Published: August 08, 2008 12:27 pm         

Dog kennel dispute

The daughter of an 81-year-old Morehead woman said her mom’s neighbor is breaking the law by washing dog feces into her backyard.

Kathy Trent was visiting her mother Mildred Johnson at her home at 236 Maple Lane in Pine Hills when she got a whiff of a horrific smell coming from the backyard.

She said the neighbor had cleaned his three dog kennels and washed the waste from the kennels into the yard. Trent gathered water samples that were later tested at the Morehead State University Water Testing Laboratory. The results from the kennel washing indicated fecal contamination of animal origin, according to lab manager Rita Wright.

A soil test conducted by Deborah Thomas of the Rowan County Health Department showed “there is definitely a source of fecal contamination,” Wright wrote in her findings.

Trent then contacted county officials.

“They have at least 30 dogs,” Trent said of the neighbor, Dave Caudill of 245 Poplar Lane. “(They) are breeding dogs and they are not doing anything to clean the waste from the kennels except to wash it out into their backyard.”

“As you can see, those dogs are in kennels,” Caudill said recently from his back yard, pointing to the kennels. “They are not loose or anything. These dogs are not mine; they are my girlfriend’s.”

Caudill said his girlfriend was in the process of moving to his home from Portsmouth, Ohio and had a license to operate the kennels. At the time he moved into his home in 1984, he was told the Pine Hills area did not have zoning laws. Therefore, he felt he had the right to have the dog kennels on his property, he said.

“A notice of violation of improper storage and disposal of solid waste and a letter was sent to the property owner of the dog kennels,” said Rowan County Flood Plain and Solid Waste Coordinator Bob Wells.

If the property owner does not comply with the notice or the letter, he and the county will take another form of action against Caudill. That next step would be to go to County Attorney Willie Roberts to obtain legal action, Wells said.

“They are doing everything within the law and at their disposal to correct the problem,” said Rowan County Magistrate of District 4 Ray White.

As far as cleaning, the property owner would have to agree to have the health department install a containment system for his property, Wells said.

“We are concerned because it appears to be a nuisance,” he said. “It could be a potential health hazard.”

“This is not just Mildred Johnson’s problem,” Trent said. “This bacteria is being spread to other neighbor’s yards by kids, dogs, cats, and bicycles. Then it is tracked into homes once it is in the yard or when the pets and kids enter the home,” she said.

“The neighbors can sit behind their window shades and pretend it is not their problem or they can speak up and try to get the situation eliminated. It’s everyone’s problem,” she said.

Caudill said he was not aware that the feces would cause contamination in the water system. He said he would go to the Sanitation Department to get a containment system to dispose of the feces.

Trent says Caudill has since violated the notice and called state police to file a complaint. The police officer could not be reached by press time.