New Mat-Su board to review kennel rules in wake of Caswell dog deaths

What you need to know:

• A new temporary borough advisory board made up of mushers and kennel owners will recommend updates to kennel rules and oversight after 25 dogs were found dead near Caswell Lakes this spring.
• The board will review the borough’s kennel laws, regulations and enforcement policies and prepare a report recommending updates by mid-December.
• The Mat-Su Assembly unanimously approved the board. Independent and internal investigations into the borough’s handling of the Caswell dog deaths are expected to be released by mid-June, Borough Manager Mike Brown said Tuesday.

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PALMER — A new temporary advisory committee made up of Mat-Su mushers and dog kennel owners is tasked with recommending how the Matanuska-Susitna Borough should update kennel rules and oversight following the deaths of 25 dogs on a property near Caswell this spring.

The Assembly unanimously approved the new five-member Board for Advisory Review of Kennel Standards, or BARKS, during a regular meeting Tuesday.

Residents and kennel owners in the Caswell Lakes area found the dead dogs in April after what they said were months of calls to Mat-Su animal enforcement officials requesting action over unsafe conditions on the property. One live dog was rescued and turned over to borough animal control.

The board is intended to create accountability and guide policy updates without triggering government overreach, said Assembly member Maxwell Sumner, who co-sponsored the measure with Assembly members Dmitri Fonov and Ron Bernier.

“If mushers and kennel owners had been left to their own devices, we would have had some Western justice, and this situation wouldn’t have happened. It was a failure of the government,” he said. “What I don’t want to see is the government failing these folks, this community, and then the government enacting a bunch of extra onerous restrictions and ordinances and layers of government to fix the issue that they created.”

Willow resident Misty Rehder, who owned the dogs, was arrested by Alaska State Troopers on April 21 and charged with 26 counts of felony cruelty to animals. Her bail was set at $25,000, and she remains in custody at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center, according to court documents.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for June 1, with a trial set for early July.

Mat-Su Borough Manager Mike Brown last month ordered independent and internal reviews of how animal control staff handled complaints regarding Rehder’s property. The results of those investigations are expected to be released in mid-June, Brown said Tuesday.

The new citizen board will review those reports, along with the borough’s kennel laws, regulations, and enforcement policies, and prepare a report recommending updates by mid-December, according to the measure approved Tuesday.

Prospective board members must submit applications to borough Mayor Edna DeVries, with preference given to mushers and kennel owners, the measure states.

An amendment added to the board plan during debate Tuesday allows DeVries to appoint an assembly member as a nonvoting member after the borough investigations are finished and released to the public.

Assembly member Dee McKee said she wants to serve on the board to represent borough residents who elected her and to provide accountability. DeVries said she is concerned Assembly involvement could be seen as a conflict, particularly if a member joins while the internal investigations are ongoing.

“The public’s going to say you are protecting yourself, you can bet on that,” she said during the meeting. “That's exactly what they would say — ‘they're putting people on the board to protect the assembly.’”

The Assembly voted 6-1 to allow the addition of an Assembly member after the investigations are complete, with Bernier voting no.

The new temporary kennel advisory board is independent of a permanent Mat-Su animal control board that advises the Assembly on animal care and regulation issues when requested. 

That board also serves as a quasi-judicial panel and rules on dangerous animal cases, including whether certain animals must be euthanized, according to borough code.

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com