Man defends care of dogs against charges by Borough

Frontiersman

PALMER — The trial began Friday for a recreational dog musher facing 13 counts of interfering with an animal control officer when his sled dogs were seized in May.

At the time, Mat-Su Borough officials said Doug Bartko’s 25 sled dogs were dangerously underweight and dehydrated. Twelve of Bartko’s dogs were taken to the animal shelter May 5 and the other 13 were seized the next day. A 26th dog was found dead at the bottom of a small cliff behind the property.

Bartko is representing himself for his trial, which will be decided not by a jury, but by Palmer Magistrate David Zwink.

Bartko used the opportunity Friday to question Mat-Su Borough Animal Control Officer Mark Whisenhunt while at the same time explaining his actions.

“I think what upset me is that you showed up the first day with two trucks,” Bartko told Whisenhunt.

Whisenhunt explained that when responding to a call that animals are potentially in jeopardy, officers generally check with dispatchers to see if Alaska State Troopers or any other law enforcement agency has flagged the person they’re going to see.

Without going into specifics, Whisenhunt said there were some notes in the log for Bartko regarding a past domestic violence incident and, “We, just as a safety precaution, tend to double up if that flag is there.”

Bartko also asked Whisenhunt about a previous kennel inspection in 2005. During that inspection, Whisenhunt testified Bartko failed that inspection because his dogs were too skinny. Bartko was given 10 days to fix the problem.

When officers returned, Bartko recounted for the officer that most of his dogs had gained a significant amount of weight.

“I take it that the point you’re trying to make is that in a period of time, say 10 days, a dog’s condition can improve greatly,” Zwink interjected, summarizing for Bartko.

Bartko asked Whisenhunt if on the day he seized the dogs in May the officer might have offered to allow Bartko the same leeway as he did in 2005.

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

Whisenhunt said Bartko initially refused to let officers even look at the dogs and would not disclose where he was keeping 13 of the animals. When officers finally found and seized those dogs, Whisenhunt testified, they believed Bartko had misled them about the dogs’ condition since, contrary to what Bartko had said, they were in worse condition than the 12 initially seized at Bartko’s property.

Bartko said he was uncomfortable showing officers his dogs before he got a shipment of fish and could show them his system for feeding the dogs.

Assistant Borough Attorney Lisa Thomas spent much of her time Friday having Whisenhunt go over various photos taken of the scene around Bartko’s house.

Whisenhunt testified that the dead dog found at the bottom of the cliff was actually on top of the skeleton of another dog that had apparently died much earlier. A second skeleton was also found a few feet from the first.

When the live dogs reached the animal shelter in May, Whisenhunt said, “Some of the dogs were severely dehydrated, some were hunched and had trouble standing.”

At a break for lunch, Bartko said it’s unclear how long the trial would last, noting that in a half a day about a third of the evidence to be presented had been examined.

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