Few Miss Humane Officer; No Increase in Animal Abuse Reports

| August 27, 2018

CLARION, Pa. (EYT) – Following the departure of Penny Dewoehrel as Clarion County Humane Officer on July 26 when Senior Judge Paul Millin issued an order revoking her appointment, life goes on in Clarion County. Few can point to an increase in reported animal cruelty cases.

At one time, Dewoehrel was an appointed Humane Officer in Mercer, Butler, Venango, Clarion, and Armstrong Counties. Now, she has only one county. Her appointments were terminated by court order in Butler, Venango, and Clarion Counties, and she resigned last week in Armstrong County.

Her complete resignation letter, including an explanation of her activities and her side of the story, was written by her attorney, Dennis M. Moskall, LLC of Pittsburgh. (Click here for letter Dewoehrel.)

ExploreClarion.com asked the Clarion Animal Hospital and local authorities if there have been any issues lately involving animal abuse.

“I didn’t even know she was gone,” said Dennyse Mehta, of the Clarion Animal Hospital, who works with small animals.

“We haven’t actually had any need for or call to involve the humane officer recently. From time to time, we do have to deal with certain situations, but there really hasn’t been anything that’s come across our office in the last few months.”

Sargeant Scott Bauer, of the Pennsylvania State Police in Clarion, said he hadn’t seen any change.

“We don’t deal with a whole lot of those issues, and honestly, we haven’t seen a change since that decision was made,” said Bauer. “We don’t typically deal with those issues unless they’re along the larger end, but none recently.”

District Attorney Mark Aaron says all law enforcement officers empowered

“All law enforcement officers are empowered to enforce animal neglect and cruelty laws,” explained Clarion County DA Mark Aaron.

Qualifications for becoming a humane officer are fairly simple.

“You have to go to the class, and you have to get the judge to appoint you,” continued Aaron.

“There was a recent change that the DA now gets a chance to make a recommendation to the judge whether or not the person gets appointed.”

“In terms of what happens when an animal is seized because of abuse or neglect, the organization that seized it, or the person keeping the animal or maintaining it, can go and file a civil action called a cost of care petition and ask the judge to order the person to pay a certain amount–whatever is reasonable–for the care and maintenance of the animal.”

“If the person fails or refuses to pay that amount for the maintenance of the animal, then the animal is automatically forfeited.  Miss Dewoehrel testified that during her entire tenure in Clarion County she never filed such a petition in Clarion County. During her testimony, she also said she had only filed one once in Mercer County.”

Munsee recalls a case with a pony and a sheep with dreadlocks

Clarion County Sheriff Rex Munsee offered a simple, direct answer when asked if he had noticed any increase in animal abuse calls to his office.

“No. We have had the same amount as before.”

“The sheriff’s office gets calls about larger animals such as horses and checks out the complaints,” explained Munsee. “It’s not like it’s our top priority, but over the years, I went so far as to look for cattle that were left out in the cold, dogs that are being mistreated – calves, cows, and horses.”

During an interview with Sheriff Munsee, he offered an unusual anecdote. The call involved a pony and rogue sheep who were friends.  

Munsee described the rogue sheep as an untrimmed sheep that was not sheared for many, many years and was basically wearing wool dreadlocks.

“The pony and the sheep were inseparable friends.  Only in Clarion County could you have this odd pairing. The pony had an unkempt mane and tail but was not in dreadlocks. When you don’t shear a sheep for probably its entire lifetime, they will twist into dreadlocks.”

Clarion Police Chief Bill Peck also confirmed that Clarion Borough hadn’t experienced a change following the departure of Dewoehrel. He stated that the borough hadn’t had any reports of animal abuse lately.

Tri-County Animal Rescue never directed cases to Dewoehrel 

Wendy Turnipseed, president of the Board of Directors of Tri-County Animal Rescue in Shippenville, confirmed that Dewoehrel was indeed the only Humane Officer in Clarion County.

“We seem to be having an increase in calls to our rescue, asking about animals that people believe that are being abused or abandoned, and all we can really do is try to direct them to the correct path toward the state police, or if it’s in Clarion Borough, we ask them to call the borough police.”

Tri-County never directed cases to Dewoehrel.

“If a humane officer does make confiscation of an animal, the animal has to go somewhere; and generally, there is a cost involved with keeping the animals because sometimes the court dates are much out and until there is a judgment, those animals must be kept safely. Many times, this relates to larger animals such as horses because of the amount of space and care required.”

Tri-County Rescue only deals with dogs and cats.

Another Tri-County source who asked to remain anonymous had other questions.

“I never thought it was legitimate running your own rescue, confiscating animals, and taking them into your own rescue and charging them.  That seems to me to be a conflict of interest.”

Rehabilitation fees, rescue fees, and adoption fees can be charged by some animal societies and can vary widely.

Dewoehrel has run her own company, All Animal Protection, Inc. (AAPI) for 25 years.

According to various websites that Dewoehrel operates, “All Animal Protection Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to protecting all animals, however large or small, from abuse and neglect. We investigate animal abuse and neglect complaints or concerns.”

Dewoehrel also claims that AAPI does not receive funding from any private, state, or federal agency and relies on fundraising activities and donations.

Judge offered strong words in ruling

In his strongly-worded opinion in Clarion, Judge Millin stated that he found Dewoehrel’s testimony not to be credible and that she may have committed perjury at the previous hearing before District Judge Amy Turk.

Much of Millin’s opinion centered around Dewoehrel’s behavior during and prior to an October 20, 2017, hearing before Judge Turk. Dewoehrel testified at that hearing that she did not know the location of the rescue group that was holding dogs she had seized. Dewoehrel also failed to advise Judge Turk or the District Attorney that three of the dogs had allegedly died either immediately before the hearing, or on the day of the hearing, as she claimed at the revocation hearing.

He informed Dewoehrel that once she was directed to return the animals by the chief law enforcement officer of the county, it was her obligation to do so. He advised her that if she disagreed with the directive and did not want to carry it out, her proper course was to resign.

Pennsylvania Humane Society guidelines

According to the website for Federated Humane Societies of Pennsylvania (pafederatedhumane.org), the appointment of humane officers is not all that difficult, but it does offer the following advice:

• In Pennsylvania, humane societies and SPCAs have the authority to employ Humane Society Police Officers who are trained and court-appointed to enforce one section of the PA Crimes Code: Section 5511, which deals with cruelty to animals.

• Act 205 of 2004 sets out the training and other requirements to be a Humane Society Police Officer in Pennsylvania. As the organization which organizes the mandatory training programs for PA Humane Officers, we receive inquiries from people who want to find out how to become an animal cop. They have seen the shows on Animal Planet, and they think that this is the career for them.

• We offer several cautions. You cannot be a freelance humane officer, working for yourself and enforcing the laws wherever you see a problem. You must work for a humane society or other similar animal welfare organization before you can become a humane officer, and you must be approved by the local county district attorney and the courts. Positions in the field are limited. Some humane officers are volunteers, others are part-time, and few are paid well enough to justify a change from another career. Humane officers cannot enforce their own personal standards of animal care but must enforce the law as it is written. That means leaving behind the dog tied to a doghouse, as long as the doghouse is sound and sturdy, or the cat that has kittens every time it comes in heat. The job requires people skills, as well as knowledge of animals.

People skills needed

Munsee also stresses people skills and invests in training about the best way to do things, even though animal abuse cases are not a major part of his office.

“My one deputy Alysa Henry and I took some training about three months ago in Harrisburg about animals and dogs,” said Munsee.  “We thought it was worth it, so we bought a dog pole that has the noose so you can grab dogs around the neck if they’re vicious. It gives yourself some room, so you don’t have to get up next to them. Any law enforcement agency that contacts us, we would certainly loan it out, or we would go out and assist them. We took this training that is not the humane society training, but there were a lot of humane society officers there.  It was just good all-around training and went over the new cruelty to animal law.  We talked about vicious dogs–how to recognize them and how to deal with them. We’re not in the business of barking dogs, because that’s not cruelty to animals.”

Munsee also said he admires the decision by Judge Millin regarding Dewoehrel.

“I believe that the words spoke by Judge Millin at the conclusion of the day and a half trial or hearing were probably as powerfully words of truth that I’ve ever heard issue forth from a bench. He truly nailed what it is to take an oath of office and what it is to betray that oath of office and do not live up to what you vowed you would do.”

Questions remain about Pennsylvania commitments about enforcing animal abuse laws

While there are some strong laws on the books, there are still questions about enforcement.

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture hires dog law officers that are issued cars, uniforms, badges, and the only thing they are permitted to do is check up on dog licenses or rabies shots.

They have no authority to investigate abuse and neglect, but the taxpayers are paying them state salaries to do just that.

The question remains: Why can’t dog law officers also investigate animal cruelty?

RELATED ARTICLES

Judge Issues Order Revoking Clarion County Humane Officer’s Powers

Clarion County Humane Officer’s Legal Battles Continue

Humane Officer Penny Dewoehrel Charged With Animal Neglect

Battle Between Clarion County Humane Officer and DA’s Office Continues

Hearing to Decide Fate of Clarion County Humane Officer


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