Iditarod musher Frank Winkler was charged Friday with animal cruelty for bludgeoning 14 sled-dog puppies with an ax handle, although he said in an interview earlier this month that he reluctantly shot them.

After a neighbor reported hearing puppies whimpering in the night, an animal-control officer visited Winkler's trailer Sept. 7 and found the battered puppies piled in a crate in the back of his pickup. Two were barely alive and the rest were dead.

One of the live pups "was crying and was cold, clammy, wet, bloody and showed clinical signs of shock," Assistant District Attorney Mindy McQueen wrote in a charging document. The other was half-buried in the pile of dead pups. Both live dogs had crushed skulls and were later killed by animal- control officers.

Prosecutors filed the 14 charges of cruelty to animals a day after the case was referred to the Anchorage District Attorney's Office. Animal cruelty is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum fine of a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

A summons was issued for Winkler who has not returned several telephone calls to the Daily News in the past week. He has been working at a construction site in Dutch Harbor. In an interview two weeks ago he said he shot the pups."I did my best to try to do things right," he said. "I just made a mistake. I felt I had no other way to go."

Winkler has run the Iditarod Sled Dog Race twice and said he planned to run again this year. And he maintained that he was telling the truth.  "I've never really pulled any punches with anybody," he said. "The way I look at it, if you tell a lie, you're gonna get caught."

He said he was distraught at the prospect of being investigated for animal cruelty and worried it would end his mushing career.  "Basically, you get branded. That's what's really hard. I know another musher who went through something like this years and years ago. He said it just ruined him, and I'm afraid that's what's going to happen to me."

The puppies came from several litters and ranged in age from one to 10 weeks, McQueen wrote. When an animal officer first questioned Winkler, he said he had shot all the pups because he couldn't afford to keep them. But under further questioning, he admitted he had struck them in the head, she said.

Winkler told the investigator he bludgeoned the dogs about 9 p.m. on Sept. 6 and that they lay in the crate until the next morning when the animal- control officer arrived.

Update 12/7/91:  The animal cruelty charges facing Iditarod musher Frank Winkler should be dismissed because the state failed to preserve the carcasses of 13 dead puppies, Winkler's attorney argued.

Winkler says he "euthanized" 14 unwanted pups from his dog yard on Sept. 6. He testified he shot most of the pups and dispatched four or five of the youngest by clubbing them with the dull side of an ax.

"I used a .22 rifle, and I shot all the large ones, and I used the back end of an ax on the small ones," Winkler said.The small pups were only a week old, Winkler said. The older pups ranged from 5 to 10 weeks old, he said.

The state, however, claims Winkler bludgeoned all the pups. Assistant District Attorney Mindy McQueen filed an additional 14 charges against him, bringing the total to 28.

All are misdemeanors and are essentially two sets of charges based on different legal theories about the death of the 14 pups. One set of charges accuses Winkler of intentionally causing "severe pain or suffering" to each of the dead dogs by clubbing it. The other accuses him of causing the suffering by reckless neglect.

A veterinarian who performed necropsies on 12 of the pups testified that all died of a "blunt force trauma to the head."  "I didn't find any evidence of gunshot wounds," said Dr. Carol McCormick.

The manner of death is at the heart of the state's charges against Winkler. McCormick testified that firing a bullet into the brain of a dog is a humane way to kill it.

Had the state preserved the carcasses longer, Winkler argues, he would have been able to hire experts to examine the dogs and challenge McCormick's findings that the 12 dogs she examined died from clubbings.

A necropsy performed on the one pup whose remains were preserved produced a finding that the dog was shot in the head, defense attorney Ben Walters said.   That dog was one of the two that survived long enough to be taken to veterinarians by a city animal-control officer. Both pups were quickly killed.

The vet who performed the necropsy this week, Dr. Glen Grady, was also the vet who examined the two pups and killed them when he found they couldn't be helped. He testified that he thought last September that both dogs had been killed by blows to the head, not by gunshot.  Grady said he detected the gunshot only after peeling back the pup's skull cap this week.

However, Dr. McCormick testified that she performed necropsies last September, including cutting into the pups' head, before ruling out gunshots as a cause of their deaths.

The state's failure to preserve the dogs' carcasses long enough for defense experts to examine them hurts Winkler's chances of contesting McCormick's findings and proving that he is telling the truth, Walters said.

Walters argues that Winkler wasn't advised that he might face charges, or that the state believed the dogs had all been clubbed, until after he allowed animal-control officer Mary Miceli to take them to the shelter, where McCormick examined them before they were cremated. Because of that, the charges against him should be dismissed, Walters said.

"He said he had to cull the pups from his dog lot," Miceli said.

Miceli said she gave Winkler a handout listing animal cruelty laws. "I wanted to let him know there were codes that could be enforced," she said.

Winkler testified that Miceli said she was disappointed in him. "She didn't state that I was under arrest," he said. "She did tell me about the municipal laws for cruelty to animals."

Update 12/12/91:  A district court judge wrapped up three days of testimony on a motion to dismiss the animal cruelty charges against former Iditarod musher Frank Winkler and said she will make a decision next week.

Judge Martha Beckwith tentatively scheduled his trial for Jan. 14.

Update 1/1/92:  The state's failure to preserve the carcasses of puppies killed by dog musher Frank Winkler doesn't hurt his defense so much that animal cruelty charges against him must be dismissed, a district court judge ruled this week.

Judge Martha Beckwith said Winkler's inability to have experts examine the carcasses of 13 of the pups may cause some problems for his defense. But they are problems that can be cured by jury instructions, she said.

Winkler faces 28 charges related to the deaths of 14 puppies. His trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 8.

Judge Beckwith said Winkler admits clubbing the smaller dogs, so his defense on those charges isn't hurt because his experts can't examine their carcasses.

More examination of the other carcasses might have shown those dogs were shot, Beckwith said, but also might have shown they were clubbed, as McCormick concluded.

"In summary, the court does not find that the failure to preserve the dog carcasses warrants dismissal of the charges," Beckwith wrote. Any problems caused Winkler's defense by the cremation of the carcasses can be handled in instructions to the jury, she said.

Update 4/8/92:  There are two key elements in the humane killing of animals, a veterinarian and fellow dog musher testified Tuesday as Frank Winkler 's animal cruelty trial got started in state court.

"Be competent," said vet Carolyn McCormick, the 1991 winner of the Women's World Sled Dog Championships. "And make sure the job is finished . . . that the animal is dead."

Assistant District Attorney Mindy McQueen told the six jurors hearing Winkler's case that the Anchorage musher accomplished neither goal when he tried to cull 14 unwanted pups from his dog yard on the night of Sept. 6.

Update 4/9/02:  A 13-pound pup sitting atop a pile of dead dogs blew the whistle on musher Frank Winkler early on a Saturday morning last September, one of Winkler's neighbors testified.

"I (heard) a real loud screeching, like you stepped on a dog's tail, over and over," said Linda Sierakowicz, who lives with her husband in a mobile home next door to Winkler in a Lake Otis trailer park. She said she also believed she could distinguish the sounds of two other pups.

Outside, in the back of Winkler's truck, Sierakowicz said she found "a very nauseating sight."  The dog doing the loudest crying was a black and white pup vets later said was 10 to 12 weeks old. Sierakowicz said the dog, sitting up in a crate of dead pups, was conscious and quieted down when she talked to it.

Sierakowicz was the last prosecution witness called before the state rested its case. Her testimony seemed intended to bolster weak points in the prosecution's case pinpointed by Winkler's defense attorney.

Defense attorney Donald Johnson has questioned whether the surviving pups were conscious enough to be aware of pain. He suggests that their movement and whines were reflex acts of unconscious or only partially conscious dogs. Veterinarians have testified that is possible, and the veterinarian who examined the dead dogs said she would have expected them to have died quickly and without feeling much pain.

Iditarod Chief Veterinarian Robert Sept, called as a defense witness, testified under cross-examination that he believes it would be reckless and neglectful to fail to check the vital signs of all the pups to make sure they were dead.

Beckwith, however, told jurors to disregard Sept's opinion on that. The question of Winkler's recklessness is a legal decision that only the jury can make, she said.

Update 4/10/92:  Iditarod musher Frank Winkler testified that he tried to kill 14 unwanted pups from his kennel last September as quickly and painlessly as possible shooting the older dogs with a .22 rifle pressed to their heads and using the dull end of an ax to bash the skulls of a half-dozen week-old puppies.

Winkler said none of the dogs moved as he and a hired hand loaded them into a crate and that he believed all were dead. He said he did not wake when at least two of the dogs whined and cried outside his bedroom window hours later.

A neighbor heard the injured dogs and called the city's animal control office. After an investigation, Winkler was charged with 28 counts of animal cruelty.

Half those charges were dismissed by District Judge Martha Beckwith. The six-member jury in Winkler's case is expected to begin deliberations on 14 remaining charges accusing Winkler of recklessly neglecting the dogs and causing them "severe pain or suffering."

State prosecutors say Winkler was reckless in failing to kill the dogs cleanly, and in failing to make sure they were all dead.

"Was it your intent to cause any of these animals any pain whatsoever?" asked Winkler's attorney, Donald Johnson. "No," Winkler said. "It was not."

Under skeptical questioning by Assistant District Attorney Mindy McQueen, Winkler conceded that he didn't check the pups' vital signs before he loaded them in a crate in the back of his pickup.

"I didn't want to put them down in the first place," said Winkler, a 31- year-old plumber who has been mushing since 1989. "And I didn't want to pick them up. It hurt."

Winkler said he has 64 or 65 dogs now and is trying to breed a stronger kennel. He said the Iditarod first piqued his interest in mushing in 1983, and he has run the race twice.

Last summer, three of his dogs had what defense attorney Johnson called "accidental breedings."  Winkler said he tried to give the unwanted pups away, running an ad in the newspaper for two weeks and posting signs at his church and his vet's office, but was unsuccessful.

He said he couldn't afford to feed the dogs and pay their medical expenses. And he said the only time he had an adult dog put to sleep by the vet, he was charged $55. Even if the vet charged half that to kill pups, Winkler said, he wouldn't have been able to afford it.

Using the rifle he borrowed to kill the dogs, Winkler demonstrated for the jury how he held the older pups down with his left hand and held the gun with his right hand.  "I took them individually, held them to the ground, put the gun to their head and pulled the trigger," he said.

He said he picked up each of the six week-old pups, held them against a doghouse, and hit them in the head with the blunt end of an ax.

McQueen asked why Winkler didn't shoot the smaller pups too.  "They were so small I would have shot my own hand if I would have shot them," he said.

Update 4/11/92:  A district court jury convicted two-time Iditarod musher Frank Winkler of four misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty but acquitted him of 10 other cruelty charges that grew out of a botched attempt to destroy 14 puppies.

After the verdicts were read, a subdued Winkler told Judge Martha Beckwith he was sorry about the whole mess.  "I apologize to the court for what I've done," he said. "I never wanted to hurt anyone or anything."

Beckwith heard sentencing arguments from attorneys and said she will announce a sentence soon.

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog committee voted to permanently bar Winkler from the race.  "Iditarod expects the highest level of conduct from its mushers," said Iditarod Vice President Jim Wood. "Any musher that is found guilty of cruel or inhumane treatment to any animal will be permanently suspended from participating in any aspect of the . . . race."  Wood said Winkler can petition for reinstatement to the race after five years.

Winkler testified in court that watching the Iditarod in 1983 inspired him to become a musher. He ran the race in 1989 and 1991.

The jury of three women and three men deliberated about four hours, after a weeklong trial that received more media attention than most murder trials.

The charges against Winkler accused him of causing the puppies severe pain or suffering by recklessly neglecting to make sure they were dead.

The four guilty counts referred to the two pups Miceli found alive, a third one Sierakowicz said she thought she heard, and a fourth pup that veterinarians said suffered a broken jaw and neck.

Assistant District Attorney Mindy McQueen asked Beckwith to impose at least a three-month jail term to "send a message to the community that this type of behavior is not to be tolerated."  "This case is no less important because these (victims) were animals rather than human beings," McQueen said.

McQueen said Winkler's behavior has drawn critical worldwide attention to the Iditarod race, one of the state's banner sporting events. "The worst thing about this case is that it has truly blackened the name of the Iditarod," she said.

Winkler asked Beckwith to order him to do community work service instead of sending him to jail. He said he wanted to help society rather than be a burden on it.

Friends of the musher who have supported him through the trial said he's a good man who was treated unfairly by the city and state agencies that investigated him.

"It's kind of scary to regular people, just ordinary people, what can happen to somebody in the court system," said Naida McGee, one of Winkler's champions.

Fourteen other charges against Winkler were dismissed before the case went to the jury. Each of his four convictions is a class A misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum of one year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Update 4/17/92:  Former Iditarod musher Frank Winkler will perform 160 hours of community service one-fourth of it clerking for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals as penance for allowing badly hurt puppies to suffer for 10 hours last fall, a state judge said.

District Court Judge Martha Beckwith also ordered Winkler to serve two years of probation, and ordered him not to personally try to destroy any of his dogs during that time. If he completes the probationary period without further incident, four misdemeanor convictions for animal cruelty would be erased from his record.

Prosecutors had asked Beckwith to jail Winkler after his conviction last week on four counts of animal cruelty. But the judge said it is important to remember that Winkler was convicted of misdemeanors for recklessly, not intentionally, causing severe pain and suffering to four of 14 pups he culled from his dog yard.

"While the community might not want to acknowledge that this practice occurs, or like that it occurs, the practice of culling of dogs for dog mushing purposes, for breeding purposes, is an accepted practice in this community," she said. "It is not illegal, and that is not what Mr. Winkler is charged with."

"The mushers who race in the Iditarod and are using their teams are not using the only dogs that were ever born to them. To support large kennels of 60 to 400 dogs, it only makes sense to deduce that these dogs that are in the kennel probably comprise a small number of the dogs that were actually born. . . . I would assume that a significant number are killed, put down, disposed of or culled, to leave the remaining or best dogs in the kennel for breeding purposes or for running or racing."

Reference:

Anchorage Daily News