Wasilla neighbors clash over dog kennel in their midst
SHELTIES: Owner says she'll move before giving up majority of 18 animals.
By KYLE HOPKINS
Anchorage Daily News
Published: August 11th, 2005 Last Modified: August 11th, 2005 at 03:15 AM
WASILLA -- Corral all of Deborah Luper's Shetland sheepdogs on a scale, and they might weigh a total of 350 pounds.
"We're not talking about really a lot of dog here," Luper said.
But we are talking about a lot of dogs. Eighteen of them, by her count, and many of Luper's neighbors along the southern edge of Wasilla city limits aren't happy.
They say the shelties may fare well at dog shows, but that as a pack, they create a noisy, smelly problem that threatens neighborhood ground water, not to mention property values. Luper says she's a conscientious dog owner and keeps a responsible kennel.
Though animal control officers have ordered Luper to give the dogs up within weeks, she says her shelties are like her family and she'll move before losing them.
Luper is 45 years old, with a resume taller than any of her prized - and prize-winning - little dogs. She's been a beauty queen, a cop and a pilot. She was a district chairwoman of the Republican Party, president of the Eagle River community council and a founder of the Christian Coalition of Alaska. She was an aide to Anchorage Assemblyman Dan Sullivan and the plaintiff in an Alaska Supreme Court case challenging the election of Mayor Mark Begich.
A Wasilla resident, Luper, 45, is living in the first home she has ever owned. She has until Aug. 18 to find homes for all but three of her shelties, which weigh about 20 pounds each and look like little collies. The city has denied her application for a kennel permit, based largely on more than 20 objection letters it received from neighbors.
John Jones, for example, an electrician who lives next door to Luper's kennel, built his house four years ago, and broke his finger doing it, he said. All he has is invested in the home on Bay View Drive.
But Jones says he and his wife talk about selling the house if the dogs stay, and says it's selfish of Luper to try and keep her kennel in the face of so many complaints from her neighbors.
Jones talked about how it could be tougher to sell his house with the kennel nearby and described the odd sound of the de-barked dogs trying to make noise.
"The whole thing is just too bizarre," he said.
Wasilla allows its residents three dogs without a kennel permit. In the subdivision Luper lives in, covenants prohibit a commercial kennel or breeding business.
Luper contends that she isn't breaking the covenant because she's not a breeder raising dogs for profit. As for the city laws, she hopes to get those changed.
Luper says the city should adopt a permit for "hobby" kennels to raise show dogs and pets but not to make money.
Jones, the neighbor, argues that if the city changes the rules for one person, it creates the danger of hobby kennels popping up all over Wasilla. He pictures back yards full of hound dogs howling next to people's new dream homes.
Adopting such a change could take the city months, but if Luper can convince planners to talk about it, she could get an extension and keep her dogs in the meantime, said Kat Bullington, administrator for animal safety and protection for the city of Houston. Wasilla contracts with Houston for animal control services.
Without the hobby kennel designation, Luper is technically considered an animal hoarder, Bullington said. Luper faces a citation if she keeps the dogs, though she could probably get an extension if she shows she's trying to find them new homes.
Luper would rather leave, she said. "It's like asking me to sell off my children."
Even if she gave all the dogs away to local shelters, it could overload rescue groups if the dogs arrived at the same time, Bullington said.
And for Luper, the shelties represent a big investment. One she bought from a breeder in Japan was worth $6,000, she said, and that was before the dog earned champion status in Japan, Canada and the United States.
The shelties' triumphs can be found on a Web site, www.wyndsongshelties. com, celebrating Luper's kennel. The site describes shelties as an inquisitive breed of charming, devoted pranksters that are born for herding, but with a bark that sometimes annoys neighbors.
"Be warned," it reads. "Shelties are like potato chips. It's difficult to stop with just one!"
Contact reporter Kyle Hopkins a khopkins@adn.com or call 352-6710.
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