and the owner, who was out of town at the time, faces no citations or criminal charges.
“It was a huge disappointment, and I feel like a huge failure to the people of Fairbanks,” said Haley Holland, a caretaker of the sled dogs, referring to authorities’ response.
She was one of several people who spoke at a June 11 borough Assembly meeting to describe what they saw as not only the shortcomings of one kennel owner, but also evidence of a malfunctioning animal welfare system.
Conditions and response
In early May, Holland went to a kennel off Chena Hot Springs Road to help care for its dogs. She said the owner, whom she’d previously met through her work, asked her to watch them while he was picking up a truck in Colorado.
“When I saw the conditions at the property, it was so immensely awful,” she said.
Holland said she found the place covered in feces – inside and outside – and that dogs looked emaciated, some with bite marks from fighting with others. Puppies, she said, couldn’t reach the only bucket of water available to them.
“It was horrifying to see,” Holland said. “And at some point, I just stopped and said, ‘No. Call animal control. I'm done with this. I’m done seeing them suffer.’”
She also said there was a cooler full of decomposed dead puppies at the property. Fairbanks North Star Borough Animal Control field notes state that officers couldn’t confirm the cooler’s contents.
Holland hadn’t been the only one to sound the alarm. Records show another caretaker contacted the borough just a couple days before, on May 1.
Borough dispatch records and field notes indicate animal control visited the property multiple times in May, including the day of that initial call. The notes also document some of what officers experienced, like the urine stench in a cabin where dogs were living that was so strong it made one officer’s lungs burn.
The borough vet’s final report says all the dogs examined were experiencing discomfort and had an increased risk of disease due to unsanitary conditions; it also said many dogs were hungry, some malnourished. But the report concludes that changes could be implemented on-site with weekly follow-ups, and animal control officers said they didn’t have the power to take in the dogs, records show.
Alaska State Troopers were also notified of the situation by both citizens and borough officials, according to the borough case file, but Troopers didn’t seize the animals or pursue charges against the owner.
In an emailed statement, Alaska Department of Public Safety spokesperson Austin McDaniel told KUAC that borough animal control “was the primary agency investigating complaints at this kennel and they are best situated to lead these types of investigations in the area.”
Animal control notes say an officer, after reviewing the borough vet’s final report on May 15, determined the case might meet the threshold of a criminal offense and sent information to Troopers.
McDaniel, in the email, said neither the District Attorney’s office nor Troopers “believe that the alleged conduct met the high criminal threshold in Alaska's animal cruelty statutes.”
For Holland, working with authorities came up short of expectations.
“It makes me feel like the dogs aren’t being considered, nor are the people of Interior Alaska,” she said. “They’re not being considered whatsoever.”
Holland and others who spoke at the Assembly meeting said, after animal control’s response back in early May, they enlisted another local veterinarian to evaluate the dogs’ health and give a second opinion, which described the situation in more urgent terms than the borough report.
Others, including Assemblymember Nick LaJiness and members of the Two Rivers mushing community, also visited the property, and an ad hoc group, coined the Fairbanks 40 Rescue Group, found new homes for the dogs, with the consent of the owner. He kept one of them, his favorite, Holland said.
According to borough records, the dogs appeared to be gone from the property by May 7, within a week of the initial call to animal control.
At the June 11 Assembly meeting, Kerry Walsh said she’s been fostering six of them, including one of the most malnourished. They’re gaining weight and doing well, she said.
Like Holland, Walsh said the case shows the system isn’t working right. She wanted the borough to cite the owner and said she’s “seen firsthand the overwhelming evidence of his neglect and severe mistreatment of the dogs.”
“These citations are the enforcement tools that we have, and as a citizen of this borough, I expect them to be used,” Walsh told the Assembly.
According to borough records, animal control officers identified seven citable offenses at the kennel, but chose not to write them up.
In an interview, borough officials said outcomes tend to be better when they aim to facilitate “voluntary compliance” with code, and then cite people if conditions don’t improve.
But they also said some of the rules they work under are imperfect or outdated.
“It’s not just this case, right? I think that’s the biggest piece about this whole thing, for me, is that it’s not just this case.” said Luke Butcher, the director of the Borough Department of Emergency Operations, which oversees animal control.
“There are issues frequently throughout our community. And how we treat our animals is really reflective of how we care about ourselves and our community and the things we’re OK with and not OK with, and that shifts over time,” he said.
Butcher and other borough officials say their actions are bound by code, which they don’t write. But they have ideas for how it could change, said Raeanne Ross, the borough’s lead animal control officer.
“I definitely have thoughts and feelings of things that could be different in the system that could’ve either prevented this from happening or had this be a much smoother transition for everyone,” she said.
She said that includes giving borough animal control the power to impound animals in need of care, something she said local code doesn’t allow officers to do.
Animal control staff have also talked about the possibility of creating mandatory reporting requirements for animal care professionals, according to Ross. And she said they’ve discussed code changes that would implement a certification for properties that have more than a certain number of dogs so they can verify “that the primary caregiver and the property is sufficient to care for those animals.”
KUAC decided against naming the owner of the kennel for this story. He declined to comment and has not been charged with a crime. But a statement from him addressed to the “mushing community and beyond” is included in the borough case file.
In it, he claims to have recently suffered from mental health challenges and entered last winter unprepared for the season’s brutal cold. He also wrote that he failed, was sorry and takes responsibility for what happened.
But those who spoke to the Assembly and organized to rehome the dogs say they fear the consequences of a system that doesn’t do more to protect animals from mistreatment.
“Animal cruelty of this severity must not be tolerated, overlooked, or accepted,” says a June 9 post on the Fairbanks 40 Rescue Group Facebook page, which encouraged people to attend the Assembly meeting. “The welfare of our dogs and the standards of our mushing community depend on holding those responsible accountable.”