BUXTON, Maine — All charges have been officially dropped against John and Heidi Frasca, whose Buxton kennel was the subject of a high-profile 2007 raid amid allegations of rampant mistreatment of dogs.
While some police and animal welfare advocates have long decried the Frascas’ punishment in the case — 30 hours of community service each — as too lenient, the Federation of Maine Dog Clubs and Responsible Dog Owners lauded the development on the organization’s Facebook page Wednesday.
“They lost everything they owned because of this case, and they have experienced a living hell for the last six years,” the Federation post read, in part. “We hope this begins to give them closure and helps their family continue to heal from this horrific experience.”
The seizure of about 250 dogs from the site by law enforcement agents and humane society volunteers grabbed headlines five years ago, with police saying they had received repeated complaints about the facility and responders describing the rescue of hundreds of sickly and traumatized animals.
Medical care, shelter and treatment for the dogs, as well as more than 100 puppies born to them in the weeks after the raid, cost the state more than $450,000, according to Maine animal welfare officials.
The Frascas fled to Massachusetts after the incident, and were there in 2009 when they were brought back to Maine to face animal cruelty charges related to their Buxton site.
The case against the Frascas and their J’aime Kennel became a lightning rod in the ongoing debate in Maine over the regulation of dog breeding and the proposed ban on so-called “puppy mills.” The nearby town of Scarborough has in recent months been considering ordinance language proposed to block the retail sale of dogs from large breeders.
But on Wednesday, the York County District Attorney’s office confirmed all charges have been dropped against the Frascas, in compliance with a plea deal the couple agreed to in March 2011.
According to the agreement, the Frascas would plead guilty to five counts of animal cruelty out of the 25 levied in relation to the kennel raid, and they would each complete 30 hours of community service. In addition, if the Frascas were not charged with any other crimes for the subsequent 17 months, all charges against them reportedly would be dropped.
That 17-month period has concluded with no further infractions by the Frascas, the York County District Attorney’s office confirmed Wednesday, and all charges have been dropped.
The plea bargain was controversial at the time of its announcement, with animal welfare advocates and Buxton Police Chief Michael Grovo coming out publicly against the agreement as too lenient.
Phone calls and emails placed to Grovo, Heidi Frasca, the Federation of Maine Dog Clubs and Responsible Dog Owners, the Animal Rescue League of Greater Portland and J.P. DeGrinney, attorney for the Frascas, were not immediately returned.
THEY went through a terrible experience? Give me a break! It is a product of their own doing! I dont feel sorry for these people at all!
In the second paragraph, it says, “30 months of community service each”. I believe that should read “hours” as it states down below in the article. It was 17 months of no further charges in the plea bargain.
Considering the fact that they fled for two years and it cost cl0se to a half a million dollars to “fix” their errors, I believe 30 hours wasn’t enough.
You aren’t kidding mister. Holy moly!
I Can Hardly Believe This?????
Who Was easily bought?? This Bull Shouldn’t Fly. WTH?
Taking care of ONE litter of puppies becomes a full-time job to do PROPERLY when they begin eating solid food (about 3-4 weeks old). Socializing them, cleaning up after roughly 6 poos per day per dog, plus appropriate veterinary care (shots, worming, physical, trimming nails etc.) plus the cost of high quality puppy food which amounts to about $50 per week for an average sized litter, once they are eating three meals a day and are weaned…all adds up to a significant investment of time, money and energy. I CANNOT imagine anyone doing this on a large scale and being CAPABLE of doing right by the multiple litters and their parents! These people are NOT the ones that suffered. They were held accountable for their actions and although the consequence leaves most of us shaking our heads that this is supposed to be “justice”, at least it cost them in other ways. Why were they not required to pay the half million dollar bill caring for their out of control breeding program/puppy mill cost taxpayers?! At the very least, I hope part of their plea deal was to never be able to ramp up again and produce animals without being able to ensure they are properly cared for!
One would hope they cannot have ANY animals in the future. Good grief!
This is just so screwed up. They are not made to pay back the costs that were incurred during the RESCUE of the animals that NEEDED the care that OTHERS had to drop everything to give? Unbelievable. I really can’t wait to move out of this state that really has it’s head up it’s armpit. I’m ashamed that I live in a state that would allow this to happen.
If the Federation of Maine Dog Clubs and Responsible Dog Owners is lauding this, it’s just one more reason to regret this decision. This group thinks that 25000 dogs per year (yes) are imported into Maine from other states, and that the local shelters are killing Maine dogs to make room for these vast numbers. They also believe that puppy mills should be allowed in the state. And that all animal welfare people (rescues and shelters) want to eliminate pets completely. This is the truth, it’s all on their facebook page.
Personally, until Maine law gets some teeth in it, I’m completely disappointed in the results of animal cruelty cases.
No sympathy for the Frasca’s from me either. I am troubled that the state of Maine values the health and welfare of animals so little. These people made their living off the backs of dogs that were not taken care of properly. Not to mention creating more dogs in a already grossly over populated environment. At the very least they should have to repay the state the 450,000.00 it spent to right their wrongs, banned from ever owning another animal again, with some jail time added in for good measure. Thirty hours of community service is a joke.
Am I missing something here? The Federation of Maine Dog Clubs and Responsible Dog Owners should be anything but supportive of the charges being dropped. The Frascas do not sound like responsible dog owners to me. Or is the name of the group ironic?
Unfortunately, the people who conduct these raids are often dishonest and the public never know all the facts. These people were likely coerced into pleading guilty to something just to put an end to their torment. I’ve been studying up on these things and now taken the position that I have to see the abuse with my own eyes to believe it. There’s something wrong with people being able to come to someone’s home and take away the animals, then go ahead and dispose of them before a trial can be held to prove if anything wrong really happened.
In retrospect, this case is one where activists were permitted to play at law enforcement. Worse yet, the “evidence” was largely a product of interpretation by Dr. Melinda Merck who was criticized in open court by a Judge who strongly questioned her credibility and veracity, nearly accusing her of perjury in a court in her home state after she had been found to have bungled multiple cases. While the animal rights activist community has given Dr. Merck some amount of “cover” due to the number of cases that hang upon her credibility (or lack thereof), she is largely persona non grata within those circles.
As usual, the owners’ home was invaded by untrained activists who were given free reign to trample the owners’ rights and get their unfounded allegations spewed across the media which ate it up as the wondrous sensationalized hate mongering so common in these cases. As usual, there’s a law enforcement officer more than willing to jump on the bandwagon to support the allegations made by activists despite have NO knowledge of animal care.
Like any good witch hunt, once begun there can be no simple resolution. The State has taken property and begun to spend huge amounts to tend that property so the State must save face with SOME kind of win else face legal consequences for a wrongful taking of property. With time and added losses for the owners now pursued with the full force of the State on a true witch hunt, the state will eventually get the tiny bit it needs to claim “victory”; in this case, a nominal plea bargain legally coerced from the defendants.
Among the true parties to this case, the defendants and the State, there were no winners. The true owners of the animals lost their animals, their real estate, and their lives and livelihoods; were beaten down and coerced into an agreement so they could begin to move forward which the State was not about to allow without some cover for its own atrocities. The State spent over $450,000 on care of the dogs along and most certainly spent thousands more covering its backside upon finding the multitude of errors made by the “law enforcement” team largely comprised of lay activists who don’t know diddly about investigating a case or collecting evidence but who were permitted to run rampant upon the owners’ property and thieve their animals in broad daylight backed by a badge they aren’t qualified to carry themselves.
The animals lost too. They almost always do in these cases. They were first trapped in the midst of a war zone, surrounded by activists who have little understanding of animal care beyond perhaps that provided to single pampered pets accustomed to their high stress homes. The animals were swarmed and traumatized, moved and shuffled around and traumatized some more, subjected to handling by multiple strangers and to medical care without regard to their individual medical history which are always unknown to the activists who act without concern for the animals but only their own goals.
It is the activists who “won”. They got their PR stage and raked in cash. They got dogs and, most importantly, PUPPIES. They got merchandise into which they invested virtually nothing but got to use for advertising and raking in more money and then to sell for that last little bit of income they can eke out of them. Don’t forget for a moment the incredibly high and adrenaline rushes from getting to play at law enforcement without training and without the obligations that come with such a job. No, they got to simply control and take from citizens who had no wherewithal to fight back against their Army of boots on the ground, their soldiers and masters of PR and social media.
And the media “won” too. Even upon the entry of a settlement, the media chose to use the sensational and wholly unsupported claims of the activists last year. No matter that there are real humans who are harmed by these unfounded allegations for which no evidence was presented in a trial or upon which no fact finder ever ruled. The media goes even further to say that all the dogs found new homes. Yet another mere claim by the activists who were simply given the property and allowed to dispose of the dogs as they saw fit without accountability to anyone. The media simply chooses to gobble up whatever the activists feed them and turns to feed it to a public more than ready to eat it up and join the witch hunt even when the State has decided to dampen the flames and rightfully so that the flames should be dampened.
The reality is that these dogs were wrongfully taken. The defendants were wrongfully prosecuted by the State and wrongfully persecuted by the activists, law enforcement and the public. This is not rescue. This is not justice.
It is a sad commentary on our society, and on the State of Maine’s reputation, that the animal abuse charges against the Buxton couple were dropped. This sets the example for society’s young: do barbaric, uncaring acts, to those who cannot fight back. I once lived in Maine, and now I am glad I am longer a resident. If the Buxton’s have had financial difficulties and other repercussions as a result of their cruel acts towards animals, it was of their own making. Puppy mill abuse is rampant in this country, and apparently alive and well in Maine.
Corection to my comment below:” I once lived in Maine, and now I am glad I am no longer a resident.”