A Hancock County man already banned for life from raising livestock is now accused of neglecting an injured German shepherd with an infected leg.
Marc Calcia, 53, of Sorrento, and his wife, 46-year-old Pam Calcia, were issued a summons by county sheriff’s deputies at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday for failure to provide necessary medical attention to an animal, a Class D crime, said Liam Hughes, director of the Animal Welfare Program at the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.
The dog had an injured leg that was badly infected. Animal Welfare Program investigators received a tip about the dog and took her into custody before getting her treatment at an undisclosed facility, Hughes said.
Calcia, who delivers papers for the Bangor Daily News, said he believed that the dog, whom he identified as a German shepherd named Lexy, was well cared for. He said he was following a veterinarian’s instructions for the dog’s care.
“We were trying to get her healed up,” Calcia said Friday.
Calcia was last cited by staff from the state Animal Welfare Program in January, when they brought 105 animals — 75 chickens, 10 ducks, 15 rabbits and five pigs — to shelters for treatment after they allegedly found them in filthy conditions at Calcia’s farm.
Superior Court Justice Bruce Mallonee ordered the lifetime livestock ban later that month, saying that Calcia had violated an April 2018 deferred disposition agreement that required him to clean up the animals’ living conditions. The ban applies to Calcia and his address, Hughes said. It doesn’t apply to his wife.
That ruling was expected to cap years of contention between Calcia and Animal Welfare Program agents who twice raided his Fuller Road farm in December 2017, seizing 114 animals, including sheep, pigs, goats, calves, poultry and rabbits that they alleged were living in mud and feces.
The state’s Animal Welfare Program director said in 2017 that the animals “had inhumane, unclean living conditions,” that they “were not given proper opportunity to remove themselves from their own filth” and that “they had no clean, dry places to lie down in.”
Calcia has been issued at least 13 court summonses alleging animal cruelty since August 2017, and an agent had been inspecting Calcia’s farm on average every two weeks over the last two years, Hughes has said.
The Calcias are due in Hancock County Unified Criminal Court on June 4, Hughes said.
A Class D crime carries a maximum penalty of 364 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.