Lien muzzles shelter project

MAT-SU — More than three years after seizing 28 dogs from Willow musher David Straub, the Mat-Su Borough finds itself hounded by a $1.5 million lien that’s holding up construction of a multimillion dollar expansion of its animal shelter.

Straub filed the lien on property the Borough plans to use to expand the Mat-Su Animal Care and Regulation Shelter, a future recycling center and the landfill. Straub claims animal control officers coerced him into signing over his dogs, unfairly prosecuted him on cruelty to animals charges and ruined his sled-dog business. The dispute began in October 2004, when the Borough seized 28 of his 32 sled dogs and charged him with 17 counts of animal cruelty. The claims of neglect included finding some dogs emaciated and in danger of starvation.

The dogs weren’t emaciated, Straub claims, adding at the time he had suffered a broken neck from a fall while working on the roof of the Wasilla Senior Center.

“They coerced me to sign over my dogs one day when I’m sitting here with a broken neck,” Straub said. “Maybe they thought I was being mean to them. A lot of the things [the Borough] did was squirrely.”

The Borough refutes Straub’s claims and says it acted appropriately and humanely to rescue a large number of animals he hadn’t cared for, said Dave Allison, Animal Care and Regulation chief.

Although sled dogs are usually thin compared to the average household pet, Straub’s dogs were well below the condition of average sled dogs, he said. They were underweight and suffering from overall neglect when the shelter took them.

“We did the best we could with what we had to work with,” Allison said, adding that Straub was convicted on one of the counts of cruelty to animals. “We did nothing wrong. He was convicted in a court of law of cruelty to animals.”

After seizing the dogs, the shelter was forced to euthanize some of the animals because of serious health problems and behavior issues, he said. Others were adopted out to new homes. Taking animals is always a last resort, he said.

Any physical ailments the dogs had that required them to be destroyed were contracted at the animal shelter, not while in his care, Straub said. He learned one of the ailments was kennel cough.

“These are racing animals, in good shape, and if they had [kennel cough] they contracted it in their facility,” Straub said.

Asked if $1.5 million is excessive, Straub said he doesn’t believe so. A good lead dog can be worth $8,000 to $12,000, he said, and the Borough euthanized about a half-dozen lead dogs. More than a dozen others were given away, and since then his dog tour business has been in jeopardy.

“It’s gotten quite expensive and I’ve tried to work out some type of solution with the Borough,” he said. “They killed my dogs and I want them to compensate me for it, and I haven’t even gotten an apology. I’m heartsick about what the Borough did to my dogs.”

Straub was a candidate for Borough mayor in 2006 and said he intends to run again in 2009 and 2012.

While the Borough is confident Straub’s claims and lien have no merit, having the lien on the property means it can’t sell the bonds needed to raise the money to begin construction, Mat-Su Borough Manager John Duffy said. With a Jan. 10 deadline to close out the bidding process on the animal shelter expansion, the lien could hold up the project.

Straub filed the type of lien a contractor would if a homeowner failed to pay for services, Duffy said.

“It’s a nuisance,” Duffy said. “[But], it’s a big issue because we cannot move forward with the recycling center or the animal shelter with a lien. We feel confident that the court is going to look at this and at the end of the day, I believe the court will rule in our favor. He filed the wrong kind of lien, and even if he filed the right kind of lien, there’s no merit to it.”