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By RUSTY DENNEN
During his trial yesterday on 29 counts of animal cruelty, Robert Clifton Artois choked back tears, telling the court, "They're not just my animals. I call them my furries. They were part of my family."
But after hearing from witnesses--including two veterinarians--and seeing page after page of pictures of flea-bitten and parasite-infested dogs taken in Artois' Triangle home, Prince William General District Court Judge Peter Steketee wasn't impressed by the defendant's show of emotion.
"Each one of these animals was in desperate condition, conditions you allowed to exist," Steketee said to Artois, the operator of Black Wolf Rescue on Fuller Heights Road. Two of the 29 dogs died shortly after being rescued by county animal control officers.
Artois had more than twice the number of animals allowed under county and federal permits. "You were overwhelmed. You should have done something. And yet you abandoned those animals," Steketee said.
After finding Artois guilty on all counts, the judge ordered a presentencing report. He asked that the gaunt dark-haired man clad in a green jail jumpsuit undergo a psychiatric evaluation. He also ordered the dogs permanently removed from Artois' control to county authorities and that Artois be barred for life from owning companion animals.
He faces up to a year in jail and/or a $2,500 fine on each of the 29 counts.
Over the past few years, Artois has had several run-ins with the county's animal control department over conditions in his combination kennel/wolf-hybrid rescue operation. His county kennel license, and a federal license for wolf hybrids allowed him to keep up to 12 animals.
Last October, after neighbors' complaints about odors emanating from the fenced property and house, authorities warned Artois about the condition of his dogs and his property.
Another search of the property April 18 led to the latest charges.
Prosecutor Sandra R. Sylvester called half a dozen witnesses who testified that the animals in Artois' care had been abandoned, in her words, "in horrible squalor." One dog had pus oozing from an open sore on its back; another's fur was matted with feces.
Dr. Alison Mayo, a veterinarian who volunteers for the Prince William animal control office, testified that most of the animals she examined were malnourished and infested with parasites such as fleas, whip worms and round worms.
One dog, a Labrador retriever named Bear had lost most of its hair.
"This dog may never grow normal hair again," she said, but it's doing better and gaining weight now that it is getting proper care and food at the county facility.
Another dog, Shadow, was pregnant when she was taken from Artois' property. Soon after, she delivered 12 puppies. Seven of them died, probably from the effects of the parasites, Mayo said.
Dr. Karl Magura, a state diagnostic veterinarian performed an autopsy on the two dead adult dogs--one of them a German shepherd.
"The shepherd died of malnutrition," he said, noting that the dog, an adult male, weighed only 54 pounds. "It should easily weigh 100 pounds."
Cheryl Grenier, an acquaintance of Artois' and an occasional caregiver, was the first to see the condition of the animals in the house, and who called authorities to investigate.
Artois was jailed in Alexandria April 13 on an unrelated matter when he called her a few days before the county intervened.
She testified that Artois called her from jail, asking her to feed and water his dogs. Artois later testified that he hadn't expected to be in jail for more than a day or two and expected to return home in time to take care of them.
"When I first walked into the house I was in a state of shock," Grenier said. "There were no water dishes or food bowls. Animals were in crates, and running around the house."
She went to several pet-supply stores to buy food and water bottles and returned the next morning when she found one dog dead. Grenier said she and her husband attempted to clean the cages, but it was overwhelming.
Artois called her again that day from jail, saying that he wasn't getting out when he expected, she said. So she called authorities.
"I've never seen anything like that before, and I hope I never do again," Grenier said.
On cross examination by defense attorney Timothy Ward, Grenier said she'd known Artois for about a year and a half and had purchased two puppies from him, and brought dog food over occasionally. She said Artois was always looking for food and supplies, saying his Web site, and donations were not bringing in enough money.
On her occasional visits, "He never let me in the house," she said.
Artois admitted to the prosecutor that he hid animals prior to routine inspections.
In the house, Lorie Shetley, deputy animal control officer, said she found dogs "in crates and cages filled with feces, urine" and what was left of newspaper bedding "6 to 8 inches deep" in some of the cages. Outside in the fenced yard, where the hybrids are supposed to be contained in 100-square-foot enclosures, "they were in cages, barely big enough to turn around in."
Since the dogs were confiscated six weeks ago, Shetley said, the 27 gained a total of 203 pounds.
Ward argued that Artois had left food and water for the dogs before he left, suggesting that while Artois may have neglected the animals, it was not intentional, and therefore not a criminal offense.
Artois, who took the stand in his own defense, said he began Black Wolf Rescue after meeting actor Robert Redford at a wolf-rescue conference out west in 1992.
Whatever his intentions, prosecutor Sylvester put the blame squarely on his shoulders. "Each and every one of these animals suffered from cruel treatment."
Artois' case has drawn attention from other quarters: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wrote a letter to the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, suggesting that Artois suffers from animal hoarding--a disorder in which people obsessively accumulate animals--and that he be barred from owning animals in the future.
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