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A prison farm, that is.
Five of the dogs arrived by truck Monday afternoon and are now fenced inside an apple orchard at the minimum-security Point MacKenzie Correctional Farm, said superintendent Amy Rabeau.
Some of the huskies are now available for adoption. Only a few will temporarily live at the farm.
"We're just the foster parents," said Rabeau, who hopes to socialize the animals with the help of inmate caretakers.
The huskies belonged to 53-year-old Frank Rich, who was charged with 50 counts of animal cruelty after troopers and shelter workers trucked nearly 160 the dogs from his home Jan. 10.
Rich has pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges.
At least 22 dogs were found dead at the homestead, troopers said at the time. The borough was awarded ownership of the dogs at a forfeiture hearing last week, shelter officials say.
"At this point we're just moving forward, trying to find homes and places to put them," said Mat-Su animal control manager Richard Stockdale.
As they grow healthier, Stockdale expects to move about 20 huskies to the prison farm where inmates tend to potatoes, vegetables and livestock.
Rabeau said there's room for as many as 52 huskies, if needed.
They won't be alone. Along with more than 120 inmates, the farm has cows, pigs, some 600 chickens -- and three "prison dogs," Sassy, Bear and Waylon.
The shelter dogs will eventually get names too as the prison tries to make them easier to adopt by acclimating them to people, Rabeau said.
"We're going to take them on walks, bring them indoors ... if they get over their shyness," she said.
The Mat-Su shelter received tens of thousands of dollars in donations after the seizure made headlines last month, Stockdale said. Some of the dogs were placed in a horsebarn at the crowded shelter. Job Corps students built houses for others.
"We've had to ask the public not to bring stuff to us and that's not fair to them because they're the ones paying the taxes to keep us going," Stockdale said.
Workers will bring more dogs to the prison farm as they remove housing or kennel sections from the shelter outside of Palmer and set them up at the Point MacKenzie farm, he said.
Read The Village, the ADN's blog about rural Alaska, at adn.com/thevillage. Twitter updates: twitter.com/adnvillage. Call Kyle Hopkins at 257-4334.
