LITTLETON, Maine — Children also were removed from a farmhouse deemed unfit for the more than 60 animals seized by the state earlier this month, according to court documents filed in connection with the seizure.
State animal welfare agents on Jan. 13 removed 12 cats and 50 dogs that had been living in the home, which had animal feces smeared up the wall and little water or heat provided for the animals, according to an affidavit filed in connection with a warrant to search the Framingham Road residence of John and Dawn Hulstrunk.
The Hulstrunks since have been summoned on one count each of misdemeanor animal cruelty, according to officials.
The only mention of children being removed from the home appears in one paragraph of the six-page affidavit filed in Houlton District Court by Doug Radziewicz, district humane agent for the Maine Department of Agriculture’s Animal Welfare Program.
Four days before the animals were seized, a Maine Department of Health and Human Services caseworker who had been working with the Hulstrunk family visited the home and “the children were removed from the home due to dire conditions of the home,” Radziewicz states in the affidavit
A witness statement submitted to the Animal Welfare Program reported that when the person went into the home on Jan. 9, there was no heat source, feces were smeared on the wall and covered the floors, and the dogs ate ice from the witness’s boots because of their extreme thirst.
The affidavit filed by the animal welfare agent does not identify the children or state how many were living in the home.
No other documents or charges have been filed in connection with the case.
Kurt Kafferlin, assistant district attorney for Aroostook County, said Tuesday it will take several weeks for his office to review reports from the state’s animal welfare office before determining whether additional charges will be filed against the couple, who are scheduled to make initial appearances in court on Feb. 18.
Kafferlin said Tuesday he could not comment on whether any charges would be filed in connection with the children because his office was not involved in that part of the case. Efforts to reach someone for comment at the Maine Department of Health and Human Services were unsuccessful Tuesday; government offices were closed because of the snowstorm.
Kafferlin said he did not believe the Hulstrunks had hired a lawyer.
The seizure of the dogs and cats, as well as several chickens and four goats found in the yard, was the culmination of a two-year investigation into alleged illegal breeding and selling of dogs at the Framingham Road home, according to Liam Hughes, director of the state’s Animal Welfare Program.
When animal welfare agents and deputies with the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the home about 11 a.m. Jan. 13, Hughes said they found a collection of dogs, cats, chickens and goats living in conditions he described as “not appropriate” for the animals.
Hughes said Monday the couple “had been working with us, and they had reduced the number of some of the animals and had gotten some of the pets spayed and neutered. But the circumstances for the animals had deteriorated to a point over time that we just had to step in.”
Because there were too many animals seized for any single shelter to accept, they were dispersed between Central Aroostook Humane Society, Houlton Humane Society, Sissy’s Livestock Rescue in Oakland, Bangor Humane Society, Coastal Humane Society in Brunswick, Greater Androscoggin Humane Society, Kennebec Valley Humane Society, Animal Refuge of Greater Portland and Animal Welfare Society in Kennebunk.
Hughes said all the animals were removed from the premises.
He said the animals were signed over to the shelters last week, making the pets available for adoption, though most still were undergoing behavioral and medical evaluations.
The dogs taken included border collie and German shepherd mixes and possible wolf hybrids, as well as smaller breeds.
Radziewicz said in his affidavit he had asked Dawn Hulstrunk on three separate occasions whether she and her husband would be interested in surrendering any of the animals to the Animal Welfare Program, but she refused.