ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 17, 1996 TAG: 9609170075
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Annette Jenkins may not have been the person in charge of the controversial Solid Rock Kennel where more than 30 animals were abandoned, but she's the one stuck with the bill.
Jenkins turned herself in to the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office Aug. 20. She pleaded guilty Monday to five charges of animal cruelty. An additional 26 charges were not prosecuted.
She received the maximum penalties: a $2,500 fine and 12 months in jail. General District Judge Edward Turner suspended both on condition that Jenkins make good the costs to the county and Tipton Ridge Veterinary Clinic in Pulaski in trying to save the 24 dogs and seven cats taken from the kennel.
County expenses were estimated at $250 to $300, but the clinic's costs have been more than $17,200 to treat, board and seek homes for the surviving animals. No timetable was established to pay those costs, although Turner suggested giving Jenkins at least a year.
"My main concern is that everyone be reimbursed," Turner said. "It's certainly been an ordeal for the county."
The clinic is still trying to place six of the dogs, said Dr. Randy Vaughn, one of its veterinarians. He estimated the expense of continuing to board them at $50 a day.
Jenkins and Terry Weaver, the self-styled minister who ran the kennel, had been sought by authorities since June when Pulaski County deputies obtained a search warrant and found the animals left tied, caged and without food or water.
Two dogs were found to be vicious and had to be destroyed, as were six puppies too sick to save. Vaughn said the other animals have been treated for dehydration, starvation and internal parasites; spayed or neutered; given their shots; and cleaned.
Weaver is still missing and Jenkins has said she does not know his whereabouts. Jenkins' attorney, Roy David Warburton, said if authorities find Weaver - "and I assume everybody in this room would like to do that very thing" - he should be made responsible for the expenses.
All those who testified about kennel conditions agreed that Weaver was the person in charge. He and Jenkins had been living together at her home in Draper, which Weaver used first as a church and later as part of his kennel, with animals jammed into various rooms and caged or tied outside.
Weaver claimed the kennel was part of his ministry and, as such, should be exempt from zoning and other county laws. He closed the kennel himself temporarily when an outbreak of disease killed many of the dogs he had taken in for sale, but announced plans several times to expand the operation to hundreds of animals as an alternative to the Humane Society.
Several visitors to the kennel complained to the county about conditions, but there seemed no clear authority on which office could act. One result was a committee of county veterinarians and others proposing new animal control regulations, since approved by the Board of Supervisors.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Costanzo urged Turner to consider the suffering of the animals in sentencing. When Warburton prepared to argue, Turner told him "I've already made up my mind" on sentencing.
Jenkins left her job after 8 1/2 years as a county social worker to join Weaver as his fiancee in working with the church he announced in mid-1995 and the kennel. He set up both operations at her home and surrounding property in Draper.
Warburton said his client is no longer living in the area.
Jenkins did not testify, and sat at the defense table with a handkerchief clutched in her right hand and held to her nose throughout the trial. Afterward, she talked quietly at the table with Vaughn and one of the county's animal control officers.
"You can certainly see that she is not happy" about the situation, Warburton told a reporter. "She wanted to know about the six dogs that Dr. Vaughn is trying to place and she is indeed pleased with Dr. Vaughn's efforts, as we all are."
LENGTH: Medium: 74 linesby CNB