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Vet: Bauck dipped dogs
Published 12:00pm Friday, March 20, 2009A Twin Cities-based veterinarian took the stand in the Kathy Bauck trial Thursday, describing emaciated, wounded and dehydrated dogs she saw in video from Bauck’s breeding facility.
Dr. Linda Wolf told an Otter Tail County courtroom she made notes on 13 or 14 dogs in reviewing the video footage. The footage was obtained secretly last spring by a former employee who has since acknowledged he was hired by an animal protection agency to join Bauck’s New York Mills facility, Pick of the Litter Kennels.
Wolf, an expert witness for the prosecution, described several animals from the footage whose conditions caught her attention. Among them: a pug with a displaced eye, a husky whose wound was not surgically closed and a yellow lab whose skin indicated dehydration.
Wolf said the footage showed Bauck directing staff to put a seizuring bichon with bloody fluid coming from its mouth in a cage. The veterinarian did not know what happened to the dog after its placement in the cage, but said footage from a few days later showed what appeared to be the same dog in the same cage.
Wolf called the handling technique she witnessed in the video “inappropriate.” She said the footage showed Bauck holding puppies by one leg as she removed them from cages. A mastiff, Wolf said, was handled by its ears, a painful experience for the dog.
Wolf also described scenes of so-called “dog dipping,” in which dogs were immersed in what appeared to be an insecticide mixture used to kill ticks and fleas. Submersion is not the appropriate application of the insecticide, Wolf said, as the product can easily enter the animal’s eyes, nose and mouth.
In response to questions from Bauck’s attorney, Wolf acknowledged she did not know how the dogs’ conditions occurred, how long they existed or what other treatments dogs received besides what was shown in the footage. Her comments were observations, not diagnoses, she said.
Wolf could not say the handling of the puppies caused a joint injury or that it would necessarily cause the dogs to suffer in the future.
Wolf said she did not see all veterinary records for Bauck’s animals. She was not aware the pug with the displaced eye had been hospitalized or that Bauck had administered IV fluid bags to the dehydrated lab.
Wolf also acknowledged Minnesota law considers companion animals private property, and that economic hardship may affect whether or not an owner decides to move forward with costly animal treatment. Wolf was expected to return to the stand Friday morning for continued questioning by the defense.
