Musher convicted on abuse charges

PALMER — A local man finds himself in a legal doghouse after being found guilty on all 39 charges leveled against him after Mat-Su Borough animal control officers seized his 25 sled dogs in May.

Doug Bartko, a Lazy Mountain-area musher, must give up his dogs and kennel license and pay a fine of $5,600, following Tuesday’s ruling by Palmer District Court Magistrate David Zwink.

“There was a mountain of evidence, there really was,” said Assistant Borough attorney Lisa Thomas, who prosecuted the case. “We obviously believe that it was correct and he [Zwink] made the right decision.”

In an e-mail sent hours after the ruling, Bartko responded that, “I must take responsibility for my mistakes. A big part of my life is gone. I’m sure I’ll adjust. All part of life, I guess.”

Reached by phone, Bartko was more circumspect. If the conviction is the last word, then, yes, his mushing days are over. But, he said he thinks he might appeal.

As to Zwink’s ruling, “He just goes by the law,” Bartko said. “When you’re in the legal system there might be a little wiggle room for him, but it’s pretty straight-forward. I understood.”

When officers arrived at Bartko’s house near Lazy Mountain on May 5, they found 12 emaciated dogs, which they noted were underweight and which they took into custody, officers testified at trial. Bartko had 13 more dogs someplace else but wouldn’t tell officers where.

The next day, officers returned and Bartko had the rest of the dogs at the house. Those dogs, officers testified, were worse than the first group. During the investigation, officers also came across a dead dog down a small ravine from the main dog yard.

Borough veterinarian Katrina Zwolinski testified at trial the dog died from eating too quickly after a period of malnourishment.

The charges eventually leveled against Bartko included 13 of interfering with an animal control officer, one for each dog he hid; 25 of failing to provide humane animal care to each of the malnourished and dehydrated dogs; and one of animal cruelty relating to the dead dog.

At trial, Zwolinski testified that some dogs required intravenous fluids and even some that didn’t showed marked signs of dehydration.

Bartko said he had a system set up to feed his dogs fish brought from Anchorage. That system ran into trouble when his truck broke down. He said he took the 13 dogs officers couldn’t find on May 5 to another property as part of a different dog care regimen.

The musher was a target for animal cruelty prosecution in 2005 when one of his dogs was found to be sick and dying of cancer in his front yard. Officials said the humane thing to do would have been to put the dog down. Bartko disagreed, and still does.

Bartko once before failed a kennel inspection for having skinny dogs, a fact that came up at trial. Officers then allowed him to get his dogs back to their proper weight and inspected him again 10 days later, at which point he passed.

At trial, he asked Borough Animal Control Officer Mark Whisenhunt why he didn’t offer a similar arrangement this time around.

“I tried,” Whisenhunt testified. “You refused to try to come to a similar resolution.”    

Bartko represented himself during the trial, which lasted three days. The type of charges he faced did not allow for a public defender, a jury or for jail time.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.