28 dogs seized from unlicensed kennel

BIG LAKE — Mat-Su Borough officials Thursday seized 28 dogs they say were found hungry and suffering from serious skin conditions in an unlicensed kennel.

According to a press release written by borough Animal Care Manager Carol Vardeman, the dogs were taken from George Shell.

“Shell was contacted by Mat-Su Borough Animal care Officer Darla Erskine in an effort to get the dog lot into compliance,” Vardeman wrote.

She said the officer tried multiple times to visit and call Shell and eventually decided to serve warrants for not providing humane animal care and not licensing his kennel.

Inhumane care, Vardeman reports, entailed “not adequately treating the dogs for lice and/or mange and not supplying sufficient supplies of nutritious food.”

Four of the dogs seized were puppies and all were put into protective custody. The borough holds onto dogs seized in these kinds of cases until the citations issued have played out fully in court, a court allows them to be adopted out or the owner relinquishes them.

“At this time, the borough’s veterinarian, Dr. Katrina Zwolinski, is evaluating the dogs and prescribing treatment to include rehydration, therapy for malnutrition and serious skin conditions,” Vardeman wrote.

Court records show that the current citations are not the first Shell has faced. In 2010, he was charged with failing to register a kennel or cattery, a citation that was later dismissed in court.

Earlier this year in April, Shell was charged with not providing human animal care. He pleaded no contest to that charge and was fined $110, which court records show he paid.

Also in April he was hit with a second charge of running an unlicensed kennel. That charge ended with another no contest plea and $160 in fines.

Other than the animal cases, Shell’s records in Alaska courts contain nothing more serious than a traffic ticket.

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