Overrun with Rottweilers

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Overrun with Rottweilers
By BROOK REINHARD


SPRAGUE RIVER - Michael Halcomb lives near Sprague River with his dog Bear.

And his dog Shi Shi, and Danielle, and Brownie and Short Short.

And about 25 others.

Halcomb is the owner of about 30 Rottweilers, ranging from several-week-old puppies to large dogs like the all-too-friendly Bear. He lives in a mobile home on a plot of scrubland, and the dogs give him plenty of company as they run free in his home and in the tiny fenced yard he's built for them.

County regulations allow people to own four dogs. Any more than that, and a $600 kennel license is required. Halcomb would like to get the license, but it requires him to fence a much larger area.

With a fixed income he draws from an Army disability benefit, Halcomb can't afford to buy a fence or apply for the license or even eat more than one meal a day - most his money goes to the 50-pound bags of dog food he buys for the animals, bought by the pallet-load, 30 at a time.

The South Carolina native said he had five Rottweilers when he lived in Klamath Falls. But without the money to spay or neuter any of them, his dogs became a pack, especially after he moved out to the Sprague River area.

"I feel comfortable out here," he said, adding that there's more space at his current home.

His landlord, Robert Thomas Van Meter, is required to attend a public hearing Aug. 1 so the county can do something about Halcomb's pets.

"Either we'll give him some more time or eliminate the excess dogs," said Kim Lundahl, a senior planner and code enforcement officer for Klamath County.

Halcomb has been fined again and again, for infractions ranging from having too many animals to his failure to administer rabies shots to 30-plus canines. He said he's tried to give them away, but people are skeptical of a dog breed that has such a poor reputation.

Giving up even a single animal is hard for Halcomb, who says the animals are the only family he has, and help him in his bouts with depression.

"I've been trying to find them homes, but because of their breed it's hard," he said, adding that one of his neighbors hates his animals.

"He flat-out said that Rottweilers, along with dobbies and pitbulls, should all be killed because they're vicious animals," he said.

Halcomb, who was an Army private, doesn't seem to have vicious animals. They bark happily whenever someone visits, and when he shows off his favorite, Bear, the creature gives a friendly hello by jumping up on the visitor, and almost knocking him over with his chest-high leaps.

Still, while one dog can be pleasant, a pack of 30 can be frightening, especially if they come at you like an army.

That's what happened to one of Halcomb's neighbors.

"About 12 of them come on the property one time," said the neighbor, who didn't want to be identified. "My wife ran into the garage, screaming, and so did I."

"I drove up to his house and I was screaming so damn loud, he didn't talk to me."

The neighbor has filed two complaints so far, and each time the county went to Halcomb's house and fined him.

Halcomb said he never meant to have so many animals.

"I was hit by three litters back in January," he said, adding that it's been heart-wrenching to dispose of dogs that were diseased or lame.

"I'm from South Carolina. I was raised Southern style, and it hurt me to put a couple of dogs down because they weren't gonna live."

Finding homes for his pets is Halcomb's biggest challenge. He barely has enough money to pay for gas into town, especially with a barely-running rig he also has to use on calls as a volunteer firefighter.

"Each one of the dogs are real good, have a good temperament," he said.