After an investigation by the Michigan Dept. of Agriculture, who monitors animal shelters in the state of Michigan, it was found that the Antrim County Animal Shelter has violated the requirements of maintaining the approximate weight of each dog or cat the Antrim County Animal Control Shelter acquired.

A warning letter was sent to the Animal Control Shelter Director, Sheriff Daniel Bean, on January 22, 2020. The letter further states that they have been in compliance since the investigation but any further violations of the Pet Shops, Dog Pounds and Animal Shelters Act could be subject to fines for each violation and the shelter could be found guilty of misdemeanors.

Further inquiry by Pet Friends with the Dept. of Agriculture shows that this violation arose out a case involving Frank, a black Pit Bull, who was picked up by Animal Control on May 2nd. There was no documented weight for Frank even though the shelter was in possession of weight scales at the time.

The Michigan Dept. of Agriculture initiated their investigation after receiving complaints about the Antrim County Animal Shelter concerning the housing and care of animals in their custody. Once the Michigan Dept. of Agriculture started their investigations, they initiated several unannounced visits.

The animal shelter was accused of animals not being properly fed and watered; animals not given exercise; cats not having sufficient litter; not having enough employees; shelter reports not given to the state; and issues with the intake, handling, documentation and vet/health treatment for a Pit Bull named Frank. There were also other accusations including understaffing and the shelter being closed during regular hours.

Several unannounced visits were done by the Michigan Department of Agriculture including their yearly shelter visit which they passed.

The shelter reports have been turned in so we can now report the intake and euthanasias of the animals in their care for 2018 and 2019.

In 2018, they took in 300 dogs and 317 cats, euthanized 8 dogs and 29 cats. In 2019, they took in 226 dogs and 174 cats, euthanized 11 dogs and 26 cats.

One very unsettling thing I found out about the shelter when looking through records and statements concerning this investigation is the attitude of the shelter concerning needed veterinary care for the animals. They seem to think they only need to get veterinary care if the animal’s life is threatened but that is not what Michigan law says.

State law says that animal shelters have to keep the animals in their care healthy. In a letter sent out by MDARD in 2016 entitled “Animal Care and Holding in Animal Shelters”, they say, “once a shelter accepts any animal, the shelter is responsible for its proper care including any testing, treatment, vaccination or other identification requirements for that species.”

The Penal Code specifically states that animals must receive adequate care i.e. the provision of sufficient food, water, shelter, sanitary conditions, exercise and veterinary medical attention in order to maintain an animal in a good state of health.

Animal shelters must have a licensed veterinarian that they work with (and Antrim County does) and MDARD policy states that all animal shelters will seek the services of a licensed veterinarian whenever a health hazard arises, including treatment or euthanasia of any animal in their care, custody or control that is sick, ill or injured. Once again, the laws say nothing about the animal having to have life threatening injuries in order to receive veterinary care.

The documents that came out of a FOIA from the animal shelter includes admissions by Sheriff Dan Bean and a staff member that the animals at the shelter don’t receive veterinary care unless they have a life-threatening condition. Even though the shelter didn’t receive any fines or letters of violation concerning this, they are clearly not following the state law is this is how they are operating.

Regarding a Pit Bull named Frank, there was no veterinarian care indicated in the records. The adopter who got him from the shelter was shocked at his condition.

ACO Waldrep said at the time that unless the animal’s injuries or health are life threatening, there would be no veterinarian visit.

Upon adopting Frank on May 24th, the adopter, Muriah Armstrong said, “Frank was in very bad shape when he picked him up. My assumption is that he was not well fed at the shelter and that the wounds he has were not treated. he is so skinny that he has pressure ulcers on his bony areas, and after three weeks at the shelter, they should be pretty well healed.” She said she wasn’t made aware of any types of medications that Frank was given at the shelter.

Sheriff Dan Bean said that Frank’s marks and scaring were old and others were still hearing when he came in and that he was seriously neglected before going into the shelter.

When asked about Frank, he said that not all animals are seen by a vet and that if it’s life-threatening, then the animal would see a vet – and said that was not the case in this instance (Frank).

The adopter doesn’t feel that Frank was treated properly at the shelter and with a “life threatening” or no treatment attitude at the shelter, I tend to agree – and wonder how many more animals in the shelter will have to suffer in the future from their illnesses or injuries.

Armstrong said, “When i came home from work that day and saw him, my heart broke. He stank of urine, he was very skinny, he had long scratches down the length of his back with scabs peeling off, he had pressure ulcers on his bony prominences, the worst of which were on his front paws, and his tail was missing fur and scabbed over. My boyfriend stated that when he picked up the dog from the shelter, one of the first things the staff member said to him was ‘he’s going to need food.’ I thought this was odd, as it should go without saying that a dog should need food.

He was so skinny that his eyes appeared bulging and droopy, his ribs were showing, his hip bones protruding, and the bones oat the top of his were protruding so much that there was a hollow area between those bones where water pooled when we bathed him. When we fed him, he ate so much, so fast, that he vomited. We had to give him several small amounts of food throughout the day so that he wouldn’t make himself sick. We added cooked rice to his food to help him put on wright. When he first came home, I was afraid to cuddle him too much or play with him too much because he was so frail. I was afraid of hurting him.”

Armstrong talked about nursing him back to health. “I treated the wounds on his paws with triple antibiotic ointment and wrapped them with non adhesive bandages and wrapped them up. As dogs do, he chews the badges and they didn’t stay in place. When the wounds weren’t covered, he was licking them which was making them worse. Two days after we adopted him, we borrowed a cone for him to wear so that he couldn’t reach them to lick or chew. We were then able to keep the bandages on them so they could heal.

On May 28, we weighed him on our scale at home. he weighed 56 lbs. and he looked like he had put on a little bit of weight, even in the first four days of him being in our home. After about a week, he began to eat his food at a normal pace, and would actually leave food in his dish and come back to it later.

Again on June 4th, we weighed him at home and he was 61 lbs. I don’t know how much he weighed when he was found or when we adopted him in the space of the paperwork there is nothing written under “weight” but i know that we have had him only two weeks and he is so much healthier than when we got him. His wounds are almost completely healed.”

Armstrong is definitely not happy with the way Frank was cared for at the shelter. “I’m very upset about the condition this animal was in after spending three weeks in a shelter. I do not think that he was properly cared for. I believe that he was neglected by the staff.”

Because of the complaints about the shelter not being adequately staffed, Pet Friends Magazine requested information from the county and found out that the shelter currently has two full-time employees, Inga Waldrop and Heather Belknap. They are both are full time and they take turns working on the weekends to clean the kennels and take care of the dogs and cats for four hours on Saturday and four hours on Sunday.

Inga has completed courses to be an animal control officer with her required minimum hours of course study and also has euthanasia training.

If the public wants the animal shelter to make sure the animals in their care are treated by a veterinarian when they have an injury or illness, the public is going to have to demand it – by phone calls, letters and emails.

Although you could contact the animal control officer, it is probably better to contact the Sheriff and the county commissioners (please email all of them).

Contact information is below:

Sheriff Daniel S. Bean

231 533 8627

sheriff@antrimcounty.org

Antrim County Board of Commissioners

District 1 – David Heeres

231-675-7741

Email: heeresd@antrimcounty.org

District 2 – Joshua Watrous

(231)499-2755

Email: watrousj@antrimcounty.org

District 3 – Karen Bargy

231-357-2460

Email: bargyk@antrimcounty.org

District 4 – Ed Botcher

(231) 463-4555

Email: boettchere@antrimcounty.org

District 5 – Terry VanAlstine

231-676-0563

Email: vanalstinet@antrimcounty.org

District 6 – Brenda Ricksgers

231-331-4011

Email: ricksgersb@antrimcounty.org

District 7 – Dawn LaVanway

231-536-3157

Email: lavanwayd@antrimcounty.org

District 8 – Jason Helwig

(231)587-0680

Email: helwigj@antrimcounty.org

District 9 – Christian Marcus

231-584-3200

Email: marcusc@antrimcounty.org

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Tagged: Antrim County Animal Shelter, Frank the Pit Bull, MDARD, state violation