Acker guilty-receives suspended sentence

On Jan. 23, Fred Acker , having been found guilty of 15 counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty, was sentenced to six months of jail time (suspended), 2 years’ probation, and a $15k fine by Judge John Danaher. Acker had been charged with 63 counts of animal cruelty after he was found to have kept 63 dogs in an unheated facility in Bethlehem Ct. in Nov. 2012. The temperature in that facility at that time was between 30 and 32 degrees F. State law requires that any facility housing dogs or cats for any period of time must maintain a mean temperature of at least 54 degrees.

 Judge Danaher decided, in his ultimate wisdom, that only the small dogs, 15, would come under that State Law. The law does not differentiate between large and small dogs or it would have stipulated that in the wording of the original law. Since then Acker has contested the number of dogs that were in the facility saying there were 65 dogs and that someone had stolen 2 of his dogs, a poodle named “Melody” and a Chihuahua named “Buddy”, and since these are both “small” breed dogs, Acker is saying in effect that he should have been found guilty of 17 counts of animal cruelty. Think about this, Acker is attempting to turn his arrest and conviction around by accusing Animal Control Officer Judy Ulmstead who had made the arrest, and Brad Davis, a local vet who was called to the location the night of the arrest and seizure and made the initial findings, and having them be the “bad guys”.

Officer Ulmstead has been involved in this case for over 15 months. She has performed her duties as an animal control officer in an exemplary manor, and in my opinion, deserves a commendation for her service and performance in this case. Acker was in the process of moving his animal “rescue” from Monroe Ct. to Bethlehem when he got caught and was charged. He has been doing this, selling unwanted dogs for over 20+ years and making profits in the hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.  How is it that Acker had never been investigated before by either the local ACO in Monroe, or the State Regional ACOs’ in Hartford where he is well known for his questionable business practices and flagrant manipulation of both unfortunate dogs and the people he scams out of thousands of dollars. Acker refers to the money he obtains from uninformed people in his sales as “donations” which means if the new owner has a problem with the dog, he will take the dog back but under law he has no obligation to return the money. He is also recognized as a “non- profit, non- taxed” rescue organization by the IRS.

 I would ask anyone who is outraged by this complete miscarriage of justice to call, E-mail, and send letters to the following people: Steven K. Reviczky, State Agriculture Commissioner, Officer Ray Conner Chief State Animal Control Officer, both at the State Office Building Hartford Ct. 06115, to your local newspapers, to your State Representatives, and for any animal rights organizations, obtain petitions from your members and send them to Govenor Malloy also at the State House, Hartford, and The Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C.

M. H. Griffin – Chief Municipal Animal Control Officer Stratford, Ct. (Ret.)