Animal cruelty case highlights key child abuse issue

On Monday morning, Oct. 11, Mat-Su Borough Animal Care and Regulation received a written complaint that Willow musher David Straub's sled dogs were emaciated and frantic, foaming at the mouth and running in tight circles. Within hours an ACR officer was on his way to Straub's kennel, some 40 miles north of Wasilla off the Parks Highway.

The officer saw starving, neglected dogs and immediately went about drawing up a document that would transfer ownership of the animals to the borough if Straub couldn't find homes for them.

On Oct. 13, three days after the initial complaint, borough officials met and decided to proceed with animal cruelty charges and obtain a search warrant to remove the animals by the week's end.

By any standards, especially bureaucratic standards, this was swift action on the part of ACR. Chief officer Dave Allison said if he receives a written complaint concerning animal health or safety his officers will respond as soon as possible, at least within 24 hours. The ACR takes cases of animal cruelty very seriously, as it should.

But what about complaints concerning possible abuse of adopted or foster children? Shouldn't the bureaucracies charged with protecting children respond as quickly as those charged with protecting animals?

The recent case of the Kelley children is a tragic example. Several years ago, when Patrick and Sherry Kelley lived in Anchorage, one of the boy's biological aunts came to visit from Florida. She observed troubling signs at the Kelley home, signs of possible neglect and abuse, and she made her concerns known to the Office of Children's Services.

But the OCS apparently waved off her complaints. They sent no investigators to the Kelley home in response to the aunt's concerns and held no meetings about the Kelley children. Instead, they convinced the aunt that the Kelleys were good people and assured her the children were safe.

If the bureaucrats in charge of protecting animals responded within hours, why did the bureaucrats in charge of protecting children not respond at all, allowing abuse to continue for years?

Next week an independent citizen review panel will hold a town hall meeting at Wasilla High School to gather information on the state's child protection system.

The Wednesday meeting, to be held at 6:30 p.m., will be the first in a series of town hall meetings that will examine the policies and procedures of state and local agencies. We hope the state's failure to protect the Kelley children will be addressed, and that future complaints will not be dismissed without investigation.