Area family implicated in illegal dog sales

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Bangor Daily News

BANGOR - An area family may have been operating for months as unlicensed pet dealers and failing to provide proper medical care for the puppies they allegedly sold, according to state officials.

The dogs were being offered for sale, mostly for cash only, from the back of a van or SUV in local parking lots on Broadway, court documents state.

One Bangor woman described in a letter how she bought two animals for her handicapped daughter, only to have both puppies die a short time later despite extensive veterinary care.

"[People] shouldn't be allowed to hurt people like this or to let those puppies suffer like they did," Betty L. Burns stated in a court document. "They did suffer."

Washington County Sheriff Joe Tibbetts and his wife also took part in the investigation, according to court documents.

In March, the sheriff witnessed the sale of a puppy from the back of a van at a Broadway mall parking lot by a man who displayed "a very nervous demeanor," one document states.

Officials with the state Animal Welfare Program, part of the Maine Department of Agriculture, seized 23 puppies last Friday from homes in Glenburn and Orono and now are seeking permanent custody of the animals.

Five people have been listed as respondents in the state's custody motion, including four family members suspected to be involved in the sales and a breeder who sold the puppies to the family.

Donald Kelley, 54, and his wife, Marty (Hughes) Kelley, 30, of Glenburn were implicated in the alleged illegal puppy sale operation, along with Marty Kelley's brother, Michael Hughes, 35, of Orono, and their mother, Mary Hughes, 72, of Bangor, according to court documents.

Also listed in the court documents is Donna Foss, 56, of Athens, who breeds Shih Tzu dogs and who officials said sold the dogs to the Hugheses and the Kelleys. She is licensed to sell puppies and has been cooperative, Norma Worley, director of the state's Animal Welfare Program, said Thursday.

A hearing has been set for June 19. Two adult dogs taken from one of the homes are not included in the petition filed this week.

Buyers who responded to advertisements in the Bangor Daily News and Uncle Henry's were told to meet with the sellers in parking lots of gas stations and stores, including on Broadway in Bangor. There, the buyers, including undercover agents, paid cash for the puppies, some of them too young to be sold and others appearing to be lethargic and ill.

As well as claiming that the puppies were sold illegally, state officials contended that the puppies weren't well cared for before they were sold.

In documents filed Wednesday in 3rd District Court in Bangor and released Thursday, state animal welfare investigators and a veterinarian described in grim detail the poor condition of the puppies seized last week as part of an 18-month, multijurisdictional investigation.

All the puppies tested positive for coccidia and giardia, both intestinal parasites that left untreated could lead to death. Giardia also can be infectious to humans.

"Due to their extremely young age, poor body conditions, and enormous parasite burden, many of these puppies would not have survived without immediate intense veterinary treatment they received," state veterinarian Dr. Christine Fraser said in a statement included in court documents

The puppies were treated at a local veterinary clinic and are recovering at the Bangor Humane Society. The puppies ranged in age from 4 weeks to about 8 weeks, the latter the legal age at which they can be sold.

In an emotional letter included in the court documents, Betty Burns described how two puppies she had purchased appeared OK at first but quickly went downhill.

Burns wrote she paid $840 in cash and a check for two puppies she bought from the back of an SUV at the Irving station on Broadway for her 32-year-old daughter, who has been diagnosed with severe atrophy of the brain and a mitochondrial disease. Her daughter's muscles and nerves are deteriorating, and Burns said that as a mother, she wanted to do whatever she could for her daughter.

Less than a month after they were bought, one of the puppies was euthanized, and the other died. Burns paid almost $1,500 in veterinary care to keep the dogs alive.

"It killed me to tell her that both the puppies died," Burns wrote. "It broke my heart to see her cry in silence."

Undercover agents purchased a puppy from Donald Kelley on June 1, and one day later, authorities executed four simultaneous search warrants at residences in Bangor, Orono and Glenburn and also at Kelley Car and Truck Center on Broadway in Bangor.

Officials are considering filing civil charges against some of those involved.

Whether criminal charges will be filed, it's still too early to say, James Diehl, assistant district attorney in Penobscot County, said earlier this week.

"Right now, the department [of agriculture] and our office are focusing on having those dogs turned over to the Department of Agriculture permanently," Diehl said Wednesday.