After vehicle fire kills dogs, Anchorage Assembly calls for overhaul of animal cruelty laws

[Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that the Anchorage Assembly passed the resolution on Tuesday.]

After multiple dogs died in a vehicle fire last month, the Anchorage Assembly is calling for a review and possible overhaul of the city’s animal cruelty laws and its Animal Care and Control system.

City officials have not answered a number of questions about the incident, so some key details remain unclear, such as the cause of the fire. Reports about the incident have attracted widespread attention and condemnation on social media.

On Tuesday, Assembly members unanimously approved a resolution proposed by Anchorage Assembly Chair Chris Constant and member Karen Bronga, which calls for the city to take steps to “mitigate the harmful treatment of animals being warehoused in vehicles,” citing the dogs’ “tragic death.”

That incident and others “have brought to light systemic deficiencies in the Municipality’s ability to address animal welfare concerns proactively and effectively,” the resolution says. Assembly members did not discuss the measure before passing it.

The owner of the vehicle, James Grayden, said seven of his dogs were killed in the fire. He contends the dogs were well cared for.

When asked about the incident, the Anchorage Health Department — which oversees Anchorage Animal Care and Control — said five dogs were found dead in the vehicle after the fire. The fire department located 12 other dogs, which were taken to the city’s animal shelter, according to Assistant Fire Chief Alex Boyd.

Some may have died later of injuries sustained in the blaze, which occurred a little before 6 a.m. on Nov. 22, Boyd said. Information about the cause was not available, Boyd said.

Grayden said he doesn’t know what caused the fire. He said he was in the front seat of his Chevy Suburban in the parking lot of the Midtown Lowe’s in the early morning hours. The vehicle was not running when it suddenly caught on fire, he said.

The vehicle was fully ablaze in less than a minute, Grayden said. He pulled out five dogs and six puppies from the back before the fire consumed the vehicle, he said. Grayden also said he was burned on his arms and legs, but did not go to a hospital.

“It was just sheer tragedy,” he said.

In May, Matanuska-Susitna Borough officials seized 50 German shepherds from Grayden’s property in what one official described as a “backyard breeding situation that got out of hand and turned into a hoarding situation.”

Over the last several months, Anchorage Animal Care and Control had received several reports from citizens concerned about the number of dogs in Grayden’s vehicle.

Assembly members have received numerous emails from upset residents, calling for action.

The Assembly’s resolution requests of Mayor Suzanne LaFrance’s administration a review of the incident and of the city’s animal cruelty laws, among several other actions. It also calls for the municipality to institute a no-kill shelter model and policies.

“I’m just at the point where we have to do something,” Constant said in an interview prior to Tuesday’s meeting.

“My goal in all of this is to finally get the department to meaningfully investigate improving the system. We’ve got to do better,” Constant said.

According to Michelle Fehribach, spokeswoman for the health department, Grayden had been reported to Animal Care and Control eight times between May and October. Four of the reports were regarding the number of animals inside the vehicle, she said in an email.

Animal control responded to the calls, she said. But in a few instances, officers didn’t find the vehicle, Fehribach said. Additionally, animal control was not able to prove that Grayden was living in his vehicle, she said.

Grayden provided a residential address outside of Anchorage, she said. The address was valid until the beginning of September, when the property became the Matanuska-Susitna Borough’s property, the health department said in an email to Assembly members.

Animal control officers are investigating the incident, and “that information will be passed to APD, who will review and determine if any further action is appropriate,” Fehribach said.

While the period for a stray hold on the surviving dogs is over, animal control is keeping them for “an indeterminate period due to the ongoing investigation,” Fehribach said.

Grayden said he was not living in the vehicle. The dogs often stayed in the back of the Suburban, which was outfitted with dog beds, toys, food and water, he said. The dogs were happy, healthy and “they were living their best life right up” until the fire, Grayden said.

Assembly Chair Constant said that for years, he’s seen a “slow and steady deterioration” of the city’s animal control and shelter services, and that staff in the department are working with limited resources.

The resolution calls for the administration to report back to the Assembly in 120 days about any progress made, including a proposed timeline for policy changes and improvements.

It also asks the health department to produce a preliminary proposal for improvements by April 8. It should “at a minimum, return the system to no-kill status, mitigate the harmful treatment of animals being warehoused in vehicles, and modernize the staffing and capital plant of Anchorage’s Animal Care and Control System,” the resolution says.

“Let’s look at the incident, let’s look at our code, let’s look at our staffing, let’s look at our facilities, and let’s come up with the plan to evolve this system into what it should be in a modern society,” Constant said.