http://www.greatfallstribune.com/app...511010302/1002
Couple accused of animal abuse challenges charges
Responding to a civil complaint filed by her neighbors, Pamela
Polejewski insists that she can care for the 200 animals she keeps at
her property west of Great Falls.
Polejewski and her husband, Michael Hanson, are charged with misdemeanor
animal abuse and failure to license and vaccinate their 140 dogs.
In separate civil and criminal cases, 17 neighbors and the county are
asking judges to take away her 200 animals and forbid her from having
any pets.
The couple countered the accusations in court documents filed Monday,
listing 20 points to explain their side of the story.
Neither Polejewski nor Hanson would comment to the Tribune Monday, but
her son Chase Polejewski said that his mother feels attacked by the
county and her neighbors since a sheriff's deputy responded to an August
complaint of unwatered horses.
"What she's doing is for a very good cause," Chase Polejewski said. "Her
dream her whole life was to be out in the country."
Polejewski has run an animal refuge at 77 Wexford Lane since buying land
in the county in 1998.
Chase Polejewski said his mother used all of her resources to establish
her place "and now she's having all this trouble. She can't win."
In their response, Pamela Polejewski and Hanson deny that the dogs bark
persistently and claim that enclosures reduce the noise. The nearest
neighbor who is suing them is three-quarters of a mile away, they said.
The dogs, pigs, horses and other pets have received adequate veterinary
care, including vaccines for rabies, spaying and neutering, the couple
said.
They also deny accusations in the criminal case that the animals are
kept in unsanitary conditions, including that dog manure and urine
covered a mobile home where many of the animals are kept.
Two veterinarians told the county that two people could not care for all
200 animals and that the cost of feeding them would total more than
$30,000 a year.
In response, Polejewski said the couple has help caring for the animals.
"I know she takes care of those animals," Chase Polejewski said. "She's
a very caring and loving person."
Pamela Polejewski's friend Sandra Hershey-Hout said the case has led
Polejewski to tears on several occasions, but the hardest time was when
the county put down her lame horse as part of a court agreement.
"She cared for these animals that no one else wanted," Hershey-Hout
said. "All her money goes into those animals.
"I'm not saying that she didn't have too many animals. But they're
saying she's crazy. She's not, she's a very compassionate person."
With the couple's criminal trial pending, the county had arranged to
have a veterinarian examine the animals to determine which ones could be
adopted.
Polejewski and Hanson agreed to pay to treat any medical conditions that
would prevent the pets from being adopted. But the arrangement
dissolved, with the county saying the couple isn't cooperating.
County efforts to take care of the animals quickly are so tangled that
their future may end up being decided at the couple's criminal trial set
for Nov. 23 before Justice of the Peace Sam Harris.
Polejewski faces 130 counts of failing to vaccinate, 138 counts of not
having ID tags for her dogs and six counts of animal cruelty, in which
investigators allege she had sick and underfed horses, cats and pigs.
Hanson is charged with five counts of animal cruelty. All the charges
are misdemeanors, but his maximum fines are $5,000 and her fines could
be as high as $140,000.
In their investigation, deputies counted 17 cats, two goats, seven pigs,
16 chickens, two turkeys, two guinea pigs, six parakeets, two ducks, 18
horses and 138 dogs.
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