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"Daniel Esh will definitely appeal," said attorney Jeff Conrad of the firm Clymer & Musser. "What the state is doing is disgraceful beyond belief. The state is taking away people's livelihoods, and, frankly, it's pathetic."
The state Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement denied a 2009 license to Esh in February, citing repeated violations. Esh appealed the denial, but the decision was upheld following an April 9 hearing.
On Thursday, the Bureau also announced a 2009 license was refused to Berks County breeder Aaron Burkholder of Burkholder Farm Kennel in Kutztown, also for repeated dog law violations.
"These kennels are being shut down because they have put profits above the welfare of the dogs," said Jessie Smith, the state's special deputy secretary for dog law enforcement. "The (state agriculture department) secretary's decision to uphold their license refusals will hopefully mean a quick and final resolution to the problems we've seen in these kennels."
Esh and Burkholder, both of whom were licensed to keep up to 500 dogs, have until June 16 to appeal the agriculture department's license refusals. If appeals are not entered by then, the department may seize dogs at the kennels to bring their populations to 24, the most allowed to be kept without a state kennel license.
Most recently, Burkholder housed 11 dogs at his kennel during an April 28 inspection. Esh housed 373 dogs on March 26, the most recent inspection of his business, Maple Farm Kennel, 68 Clearview Road.
Esh has been in trouble with the bureau a number of times over the years, but without a 2009 kennel license, he is effectively shut out of the breeding business.
In addition, the state ordered Esh to report where he sends his dogs when he disbands his kennel operation, and he must allow wardens access without a warrant to inspect his kennel for compliance.
The state's order also prevents Esh from slaughtering his breeding stock by requiring that a veterinarian certify that any dogs euthanized were suffering from medical conditions.
If Esh does not comply with the state's order, he faces third-degree misdemeanor charges with fines of $100 to $500 a day for each violation, plus any other applicable penalties permitted under the state's dog law.
Conrad said he will base Esh's appeal on its unconstitutionality, saying the state's enforcement is unfairly concentrated on Lancaster County's largest class of kennels. He also said enforcement is based on individual wardens' interpretation of kennel regulations, which are simply impossible to comply with.
"There's not a home in the county of Lancaster that could pass a dog kennel inspection today," Conrad said. "If there is a hair out of place in a kennel, they get an unsatisfactory mark on an inspection, and there is no way for an individual kennel owner to challenge that inspection."
However, Esh has challenged a series of citations issued for unsanitary conditions at his kennel.
In January, after a protracted battle in Lancaster County Court, Assistant District Attorney Christine L. Wilson reduced three misdemeanor charges from a November 2007 inspection to summary offenses in exchange for Esh's guilty plea.
Even before those charges, though, Esh had had run-ins with authorities.
In 2004, he was found guilty and paid $600 in fines for two state dog-law violations, including failing to provide shelter for dogs in outside pens and not maintaining kennel floors.
In 2003, Esh reached an 11th-hour agreement with Leacock Township officials just before he was to appear in court for housing more than 250 dogs at his kennel.
And in 1997, the state attorney general sued Esh and his father, John E. Esh, owner of Twin Maple Farm, adjacent to his son's farm, alleging they sold dogs wholesale without the required USDA license. Esh countered that he had no federal license and did not need one because he no longer sold dogs wholesale.
Smith said the state's actions against Burkholder and Esh are proof that Act 119, signed into law by Gov. Ed Rendell in October 2008, closed loopholes in earlier versions of state dog law that allowed dogs to suffer.
"Previous versions of the dog law allowed kennel owners to operate for extended periods of time even after having their kennel license revoked or refused," Smith said. "The new law prohibits kennels in that situation from obtaining new dogs, breeding or boarding, so that they cannot operate as usual during a lengthy appeal process."
E-mail: slindt@lnpnews.com
