Minnesota dog breeders charged with starving German shepherds

Two southeast Minnesota dog breeders are accused of starving and torturing the German shepherds they raise after law enforcement removed the canines from their farm last month.

Donald Anderson, 79, and Elham Alayyoub, 45, were charged Monday in Fillmore County with nine misdemeanor counts of mistreatment of animals ranging from animal cruelty to torturing and depriving them of food and shelter.

Criminal complaints allege Anderson and Alayyoub kept their dogs in filthy conditions and didn’t feed them enough. Veterinarians at the Animal Humane Society of Golden Valley found malnutrition in all 15 surviving dogs.

Court records show Anderson and Alayyoub in early February contacted the Fillmore County Sheriff’s Office, concerned someone was poisoning their dogs. A dog had unexpectedly died on the property; another dog had died under similar circumstances in November.

Anderson and Alayyoub took the dog’s body to University of Minnesota veterinarians. Court records show a U vet found the German shepherd was severely underweight and dehydrated when it died. The dog’s cause of death was due to heart issues and a twisted stomach, according to complaints.

Court documents state a deputy visited Anderson and Alayyoub on Feb. 13 to share the news. The deputy saw an underweight dog and visited the kennels, which he described as filthy. A local vet who visited the farm later that day found another underweight German shepherd.

In a civil hearing Monday to determine whether the breeders will get their dogs back, several people testified the kennels and dogs were covered in feces and urine when deputies and humane society agents inspected the farm and took the dogs on Feb. 22.

“There was quite an amount smeared on pretty much every surface,” said Ashley Pudas, a humane investigation agent with the Animal Humane Society.

Courtroom pictures taken last month of several kennels showed floors mostly covered with filth as well as soggy cardboard bedding, which Pudas said was potentially hazardous for dogs.

The dogs — nine adults and six puppies — were taken to the Humane Society. According to court records, veterinarian Ashley Plotkowski examined the dogs and found all of them suffered from varying degrees of malnutrition. Some were emaciated, others had abscesses. At least one of the dogs was diagnosed with intestinal parasites.

Plotkowski said Monday the stressed dogs have slowly gained weight at the humane society. She and Pudas opposed giving the dogs back to the breeders, arguing Anderson and Alayyoub weren’t equipped to handle the dogs’ continued care.

The breeders argued in a March 8 hearing they were doing everything they could to keep the dogs safe, including moving them into indoor kennels after they suspected someone was poisoning the animals.

Steven J. Hovey, the breeders’ civil attorney, told the court Monday that some of the dogs actually weighed less in previous veterinary checkups and weren’t found to be in danger of starving at the time.

Hovey also presented a voice recording of the Feb. 22 seizure where Anderson and Alayyoub asked officials at the time what they could do to make the dogs healthier.

Hovey argued the breeders were responding in good faith to law enforcement concerns. He pointed out deputies previously had told the breeders they would come up with a plan to improve the dogs’ care but no plan was ever created.

Fillmore County investigator Dan Dornink testified he would have worked with Anderson and Alayyoub on a plan had conditions at the kennels been different from what he had seen on a previous visit. Dornink also said the breeders didn’t seem to accept his or the Humane Society’s concerns about the dogs’ health.

“They had a conversation with us that night about the dogs being a show line and that they’re supposed to be the way that they look,” he said.

Anderson and Alayyoub’s first criminal hearing is scheduled in May. The civil case over the dogs’ custody has another hearing April 9.