A state Superior Court judge on Wednesday granted full legal custody of 12 neglected dogs seized in November from a Butler Lane home. In a 31-page decision that reviewed many of the details that led to the Nov. 29 arrest of Catherine Palmer on multiple counts of animal cruelty, Judge Kenneth B. Povodator said the conditions in which the dogs lived—“with feces and urine on the walls and floor”—and circumstances of the deaths at the residence of three puppies amounts to animal cruelty under state law. “There were too many dogs—especially given that many were transient in nature—and far too little structured care and supervision (including inadequate instructions as to what to do in the event of foreseeable problems); unsanitary conditions for tenants and dogs; inadequate attention to the grooming and medical needs of the animals as evidenced by a number of (if not especially dangerous) conditions discovered during the post-seizure exams; a somewhat cavalier attitude about the first dog to die in September (no apparent concern as to why, or whether that cause might pose a threat to other dogs),” Povodator wrote in the decision.
“The second dog to die may have been (plausibly) described as handled acceptably, but there was no attempt even to verify that the third dog also had Parvo or its prognosis, instead simply directing that the third dog be given the medicine that had been prescribed for the second dog’s diagnosed condition (Parvo)—and implicitly, see what happens.”
He added, “The pattern cannot be ignored; a persistent lack of any program or system to ensure proper care of a somewhat rotating inventory of puppies (plus 2 more permanent pet-residents), instead relying on informal arrangements with tenants; rare presence on the premises both for actual care and monitoring of care being provided by others; and a woefully inadequate response to the events in September. There was a brief effort to supplement cleaning—but when [a cleaner] quit as a result of the September dog deaths and prevailing conditions, no one appears to have been hired to replace her.
