Police: Owner of controversial KY shelter improperly had dead dogs and cats in freezers
State police seized 90 dogs from a controversial shelter in Elliott County Saturday and charged the owner with improper disposal of five dogs and seven cats found in freezers at the facility.
The 12 charges against Randy Skaggs, 68, are misdemeanors. Police cited him but did not arrest him.
Skaggs said in an interview with the Herald-Leader that he had neglected to bury the animals, in part because of the workload of operating the facility with little help at times, but said he didn’t intentionally do anything wrong.
“I’ve not intentionally done anything except try to help these animals,” Skaggs said Sunday. “Everyone makes mistakes, and I’ve made plenty of’m.”
Skaggs has operated the facility under a non-profit organization called the Trixie Foundation since 1990. It is named for one of his dogs that died.
The foundation does not euthanize animals and does not adopt them out. His practices don’t square with recommendations from some national animal-welfare groups.
Critics have long complained that Skaggs doesn’t provide adequate health care or properly control fleas, ticks and worms, and that the facility is nasty and overcrowded.
The original facility often had more than 100 dogs inside a chain-link enclosure covering about two muddy acres. One Facebook page dedicated to stopping the foundation refers to it as a “gulag.”
But Skaggs argues that he does make sure the animals get medical care when needed, and that he has provided care and shelter for hundreds of animals, saving them from abandonment, hunger and death in a region where many county-run shelters were substandard when he started his work.
He moved most of the animals last fall to a new facility on a hill near the original location, though there were still a few dogs at the old spot on Saturday.
Police charged Skaggs in March 2018 with 179 counts of second-degree cruelty to animals and 179 counts of failing to get animals at the facility vaccinated against rabies, all misdemeanors.
The definitions of cruelty in the law cited in that case include failing to provide adequate food, water, space or medical care.
Police took only a few of the dogs at that time.
Skaggs pleaded not guilty. The case, which has been continued several times, is set for trial in June.
Skaggs believes critics pushed police to raid his facility on Saturday in hopes of getting him to accept a guilty plea.
The citation in the new case says Kentucky State Police had received numerous complaints about Skaggs and the Trixie Foundation, most recently on April 30, and obtained a search warrant.
State police said in a news release after the search that they seized 90 dogs “to the poor living conditions and for unsatisfactory care given to the animals.”
The release also indicated Skaggs could face more charges after police examine veterinary records.
Animal-welfare volunteers went with police to the foundation to seize the dogs, including Melissa Bowman, head of a group called Kentuckians Vote for Animals.
Bowman said the conditions at the new site appeared to be better than at the Trixie Foundation’s original location, but she still saw it as a “bad situation.”
The dogs did not appear to be underfed, but they were dirty and had fleas, and some had tumors, Bowman said.
“Mainly a lot of medical neglect,” she said.
Some dogs had to be tranquilized before volunteers could take them, and a veterinarian euthanized one dog at the facility.
Skaggs said Sunday that a staffer had seen a Facebook post from a critic of Skaggs’ indicating more were euthanized.
Skaggs said he intends to fight all the charges against him.
He contacted an official with the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky on Sunday for help.
“I haven’t done anything wrong. I’ve done a lot of things right,” he said.
