Howard Lake ends contract with humane society; agreement with dog catcher
December 2, 2009 by Ivan Raconteur
Filed under Howard Lake, News
HOWARD LAKE, MN – The Howard Lake City Council directed Administrator Kelly Hinnenkamp to terminate the city’s agreement with dog catcher Wayne Kozitka, and notify the humane society that the city will be looking elsewhere for its animal impound services at the end of the 30-day notice period.
Hinnenkamp said the city has no formal contract with Kozitka. He is paid on a per-animal basis. She added that the humane society contract is automatically renewed each year, but can be cancelled any time with a 30-day notice. After confirming with Vetruba that the police department and the public works department can take care of picking up stray animals.
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After confirming with Vetruba that the police department and the public works department can take care of picking up stray animals.
Thats a good solution. We can’t find our own dog, but now we will be in charge
of finding and picking up everyone elses. Well at least they won’t be put to sleep, they will just die from lack of care at the treatment plant.
And how will the Howard Lake Police Department be “punished” for their actions in this? Seems like the Humane Society and dog catcher would not have ever been involved had the HLPD taken care of Felony. Serve and Protect – what a joke!
I assume the police chief and the two officers that are in charge of caring for the dog will be next in line to lose their job. The dog was not taken care of by anyone on the police department and there are several signs:
1. The dog dug its way out of the kennel to find food.
2. The dog was found skinny with bones showing, especially in the hip and backbone area.
3. The dog was seen eating birdseed at a birdfeeder.
4. The dog often barked at night.(was this hunger?)
5. If the dog was skinny from old age there should have been a trip to the veterinarian to determine if anything is wrong.
6. The public was not told he was missing for 2 weeks, maybe this is when the police finally noticed him missing.
The bottom line is ANIMAL NEGLECT. The dogcatcher was at fault for not recognizing “Felony”, if he knew about it. But the police department was at fault for a lot more. If just the dogcatcher is the only one reprimanded that doesn’t seem fair, does it? How can the officers feel justified to uphold the law when they all broke it their selves? It just doesn’t seem right for them to be able to hand out tickets or remove animals from homes that do not seem fit when they offered the same home to “Felony”. Kind of a double standard.
Wow- I agree that it is unfortunate that the ones that did their job are being punished by severing their contracts and those who should have been in charge of the situation have not been reprimanded in any way that we have yet to hear.
I find it somewhat honorable for the council and city employees to stand up for the police department but truly in this case is it justified?! Someone is at fault here- and the fault lies long before the dog catcher or the Humane Society were involved!!!!
I do not think this is the end of this- I really think someone will pull another authoritative body into the mix before this is over… PETA?
I watched the city council meeting and I did not notice the dog catcher at the meeting. I do not see how it is fair that our elected officials only heard one side of the story. I also believe that there should have been some other police department investigating this situation. To me this is a conflict of interest by only our police department following up on this. I really hope that the human society brings charges up against the police department with this whole matter. I know any other person would have some kind of a neglect charges brought against them. I also know there should be no question of ever getting another K-9 for our town.
HL council puts K-9 issue to rest??? Of course they have, this issue has drawn way more negative attention to a small town than one would want. It has obviously spurred up much debate within the city limits, not to mention around the state via news channels. I have called Howard Lake “home” my entire life, very proudly. Never before has such a topic of discussion compelled me to respond with a “Letter to the Editor”. I know we have all been told at one point in our lives, “Don’t believe everything you read”. Well, once again, that old saying proves to be a good one. As I read the Dec. 7 issue of the Herald-Journal, I could not believe what I was reading. The HL Police Chief presented a report summarizing his investigation of the events leading to the K-9 being euthanized. The part I couldn’t “believe” here was, this investigation was done by the HL Police Chief. The investigation should have been done by an “outside”, non-interest bearing, party, perhaps from a neighboring county. An “outside” investigation would have answered many, many questions. The first would have been whether or not there was ever a phone call made to the Wright County Humane Society. One party says they called, the other party says there is no record of this call. Phone records from both parties could have been obtained and the truth would have been known. The next portion of this story that was hard to “believe” was statements made by city officials at this meeting. It was stated that Council Member Mitchell was a former K-9 officer. Yet, Mitchell delivers an unbelievable, irresponsible, statement. “Working dogs are going to be thin”. What? Did I just read that? As a former K-9 officer, you must know this statement is false. Working/Police dogs are not thin; rather, they are in top physical condition. They are muscular, well fed, highly skilled officers. Their hip bones, vertebrae, and ribs, do not show through their muscle, skin, fat, & hair. I witnessed Felony many times with previous officers Sonnek, Andersen, and former Police Chief Lange. During those times, Felony was taken everywhere. He was trained daily, worked daily, praised constantly, and most importantly, treated like a fellow officer should be treated, with dignity. During these days, Felony was in top “Working Dog” condition. The next thing I can’t “believe” is a statement from City Administrator Kelly Hinnenkamp. She says “We always tell people to contact the Humane Society and we were never notified about their web site, I still don’t know what the web site is.” How quick we all are to pass the blame on to someone else and “put this issue to rest”. Guess what, I was never notified of their web site either, however, it took me 17 seconds to Google it, find it, click on it, and begin my search for animals. Ignorance is no excuse. Still two more things I can’t believe I’m reading. The Police Chief then confirms to the City that the Police Dept. & the Public Works Dept. can take care of picking up stray animals. The City has terminated their agreement with the dog catcher & the Humane Society. They want to locate all stray animals that are roaming about town, and they couldn’t even locate their own, $5,000.00, well trained Police Dog. When the dog catcher said he didn’t think he had their dog, why not take ten minutes to run over and check it out? Perhaps the dog he had was so “worn down” that it didn’t look like a Black Lab. I would think, with a dog of that stature, I would have gone to look at the dog, even if the dog catcher was sure he had a Saint Bernard. I’m not trying to inject humor here folks, but come on, Felony deserved at least that much. Everyone involved seems to be in a hurry to blame the dog catcher and the Humane Society. How long have they been serving the town of HL? How many mistakes have they actually made? How many times has their well-being been at risk while performing their duties? I suspect these same questions could be asked in reference to the HL Police Dept. and the HL City Council. In fact, the same answers may apply to all involved. HL has a good Police Dept. and a good City Council body; they have just made poor judgements & statements in regards to this investigation. There comes a time in life when you have to “man up” and “own it”. Please bring in an outside firm for an investigation, seek justice , and then “Put this issue to rest”. Make us all “Believers”.
Dana Wiegert
Dana,
You have brought up very good points- well put. I too hope the issue has not been closed, as there are too many things that have not been addressed to satisfaction in my opinion.
Perhaps the Herald will do some investigative reporting- the public deserves to know.