01/22/2008

from the Kennebec Journal
PROPANE NO QUICK FIX
AUGUSTA Penny saved is a stamp forever Cost to mail regular letter rises 1 cent on Monday
CENTRAL MAINE Area residents' scrap metal rising to top of heap
Dunn celebrates 35 years as fire chief
Maranacook set for budget tests
FARMINGDALE NEVER FORGET
HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL ROUNDUP: Rankin sparks Black Bears
Morang stymies Bulldogs in only 2nd varsity start
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Kennebec Journal
from the Morning Sentinel
Auctioneer sues woman over $300,000 Internet purchase
Prison time awaits
Waterville writer wins this year's Young Lions Fiction Award
Rising prices for scrap metal attract sellers to local facility
Colby seniors celebrate end of classes
JUDGES CHOOSE YOUTH OF YEAR Gary Fearon a 17-year-old member of Penobscot Nation Boys & Girls Club, a satellite unit of Waterville Area Boys & Girls Club
Biathlon might skip out on Fort Kent
HUSKIES COLLECT 1ST WIN
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
Norma Worley, director of the Animal Welfare Program, which is part of Maine's Department of Agriculture, said in the 26 years she has worked for the department, the scene she witnessed at Fern Clark's Somerville house was one of the worst, based primarily on the physical state of the animals.
"I guess the word I'm looking for is 'horrific,'" Worley said Monday. "Just the sight of the animals' conditions and the odor. I mean, 12 of (the dogs) had to go into emergency care right away."
State workers, with assistance from the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office, removed 67 dogs -- two of them dead -- four cats, and a cockatiel from the residence Saturday. The process, including transporting the animals, took the crew 19 hours, Worley said. The animals were taken to the Lincoln County Animal Shelter in Boothbay Harbor and to a facility in Portland.
Worley said the incident is being treated as a criminal investigation. She said Clark could face charges of felony aggravated cruelty.
Clark had been a licensed breeder for several years, operating under the business name Star Fire Star, Worley said. But she had not renewed her license in recent years.
"We have tried several times to get in the house, but were denied because we didn't have the evidence we needed until last week," Worley said.
Amy Moolic, a 32-year-old Dracut, Mass., woman, inadvertently provided the evidence Maine needed to obtain a search warrant.
Moolic was arrested Wednesday in Salem, N.H., with 22 dogs in her vehicle, three of them deceased. Authorities from the Salem Police Department reported that Moolic insisted she had rescued 12 of the animals from a kennel in Somerville, Maine.
It was enough, Worley said, for law enforcement and state officials to link Moolic to Clark.
Clark lives in a rural neighborhood on Hewett Road just off Route 17.
The home, which has a half-shingled addition that is almost completely exposed from the front, has a tattered couch in the front yard and multiple garbage bags piled up just off the driveway.
Of the few Hewett Road residents at their homes on Monday morning, some said they did not personally know Clark; others declined to comment.
When asked for comment, a man who answered the phone at a number listed for Clark's residence said, "I don't think that's going to happen."
No one answered the door at the residence Monday morning.
The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office referred all questions to state officials.
Worley said her agency will present the necessary paperwork to Lincoln County District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau by the end of this week or beginning of next week.





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