(Published Tuesday, April 10, 2007 11:22:48 AM CST)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
By Stacy Vogel Gazette staff
A Janesville man has been ordered to get rid of the animals in his home after police discovered him raising more than 300 birds and small mammals in his basement to sell as pets.
Mark A. Gann, 36, of 464 Douglas St., Janesville, had been raising mice, rabbits, hamsters, birds and other small animals to sell to the pet store where he worked, according to a police report.
He also kept fish, snakes and three unlicensed dogs as pets, according to the report.
A neighbor called police March 31, complaining of a strong odor coming from the home Gann rents, according to the report.
Lt. Tom Wolfram, one of the responding officers, said he could smell animal odors from outside the home. Wolfram has experience breeding rats and said he recognized the smell as he went down the stairs.
The south end of the basement at 464 Douglas St. shows some of the shelves full of cages where Mark Gann was raising more than 300 animals he would sell to pet stores.
Photo courtesy Janesville Police Department
"I knew right away what he was doing," he said.
The officers discovered cages piled floor-to-ceiling around the walls and in the middle of the basement, Wolfram said. The animals all appeared to have adequate food and water, but some of the bedding in the cages was dirty and smelly, he said.
"I couldn't even count the cages," he said. "It wasn't that he was abusing or neglecting the animals, but he had more than he could take care of."
The police report described flies in the basement and mice running loose among bedding and food on the floor.
Officers also found one dead bird that appeared to be newly hatched, although Wolfram suspected it died from natural causes, he said.
Gann, who could not be reached for comment, admitted to police that he was breeding the animals to sell to Petland, 2021 Humes Road, Janesville, according to the police report.
Petland owner Mike Sardina said he bought mice, hamsters and occasional parakeets from Gann but declined to say how much he paid for them. Gann sold animals to other stores, too, he said.
It's standard practice for pet stores to buy small animals from individuals, Sardina said, adding that the store buys puppies only from licensed breeders.
"These are mice and hamsters," he said. "That's all we've ever purchased from him other than a handful of parakeets now and then."
Officers also discovered feces in the kitchen from three small dogs Gann kept as pets, according to the report.
"He was spending so much time with everything else that he didn't have time to take care of (the dogs)," Wolfram said.
Officers cited Gann for keeping unlicensed dogs and two illegal snakes.
Officials from the Rock County Humane Society, Rock County Health Department and Janesville Neighborhood Services returned April 2. They determined Gann was running an unlicensed business and ordered him to stop within 30 days.
The property owner also gave Gann an order to evict unless he removed all the animals except the dogs, said Holly Romenesko, neighborhood services director.
Gann had cleaned up the kitchen by then, and officials did not find evidence that he was abusing the animals or that the home was unfit to live in, Romenesko said.
"We didn't find that he was endangering the animals or harming the animals," she said. "It was pretty neat and tidy."
Although a Janesville ordinance controls how many dogs or cats a person may keep in a home, it does not regulate the number of other animals, Romenesko said. Gann violated ordinances by selling the animals, not keeping them.
But Tim Banwell, environmental health director at the county health department, said a home with more than 300 animals would be unsanitary no matter how clean the tenant kept it.
"It's just not an ideal situation," he said.
Banwell hopes the department takes steps to regulate how many animals besides cats and dogs a person can own, he said.
"This year we're going to try to figure out some way to address these, where people are hoarding animals," he said.
