Kingman-Mojave County Animal Control officials seized nearly 150 dogs, pigs and poultry last month on the Cedar Hills property just east of Kingman. The legal foreclosure was publicly disclosed during a February 8 Mojave County Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.

The Commission considered Amy Dille’s application for a special use permit in late December 2022 to operate a 36-acre commercial kennel located north of Yeater Drive and east of Dog Leg Road. Deputy County Attorney Jeff Hawes explained the staff’s recommendation to continue permit applications to future meetings.

“For information to the Commission, there is an ongoing criminal investigation and a current criminal case in the Court of Justice related to this package,” Hawes said.

Chairman Lajuana Gillette called animal control officers to the podium to ask for more information.

“It’s not a misdemeanor. They’re a felony. Thirty-eight of them were assigned to two different individuals,” explained Officer Robert Weaver. “Due to the conditions in which the animal was found, we recommend that the permit be denied rather than extended.”

Anita Mortensen, spokeswoman for the Mojave County Sheriff’s Department, said this week that groups seeking to adopt dogs from their Cedar Hills property contacted authorities on Jan. 14 to confirm the suspicious circumstances and bones in sight. He said he had reported an emaciated dog. urine.

She said Weaver and another officer seized 38 dogs on January 22, one of which died.

Mortensen said Dill was away and the man who was caring for the animals told officers she was in Virginia. Animal Control’s recommendation to indict the unidentified man and Dire with 38 felony counts of animal neglect or cruelty is pending with the county attorney’s office.

Dill is named in another Kingman Judicial Court case involving citations related to animal cruelty and neglect in nine counts that seized more than a dozen animals on Jan. 28. Mortensen said: Due to lack of water and other factors, the police obtained 5 pigs, 2 geese, 23 ducks, 15 turkeys, 16 chickens and 48 chickens.

Dire did not attend Planning and Zoning Committee meetings and did not respond to texts, phone calls, emails and Facebook communications seeking comment.

The committee approved Gillette’s motion to recommend that the oversight board deny Dill’s special use permit request. “I get a little excited when we talk about animals,” she said.