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by Luther Dorr
After a half-hour public hearing Tuesday morning Mille Lacs County commissioners unanimously revoked the license of a dog kennel located in Bogus Brook Township.
The board had issued a permit, with conditions, on Sept. 1 to Kathy Johnson.
One of the conditions was to not have more than five dogs on the premises located east of Pease.
There were 25 dogs at the site on Sept. 1 and Johnson was given until Sept. 11 to cut the number to five.
It was noted at the county board’s Oct. 6 meeting that there were still well beyond five dogs and the board also heard a report of one of Johnson’s personal dogs attacking a neighbor’s dog and causing extensive damage.
At the board’s Oct. 20 meeting the board added a condition to the license saying that failure to comply with the conditions of the license would result in revocation, prosecution and removal of the dogs.
Michele McPherson, director of the county’s Land Services department, reported to commissioners at their meeting Tuesday that there were still 13 dogs on the site, as of Oct. 19, and that there were other new violations.
During the public hearing Sharon Hanenburg, a neighbor to the kennel site, reported that her dog had sustained serious injuries when attacked by Johnson’s personal dog and that a veterinarian’s bill of $1,000 had followed.
She told commissioners that Johnson had said she would pay the bill but hadn’t.
“What if it had been two little kids [that had been attacked]?”Hanenburg asked. “Where is the justice?”
Scott Lussier, who said he owns the land on which Johnson’s kennel is located, said Johnson had set up a payment plan at the vet clinic, a report Hanenburg disputed.
Lussier said Johnson had two of her dogs “put down” after the incident, including the one that Hanenburg said attacked her dog.
He said the Johnson dog and the Hanenburg dog just didn’t get along, that Johnson wasn’t making much money running a rescue shelter, and that she had been working on cutting down the number of dogs on the property.
Lussier reported that Johnson has gotten grants to fence the entire property and that would end up keeping dogs from running loose.
There was testimony from other neighbors, as well as Johnson and Lynn Gregory, an advocate for Johnson. Johnson asking if the fencing, as well as proof of insurance, would be enough to keep the license from being revoked.
Commissioner Roger Tellinghuisen, in whose district the kennel is located, told fellow commissioners it was time to do something.
“It’s been long enough,” he said. “It can’t go on like this.”
Assistant county attorney Thomas Lopez then answered some legal questions before Tellinghuisen made a motion to revoke the license, with commissioner Phil Peterson seconding.
Land Services Director McPherson said her office would proceed, civilly and criminally, to remove the dogs.
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