David Aristide, 61, faces a dozen counts of animal cruelty and one count of running an unlicensed kennel in the home on Kidder Street, which city officials boarded up in September. The indictments move his case from district court to Superior Court, where he could face more serious penalties if convicted.
Aristide, a contractor who grew up in Quincy, told The Patriot Ledger in September that he had bred the dogs – a cross between a Doberman and a poodle that he called a “dobadoodle” – and had planned to sell them on the Internet.
The dogs were seized by Quincy animal control officials in September after city inspectors found seven of them covered in urine and feces in the basement of the badly deteriorated home, according to police reports.
“I’m an avid dog lover, and I’m crazy over my dogs,” Aristide said at the time. “I have many dogs, maybe too many dogs.”
Aristide was barred from caring for animals after his arraignment on animal cruelty charges in September, and he has been fighting the city for access to the dogs ever since. In November, he filed a motion in Superior Court accusing the city of abusing the dogs and requesting an injunction requiring the city to allow him to visit the animals with an investigator and veterinarian. The request was denied.
In the meantime, city officials have been struggling to figure out who owns the duplex where the dogs were being kept. Aristide has said that he owns it, but Paul Hines, the city’s assistant solicitor, said he has found no record indicating that Aristide has an interest in the property, according to an affidavit filed in district court.
The solicitor said the house at 25 Kidder St. was owned by Catherine F. McDonald until her death in 1936, when assessors’ records were changed to indicate that it was owned by McDonald’s heirs, according to the affidavit. The city says it does not know who paid taxes on the house between 1936 and 1990, a year in which no taxes were paid.
The city’s tax collection office took the title to the house in 1998 for non-payment of taxes and says it is now owed $202,000, the affidavit says.
Aristide’s arrest in September came after a series of complaints from neighbors. Police were sent to the Kidder Street duplex at least seven times since June 2013 for complaints about dogs barking and fighting in the basement and running loose around the neighborhood, according to police reports filed in district court.
During a hearing held by police in August, a neighbor said one of the dogs had bitten him, and another said her three children were “petrified” of the dogs.
(Patriot Ledger - Jan 21, 2015)
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