The four dozen Miniature Australian shepherds spent almost all of their time locked up at the "puppy mill," covered in feces, malnourished, with little water, she said.
Kenneth Martin Cassell, however, said those are lies. He claims he was a reputable breeder, well known in the trade since he got into it two decades ago. He had advertisements in the Seattle Times. People from as far away as Switzerland have called asking about his dogs.
Animal control officers had been keeping tabs on Cassell's barn at 7115 W. 40th Drive for months, checking on him every so often and warning him again and again to take better care of the dogs, Clark said.
They weren't emaciated, she said, but they were underweight, with matted fur and overgrown nails. Some were newborn puppies. Many were mature, 25-pound dogs.
When puppy mill owners sell the dogs, they typically give them a bath and a trim, then meet the prospective buyer somewhere far away, out of sight of the filthy kennels, Clark said.
Or else, she said, they might be sold to a middleman who fattens and cleans them up before reselling them at a profit.
Officers established probable cause for a search warrant and seized Cassell's dogs April 6.
A week later he was charged with 21 counts of second-degree animal cruelty, 42 counts of failure to provide legal space for dog breeding and 40 counts of failure to provide sufficient water for dog breeding.
Some of the dogs, locked in their cages, had no access to water, according to the humane society.
Cassell said that's an exaggeration. Yes, he said, the dogs did not have access to water every second of the day, but the county code says animals need "sufficient" water within a 24-hour period - and he believes he more than met that threshold.
"You do not give a 4- or 5-year-old child a quart of water on their bedstand," he said. "The results will be predictable."
Line by line, Cassell denied the accusations Wednesday, April 18, as he gave a tour of his barn - full of sawdust, welding machinery and a giant mound of empty 40-pound bags of dog food. He said he almost always sold his dogs onsite, except when he made long-distance deliveries.
Until just before the dogs were taken, Cassell said, he was never warned they were being mistreated.
And that wasn't feces on their fur, he said, it was mud from their outdoor kennels. There's some standing water in the kennels, and dogs are dogs, he said - sometimes they get muddy.
Clark alleged the dogs were let out from the cages only to breed.
"Many of them have never known anything but the squalor they were living in," she said. "They're very shy. They spin in circles in their kennels."
But Cassell claimed they were outside from 9 a.m. until midnight each day. He said he took the dogs on long walks in groups twice a day, and he only locked them up at night.
In the past year, he said, he's sold exactly 38 puppies. He has a welding business on the side, but business has been terrible in this economy, he said.
Miniature Australian shepherd pups can sell for anywhere from $200 to $600; Cassell said he could charge as much as $700 for his, because they were quality dogs.
"I'm not sleeping tonight," he said. "To have them taken, to not have them here, it hurts. It hurts."
Since they were seized, two dogs have given birth to litters of puppies, bringing the total number of dogs to 57. Four or five other females may also be pregnant, Clark said.
Caring for that many dogs, on top of the humane society's regular tenants, has put a strain on the two Whatcom County shelters at Williamson Way and Baker Creek.
But the dogs cannot go up for adoption until the court case is resolved, Clark said, because right now they're considered evidence.
(bellinghamherald.com - April 19, 2012)
