Pet rescuer faces charges after dog kills cat
Staff writer
Two dogs that escaped and killed a cat Saturday are owned by a would-be animal sanctuary operator with no license from the state or the city.
Interim Police Chief Zach Hudlin said officers were sent at 8:15 p.m. to Fairway Dr. to investigate a report of two dogs roaming the neighborhood.
The caller said the dogs were friendly.
A short time later, police were notified that one of the dogs had killed a cat at 4 Fairway Dr.
“The people who owned the cat said that there were two dogs loose,” Hudlin said. “Officers went to look and couldn’t find them.”
Jake Sigel, who owned the cat, said he thought they were Victor Buckner’s dogs.
Police went to Buckner’s residence at 106 Ashley Dr.
“Vic wasn’t in town,” Hudlin said. “They were in Colorado. His daughter was taking care of his dogs.”
Since the dogs had returned home and their gate was locked, officers didn’t take possession of them.
“We were told the cat had a rare fungal infection that was transmitted by saliva,” Hudlin said.
Police didn’t want to infect canine handler Aaron Slater’s car.
But police did see that Buckner had four adult dogs at his residence. City ordinance permits only three.
Hudlin is asking the city prosecutor to charge Buckner with having a dog at large, having more dogs than city ordinance allows, and harboring a vicious dog that killed an animal without provocation.
He expects Buckner to have to appear in municipal court July 30.
Buckner has at various times said that he wanted to build a dog park and that he wanted to open an animal sanctuary on property north of US-56 behind the former Pizza Hut building.
Ironically, a company owned by Sigel owns the tract between Buckner’s property and the former Pizza Hut.
Buckner established a non-profit entity, Wags and Wiggles Furever, and raises money for building an animal shelter.
He planned to finance a 25x30 foot structure with 15 kennels and raised bedding to house healthy pets and several rooms to shelter pregnant or sick animals.
Marion’s interim planning coordinator, Margo Yates, said Buckner talked to her in 2020 about putting a dog park in that location.
“The problem is, he’s got to have five acres there to have a dog park,” Yates said. “That’s as far as I got with him.”
The land is only 1.3 acres.
Buckner also does not have a license from Kansas Department of Agriculture to operate a kennel or animal shelter.
A spokesman for Kansas Department of Agriculture said a small animal complaint about the incident could be made to KDA.
Hudlin said he would fill out a complaint on KDA’s website.