Dozens of animals seized

SOUTH SALT LAKE — Randall Evans' heart seemed to be in the right place.

But after police and animal control officers executed a search warrant on his kennel Wednesday and seized 35 cats, 26 dogs, three birds and two rabbits, they said his methods were all wrong.

And it smelled pretty bad.

Jason Rasmussen, officer in charge of the South Salt Lake animal shelter, said there was feces inside Evans' kennels. There was little water or food.

Most of the cats suffered from calicivirus, he said, which is a contagious upper-respiratory illness in cats characterized by a discharge from the eyes.

Rasmussen said this is one of the biggest and worst cases of animal neglect he has seen.

Evans begs to differ.

"I do love these animals," he said.

He cleans up after the animals twice a day and feeds them, he said, and police found feces and urine on the floors of Hope Haven because he hadn't yet arrived for his morning cleanup.

If he were really neglecting animals, he said, there would be fecal matter on the walls and smeared along the floor. It wasn't.

He doesn't have a business license or regulatory permit.

And though the city's light industrial zone, where Hope Haven Rescue is located, doesn't include kennels, South Salt Lake zoning administrator Larry Gardner said Evans could have applied for a conditional-use permit for that zone. Besides the city's animal shelter, there are no kennels in the city, Gardner said.

Another option would have been to apply for a conditional-use permit for the A-1 agricultural zone, located elsewhere in the city, and establish a rescue kennel there.

But Evans said money has been running thin after he spends more than $2,000 a month to feed the animals and clean up after them, and he hasn't had enough to pay for the necessary permits.

For the past six months, Evans has rented a warehouse unit in the 2600 block of 1030 West and housed animals there — next door to a wholesale foods distribution company.

No food was produced there. It was already packaged and awaited shipment or pickup, but the barking was nothing close to pleasant, said Teena Bowerbank, who works for the distribution company, which has been in the building 24 years.