Willow, Alaska – Last week, over two dozen dead sled dogs were found at property in the Caswell Lakes area. According to reports, the husky mixes likely starved to death after being abandoned. Tragically, the local animal control agency had been repeatedly warned about problems on the property, reported to be a dog-sledding kennel called Walker’s Wild Ride, but nobody took action, and the dogs died without care.
One person has been arrested since the grim discovery. Misty Rehder, 35, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with 26 counts of animal cruelty. Area mushers who were familiar with the situation say that the neglect was known months ago, and the officials at Mat-Su Animal Control were notified but did not take action. One good Samaritan claims to have attempted to bring food and straw but claims she was turned away by an animal control officer.
Many of the dogs on the property were chained to plastic barrels, or un-insulated wooden structures – they had no way to escape their slow, painful demise.
A local musher by the name of Mike Dolinar visited the property and found dogs frozen to death in their paltry shelters. Dolinar found one dog who had beaten the odds – that dog, Woody, was rushed to a veterinarian for care.
The local animal control agency has stated they are investigating the situation. Locals are calling for accountability.
independent investigations and reporting.
71 Comments
Accountability for ALL involved could start to make a difference!
The mushers and AC are a load of motherfuckers, nothing less. Burn in hell.
Dogs need homes not to be used in this way. Animal control should be shot as well as owners.
This is animal control at its best. I see posts all over the country that say the same about ac in their community. They are a joke. Animals have no chance. there are no laws to protect them so people know they can abuse them and torture or kill them and there’s no consequence. Its unreal how many sub humans there are that torture animals and have no feeling about it. they are criminals and have nothing inside. Laws have to change and people have to be held accountable. im sick to death of this stuff going on.
This is animal control at its best. I see posts all over the country that say the same about ac in their community. They are a joke. Animals have no chance. there are no laws to protect them so people know they can abuse them and torture or kill them and there’s no consequence. Its unreal how many sub humans there are that torture animals and have no feeling about it. they are criminals and have nothing inside. Laws have to change and people have to be held accountable. im sick to death of this stuff going on.
This is animal control at its best. I see posts all over the country that say the same about ac in their community. They are a joke. Animals have no chance. there are no laws to protect them so people know they can abuse them and torture or kill them and there’s no consequence. Its unreal how many sub humans there are that torture animals and have no feeling about it. they are criminals and have nothing inside. Laws have to change and people have to be held accountable. im sick to death of this stuff going on.
The same thing should happen to the mushers and the idiotic government garbage that did nothing. They aren’t worth the air they are using.
Everyone in that community needs to rise up in arms and DEMAND justice for those poor horrifically abused dogs. Animal Control should be fired and prosecuted for the NOTHING that they did when they KNEW there was an ongoing problem situation there. Frankly, they should be harnessed to a sled like the dogs and made to run to death.
TOO MANY PEOPLE let those dogs down – now those people need to pay. It’s up to the town to make sure this happens.
All the animal control people should be fired immediately and the owners should be locked up for a year for each dog that died. zero excuses. This should never happen! people who are this lazy should not be employed to protect lives.
Absolutely.
I hate every single human who knew about this and did absolutely Nothing!
I AM SORRY, BUT I JUST KEEP SEEING THIS OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER, WHEN… WHEN WILL ALL OF THIS STOP, WHEN WILL THE LAW FINALLY GIVE A SH@#$. HOW ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE FOR ANY OF THESE ANIMALS, EVERYWHERE WHO ARE STARVED, BEATEN, NEGLECTED, COOKED – UNREAL… ABUSED UNLOVED ETC ETC ETC…. T H I S H A S T O S T O P – COME ON WORLD, SOMEHOW WE NEED TO FIGURE THIS OUT….. GRRRRRR Makes smoke come out my ears
This happens year after year and nothing ever changes!!!! People who cause this cruelty and the people who ignore it should be behind bars!
“—Control Officers”–What a joke!!! The only thing they controlled was not pissing their pants when they found out about the way these poor dogs died and they should have done something to prevent this. LAZY asses.
Stop using living beings as vehicles! We all know this is cruelty. These dogs suffer year after year. Ban this now
All involved are pathetic. They should be chained and starved so they know how those innocent dogs felt. Bless them all as they deserved so much better from this world. I hope Woody recovers and has a wonderful life filled with compassion and love.
The scumbag responsible for this heinous crime must be found and punished – in fact, let the bastard starve to death in prison.
Dog sledding is nothing but animal abuse and needs to be banned.
this is absolutely disgraceful. when will the government stop taking money from the taxpayers and actually do their job. they should be sued by the tax payers!!!!
this is absolutely disgraceful. when will the government stop taking money from the taxpayers and actually do their job. they should be sued by the tax payers!!!!
Animal Control officers need to go to prison. The people in the surrounding areas who knew what was going on are fucking poor excuses of human beings. The asshole who owned the place needs to die.
Why do do called “animal control officers” willingly let animals die for the sake of “rules.” It happens in way too many places. A gang of people should have stormed the place and at least freed the dogs so they would have a chance. Those AC officers should be tied up in the woods and left to starve to death!
Why do do called “animal control officers” willingly let animals die for the sake of “rules.” It happens in way too many places. A gang of people should have stormed the place and at least freed the dogs so they would have a chance. Those AC officers should be tied up in the woods and left to starve to death!
Seems to me the AC officers who failed these dogs should be held liable as well and put in prison and fined, losing their jobs and never to be in AC again.
Completely agree!
agreed!! and have to give their salary back to the tax payers because they didn’t earn it!!!!
Absolutely disgraceful in the failure of Willow Alaska animal control after repeated notifications of the neglect. They agency’s management needs to clean house. IMHO the Willow Animal Control is just as responsible as the pos that left those helpless dogs to starve. I hope they have nightmares about what they failed to protect.