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1992-11487-Minutes for Meeting March 25,1992 Recorded 4/8/199292-11187 0111-0029 MINUTES DESCHUTES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS E :` # P • i . i March 25, 1992 Chairman Maudlin called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m. Board members in attendance were: Dick Maudlin and Nancy Pope Schlangen. Also present were: Bruce White, Assistant Legal Counsel, and Florence Torrigino, Health Director. 1. CONSENT AGENDA Consent agenda items before the Board were: #1, signature of Declaration of Dedication from the Ponderosa Cascade Property Owners Association; and #2, signature of Tax Refund Order 92-031. SCHLANGEN: I move approval of the consent agenda. MAUDLIN: Second the motion. VOTE: THROOP: Excused SCHLANGEN: YES MAUDLIN: YES 2. HEALTH DEPARTMENT GRANT AGREEMENT WITH COAST Before the Board was signature of Health Department Grant Agreement with Central Oregon AIDS Support Team (COAST). The $3,000,000 grant would be used to purchase educational supplies, obtain space at the Deschutes County Fair, and provide equipment for the purpose of educating and informing the community about HIV/AIDS for the County SCHLANGEN: I move signature. MAUDLIN: I'll second the motion. VOTE: THROOP: Excused SCHLANGEN: YES MAUDLIN: YES 3. ACCOUNTS PAYABLE VOUCHERS Before the Board was approval of the weekly accounts payable vouchers in the amount of $263,592.63. SCHLANGEN: Move approval upon review. MAUDLIN: Second the motion. PAGE 1 MINUTES: 3-25-92 KEYP CHEu ,mss ,x •. � � 0111-0030 VOTE: THROOP: Excused SCHLANGEN: YES MAUDLIN: YES 4. REPLAT OF TWO LOTS IN WILD RIVER, PHASE II Before the Board was signature of a replat of two lots in Wild River, Phase II, removing a 50 -foot building setback line for the Fowells. SCHLANGEN: Move signature of replat. MAUDLIN: Second the motion. VOTE: THROOP: Excused SCHLANGEN: YES MAUDLIN: YES 5. LIQUOR LICENSE APPLICATION FOR ALPINE FOODS Before the Board was chair signature of a liquor license application for Alpine Foods in LaPine. SCHLANGEN: I move signature. MAUDLIN: Second the motion. VOTE: THROOP: Excused SCHLANGEN: YES MAUDLIN: YES 6. SUPPORT LETTER FOR SISTERS HIGH SCHOOL GRANT The Board was asked to submit a letter to the State Department of Education in support of a grant the Sisters High School was submitting for the establishment of Child Development/ Parenthood Education and Student Parent Programs this fall at their new facility. SCHLANGEN: I move signature of letter of support. MAUDLIN: Second the motion. VOTE: THROOP: Excused SCHLANGEN: YES MAUDLIN: YES Chairman Maudlin recessed the meeting until 11:00 a.m. PAGE 2 MINUTES: 3-25-92 LN 0111-0031 At 11 a.m., Chairman Maudlin reconvened the meeting of the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners acting as the Dog Control Board. Board members in attendance were: Dick Maudlin and Nancy Pope Schlangen. Also present were: Bruce White, Assistant County Counsel and Cynthia Komurka, Animal Control Officer. 7. DOG VERSUS LIVESTOCK HEARING (DOG OWNER: JIM AND KAREN LEE1 Before the Board was a hearing on whether a dog owned by Jim and Karen Lee had chased, wounded, injured, or killed sheep owned by Orvin Hought. Cynthia Komurka, Animal Control Officer, testified that on March 16, 1992, Mr. Hought made a call to animal control stating his livestock had been damaged by dogs. At 10 a.m. the next morning she contacted Mr. Hought. He told her that on the previous morning at about 6:45 a.m., he had seen his sheep bunched up in the pasture, and a black and white border collie with a long tail came running from the sheep pen. He recognized the dog as belonging to a neighbor, the Lees. This area of Terrebonne was very rural and the residences were approximately one-half mile apart. There were only about four residences in the area. Mr. Hought said he did want to go to a hearing since he wanted to make a claim against the dog owner for restitution on the lost animal. Officer Komurka contacted the Lees and spoke with their son Travis Lee. At that time the dog in the photograph (Exhibit B) was tied up next to their home. She identified the dog (Jigs) in Exhibit B as the one she impounded at the Lee residence. She left a release/request for hearing form with Travis Lee. He said he would speak with his parents, and they would determine whether they wanted a hearing. She went by and asked Mr. Hought if he could identify the dog. Mr. Hought made a positive identification. She identified the lamb in the picture marked Exhibit C as Mr. Hought's dead lamb. She said it appeared to have one wound to the right side near its flank, probably a bite and tear. She saw no indication that there had been any ingestion of the lamb. The day after she impounded the dog, she spoke with Mrs. Lee on the phone, and they went over the complaint and the procedure for the hearing. Mrs. Lee said that when her husband returned to town, they would probably request a hearing which they did. The dog was currently impounded at the humane society. Chairman Maudlin asked about the report where it said a ewe and another lamb were also injured. Officer Komurka said she didn't see any wounds on the ewe and lamb but did observe them limping in the hind quarter. He asked if she thought the wound on the dead animal was consistent with a dog or animal PAGE 3 MINUTES: 3-25-92 0111-0032 bit. She said she was. She also owned a border collie and was familiar with how "they work" and she thought the wound was consistent with how "they work." Commissioner Schlangen asked if there were any stool samples taken from the dog. Officer Komurka said there weren't since the dog was not impounded until the day after the incident, and she didn't feel there was any ingestion involved. When she impounded the dog she did look at the dogs teeth, but saw nothing. Officer Komurka continued that the photograph (Exhibit C) was taken within the first half hour of her investigation. The lamb had been covered with a metal cover to make sure that nothing could have gotten to it after Mr. Hought discovered it. Bruce White asked if the lamb looked like it had been freshly killed. Officer Komurka said yes, there was no obvious bloat or smell although it had been dead for over 24 hours. Orvin Hought, 70365 NW Lower Bridge, Terrebonne 97760, testified that about 6:45 a.m he looked outside and all of his sheep were "bunched up" which they normally didn't do unless something was after them. He noticed the Lee's dog at the edge of the corral by the water trough. He called the Lee's and told them "their dog was over" and they said the dog was at home. He had called the Lees a number of times before regarding their dogs being on his property. His son came out to look at the sheep, and they saw the dog running back toward the Lee residence. Then he went down to the corral and saw the lamb the dog had killed in the corner of the corral. He called the Lee residence again, and was told that the dog was at home. He put a metal, chick brooder over the lamb and didn't move it. The Lee dogs had also been over to his place a couple of days before this incident, but whenever he called, they said the dogs were at home. Chairman Maudlin asked if Mr. Hought's son was available to testify. Mr. Hought said he was not available. Mr. Hought said the he had not seen Lee's black dog on the morning of the incident. Another time, the Lee's red hound was on his property, he called the Lee's when he could still see the dog, and the Lees said the dog was tied up at home. This red hound was later shot by another neighbor. Bruce White asked if Mr. Hought could identify the picture of the dog in Exhibit B and the lamb in Exhibit C as those involved in the incident. Mr. Hought said they were. Bruce White asked him if Exhibit D was a copy of the complaint form he filled out and signed. Mr. Hought said it was. Mr. Hought said that before the incident, his hired man was with him when PAGE 4 MINUTES: 3-25-92 0111-0033 he was building fence, and they saw the two Lee dogs. Bruce White asked if he had seen the dog in Exhibit B chasing his sheep prior to this incident. Mr. Hought said he had not seen the dog chasing the sheep before, but he had seen him on his property. However on the morning of the incident, this dog had been chasing his sheep. The dog had the sheep bunched in a corner, and then he ran down to the corner of the corral. Bruce White asked how close the dog was to the sheep when he first saw the dog. Mr. Hought said probably 40-50 feet. He said the sheep didn't normally bunch up in his 2-3 acre pasture. He saw the dog running away from the sheep and toward the lamb. William Rickard, 70365 NW Lower Bridge, Terrebonne, 97760, testified that he was not there during the incident when the Lee dog was near the sheep. He identified the dog in Exhibit B as being the dog owned by the Lees. Chairman Maudlin asked if Mr. Rickard had seen the dog in Exhibit B prior to the incident. Mr. Rickard said he had seen this dog on the lot by Mr. Hought's sheep "a day or so" before the incident. Mr. White asked if there were any other dogs he had seen hanging around the sheep. He said the only other dog he'd seen was Mr. Hought's dog, and he never bothered the sheep. Bruce White said he had a couple of more questions for Mr. Hought. He asked Mr. Hought if he had observed any other dogs in the area on the day of the incident. Mr. Hought said no. He said the neighbor across the canyon had a dog (blue healer), but it never came over to this side of the canyon. Chairman Maudlin asked for testimony for the owners of the dog. Karen Lee, 70455 NW Lower Bridge Rd., Terrebonne, 97760, testified that during the first phone call she received from Mr. Hought, he had said that both of their dogs were on his property, and that the black and white dog had been bunching his sheep. He also said he had just sent them home. When she got off the phone, she opened the back door and found their black dog right next to the door. She didn't feel it was possible for this dog to have dashed home that quickly. The dog wasn't breathing hard and was just relaxing in the sun. Then she received a second call from Mr. Hought stating he had a lamb which had been injured, she didn't remember him saying that a lamb was dead. She told Mr. Hought that she thought it was a case of mistaken identity. Mr. Hought's family and other neighbors had misidentified the dog previously, so she felt it had not been her dogs. Jigs was around the Lee's sheep all the time and was learning to bunch their sheep. Jigs had never harmed a lamb or any of their sheep. She spoke with her husband that evening by telephone and decided to wait PAGE 5 MINUTES: 3-25-92 0111-0034 until he returned home the next evening to contact Mr. Hought. They tried to call Mr. Hought when her husband got home, but the phone number they had was no longer in service, and Mr. Hought's new number was unlisted. When she spoke with Officer Komurka, she told her she had tried to telephone Mr. Hought, and asked Officer Komurka if she would ask Mr. Hought to call them when she spoke with him. She said she would, but couldn't guarantee that he would call. Mrs. Lee said she never heard from Mr. Hought after that time. She never remembered Mr. Hought calling to say that their redbone hound was on his property. She said he did call about their puppy being down there once, but the puppy came back and hadn't caused any trouble. The morning of the incident, she heard a lot of dogs barking at the end of the canyon toward Lower Bridge. The black and white dog was chained up and the black dog was there. Awhile after that, she heard popping sounds that could have been guns. Then within 20-30 minutes, Bill Rickard came down their road on his ATV. He road up to their home and looked at their dogs, then he went over around their barn, and then turned and went down the road to Lower Bridge. She thought maybe they had found the other dogs, had fired shots in the air to frighten them away, and then came to their residence to see of the Lees dogs had been with them. She had spoken with a Deschutes County livestock agent, a veterinarian, a Madras area sheep rancher asking for information regarding Coyote attacks and domestic dog attacks. All three said the attacks were done in completely different ways. From what she had been told, the attack sounded like it had been done by coyotes. She presented a book called "Procedures for Evaluating Predation on Livestock and Wildlife" and pointed to graphic picture of animals which had been attacked by coyotes and other attacked by dogs. She felt a coyote might have attacked the lamb prior to Mr. Hought finding it, and it was just "bad luck" that their dog Jigs happened to be in the area at that time. Chairman Maudlin asked if after the first phone call from Mr. Hought when she went outside and saw her black dog, if she had seen her black and white dog. She said the black and white dog was not at home then. When he did come home, he came from the other direction. Chairman Maudlin asked if anyone else in the area had dogs similar to her black and white dog. A neighbor had told her someone in the next canyon next had one. Bruce White asked on the day of the incident, if she examined her black and white dog when he returned home. Mrs. Lee said she did and there was no blood on him. She checked his teeth, his mussel and his white chest, and there was no indication of anything. Bruce White asked if she had had any previous complaints about the black and white dog. She said they had not. He asked how far they lived from the Houghts. She said three-quarters of a mile. PAGE 6 MINUTES: 3-25-92 0111-0035 Chairman Maudlin asked how long after the phone call from Mr. Hought that her dog came home. She said about an hour. Travis Lee, 70455 NW Lower Bridge Road, Terrebonne, 97760, testified that Jigs worked the sheep from the front of the animal not from the rear since he hadn't been trained. Therefore, he didn't think Jigs had injured Mr. Houghts sheep which were injured in the rear. On March 12, he received a call from Mrs. Hought indicating that both of the Lees' dogs had been at her home and that her dog was following them. She asked that if he saw her dog to give her a call. He went outside and both of his dogs were sleeping under his truck, so there had to have been a mix up or mistaken identity. When his redbone hound was in heat, she would occasionally slip out of her collar. When he called a neighbor, she had said that Mr. Hought had seen a dog chasing his sheep, but that it was a dog from another canyon. Chairman Maudlin asked Travis Lee how he called Mrs. Hought back on March 12 if they didn't have a current telephone number for the Houghts. Travis Lee said Mrs. Hought gave him her number when she had called, and then he lost the number by the time they were trying to contact the Houghts after the incident on March 16. Bruce White asked Travis Lee if he was home on the date of the incident. Travis Lee said he was leaving for work when Mr. Hought called the first time. Mr. White asked if he saw the black and white dog at that time. Mr. Lee said he wasn't paying attention when he left for work but he saw the dog when the dog came back. He didn't notice anything on the dog. Jim Lee, 70455 NW Lower Bridge Road, Terrebonne, testified that Jigs was a sheep dog, occasionally lived in the barn with the sheep, and had never bothered the sheep. He rounded up the cattle to bring them in to be fed. However he was a "header" and tried to stop them instead of bringing them in. He did the same thing with sheep. There was another dog which looked exactly like Jigs which recently stayed three days at Nelson Howards. This was during the time when the Houghts' dog was in heat. He felt the stock dog was the most common dog in Central Oregon. The area was full of coyotes, and one had been killed in his barn. There was a coyote trail which went behind Mr. Hought's property. His property adjoined Mr. Hought's property. He said that the day before the incident, another farmer called him and wanted to lease his property. He called the farmer back and said that as long as Orvin Hought was working for him, he would not lease him the property. He said he and Mr. Hought "had a problem and were not on speaking terms." He told Mr. Hought to stay off his property. So he was sure that he would be blamed for anything that happened on the Hought's property. PAGE 7 MINUTES: 3-25-92 0111-0436 Chairman Maudlin asked if the other dog which looked exactly like Jigs and had spent three days at the neighbors, was in the neighborhood on the date of the incident. Mr. Lee said it was not. Bruce White asked Mr. Lee if he could identify Exhibit B as his dog, Jigs. Mr. Lee said it was. Mr. Lee asked Officer Komurka if the lamb's stomach was ripped opened, and she responded "flank." Chairman Maudlin said the law was clear that if the Board was convinced that the dog which was detained was the dog involved in the incident, the Board had not choice but to have the dog put away. He asked that Officer Komurka come to the podium again. He asked Officer Komurka if there had been any other complaints in this area on any dogs. Officer Komurka said no and this was the first time she had been to this part of Lower Bridge Road. She said it was probably the most rural part of the County which she dealt with. She did go to the other residences in the area and did see the healer dog which Mr. Hought had referred to, and it was the only other dog she saw in the area. Commissioner Schlangen asked if Officer Komurka had seen animals attacked by coyotes and was there a difference from dog attacks. Officer Komurka said she was familiar with the publication Mrs. Lee provided and had had training in that area. She said coyote kills were not very frequent and most attacks were from dogs. The wound on the lamb involved in this incident was a "bite and a pull of the fleece." There was very little blood on the lamb and lambs could die of shock just from being chased, so the wound may not have been what killed the animal. She said most of the dog attacks that she had seen were from two or more dogs in which case the injuries were to the throat and hind end. She said she felt she was "somewhat of an expert" since she owned a registered sheep dog and knew how they worked. When her animal was unsupervised, "she gets a bit carried away." Bruce White asked if Officer Komurka had seen coyote kills before. Officer Komurka said she had, and coyotes would actually ingest something before they would leave the animal. Chairman Maudlin said he felt that if this had been a coyote wound it would have shown an attempt to eat the lamb, and he asked Officer Komurka if she agreed. Officer Komurka agreed, and said when she investigated this incident, the thought that it could have been a coyote, "never even crossed my mind." Bruce White asked her how many livestock kills she had investigated, and she estimated "well over 100," and about 25 of the 100 involved coyotes. With the coyote kills, they usually took several animals and by the time she could get PAGE 8 MINUTES: 3-25-92 0111-0437 there, nothing was left but the fleece. She said she was familiar with the publication Mrs. Lee presented, and it was provided to her by Animal Damage Control who handled predatory kills. She felt any puncture that had been made to the stomach area, in this instance, was probably accidental. She felt the bleeding was minimal compared to most of the kills she had seen. Bruce White asked if she would have expected to see blood on the dog's fur. Officer Komurka said that since she saw the dog 24 -hours after the kill, "it would be hard to say because dogs will clean themselves rather quickly." With a bite and a pull, there may not have been any blood on the dog. Chairman Maudlin felt it was unfortunate that there was bitterness between the families, but he felt, given the testimony, that the Lee dog was the animal involved in this incident. James A. Lee Jr., 70455 NW Lower Bridge Rd., Terrebonne, said that he didn't feel it was "beyond a reasonable doubt that this was the animal." Given the drastic consequences to the accused dog, he felt there should be the highest standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt." Bruce White said the County was not required to set a standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt" which was a standard in criminal law while this was not a criminal case. He felt the standard in the case was "a preponderance of the evidence." Chairman Maudlin said the Board had made an effort in the last legislative session to have this law changed, however they were not successful, and therefore had to uphold the state law on the matter. SCHLANGEN: I make a motion that on the preponderance of the evidence, it looks like it is the Lee's collie dog that killed this animal, and I move that we have the dog put to sleep. MAUDLIN: I will second the motion. VOTE: THROOP: Excused SCHLANGEN: YES MAUDLIN: YES PAGE 9 MINUTES: 3-25-92 DATED this lj 19 day of ;L, , Commissioners of Deschutes County, Oregon. 0111-0038 1992, by the Board of " 1" fl j / /-j Y /,_0 PAGE 10 MINUTES: 3-25-92