Edwinne Garrett, 57, was accused of allowing the dog, “Rita,” to go unfed, left out in the cold and chained up so as to make his doghouse inaccessible. The trial was held before Associate Judge Luther Simmons.
Officer Eric Schellhardt testified that he was called to Garrett’s residence in Madison about 7:20 a.m., Feb. 14, 2014, and found the dog dead in a pen littered with dog waste and partially covered with snow. He said there were traces of blood in the pen, and Garrett did not answer the door when he knocked.
Schellhardt said there was a container for water in pen, but the container was iced over. There was a container that others said contained food, but the food was frozen.
The officer said Monday the weather that day was, “about like it is today”; at the time he testified, the temperature was below freezing, and there was light, blowing snow. Schellhardt said there appeared to be no accessible food or liquid water.
Garrett admitted on the witness stand that he did not take the dog to a veterinarian for years and did not get Rita the required shots. He previously pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to have the dog vaccinated.
A former neighbor, Shelly Stodnick, testified she rigged up buckets to ropes and would lower food and water into the pen because she feared the dog was being neglected. She said she got leftovers from a nearby school to feed the dog. She said she also tossed straw into the pen to help keep it clean and warm.
She said she fed the dog every other day for several years, until she contracted the flu and was not able to visit the pen for four days.
She claimed it was 5 degrees below zero, contrary to other estimates, but she saw the dog had “frozen to death on the ground.” Stodnick acknowledged that she was serving a federal prison sentence for conspiracy to distribute drugs.
Madison animal control officer Michael Reeter testified he visited the residence a month before the dog died. He said he noticed there was no food or water available. He said he talked to Garrett and told him he was in violation of animal control statutes and ordinances and told him how to remedy the situation. He said Garrett told him, “The animal is fine.”
On cross-examination from defense attorney Joseph Brown, Reeter testified that he took the body to a landfill. He testified that he did not have an autopsy conducted and that he could not say for certain how the dog died. He said that when he found the dog dead, he contacted Madison Police.
Assistant State’s Attorney Katie Bucher argued that the prosecution does not have to prove the cause of death, or even that the dog died. She argued the statute specifies certain conditions that are to be met, and Garrett did not meet them.
Garrett denied neglecting the dog. He said he and his family would take the dog on walks and play with him.
He testified that he saw Stodnick feed the dog, and the dog became sick. He said he asked her not to feed the dog because he was feeding her, and Rita was apparently being overfed. After that, the dog recovered.
“She started to get happy again. She was a happy dog,” Garrett said.
He had difficulty explaining the frozen food and water and the protruding ribs.
“I kept her at a moderate weight,” he said.
He said he took the dog out from the basement about 7:30 a.m. on the day Rita died. He kept the dog inside in the basement on cold nights, he said. He testified he was home the day the dog died but could not explain why he did not answer the door when the officer knocked.
Garrett’s wife, Tammy Franklin-Garrett, testified that her husband took good care of the dog. She said he had taken the dog to a veterinarian in late 2013 or early 2014. However, she acknowledged that she was in prison between October 2013 and after the dog died.
Asked how she knew that the dog had been taken to the vet, she responded, “Because I know.” She testified she did not see any buckets or ropes in the pen.
She denied having given a statement to police that she and others went out to feed the dog on Feb. 14, 2014. Bucher produced a statement attributed to Franklin-Garrett that said, “Rita was a picture of health, until one day, we went to the pen and she was lying dead.”
Brown argued that Stodnick’s testimony should be discounted because she is a convicted felon who was having a dispute with Garrett.
“She (Rita) was a family pet that was loved. That’s why we’re here,” Brown argued. “It was an unexpected pet death. It could have been a result of heart disease or gastrointestinal disease.”
Bucher countered, again, that the state did not have to prove cause of death, or even death. The judge said he would render a verdict in about 14 days.
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