- Kimberly Mikesell, 49, faces charges accusing her of animal cruelty and forgery in Herriman.
- Animal services say they found as many as 129 dogs at her residence during visits.
- Mikesell is accused of neglecting veterinary care and falsifying vaccination records.
HERRIMAN — The owner of a nonprofit dog rescue operation in Herriman is facing criminal charges accusing her of not properly caring for the animals in her custody or seeking vet care when needed.
Kimberly Mikesell, 49, of Herriman, was charged Thursday in 3rd District Court with forgery, a third-degree felony; obstruction of justice, a class A misdemeanor; plus four counts of cruelty to an animal and two counts of creating a nuisance, class B misdemeanors.
Between May 1, 2024, and Aug. 28 of this year, officers with Salt Lake County Animal Services "responded to multiple complaints regarding Kimberly Mikesell and her organization Outreach Pawsabilities. Animal Services was advised that Mikesell was keeping an extreme number of dogs at her residence," according to charging documents. "During visits to Mikesell's residence, officers observed as many as 129 dogs being kept in her home, garages and yard."
One employee told police that many of Mikesell's dogs were only let out of their crates once a day and "were groomed so infrequently that they had feces matted to their hindquarters and nails so long they curled sideways. One of Mikesell's neighbors also reported that the dogs barked nonstop, day and night," the charges allege.
On multiple visits to her home, animal control officers saw "piles of large black trash bags full of urine and feces-soaked blankets outside the residence and experienced a strong scent of urine and feces," according to the charges.
They also observed dogs in kennels stacked on top of each other, and some kennels had more than one dog in them, prosecutors said.
"The majority of the dogs did not have access to food, water or adequate space to move comfortably," the charges state. "Officers often had to yell to be heard over the many dogs' extremely loud and incessant barking."
While investigating a report that one of the dogs bit someone, officers discovered the vaccination record of the dog provided by Mikesell actually belonged to a different dog, according to the charges. When officers requested that Mikesell provide them with documentation for all of her dogs, she allegedly "became defensive and stated she was unable to provide it."
Investigators also talked to a former veterinary technician who had previously adopted a dog from Mikesell. That woman said Mikesell asked her for help with some of her dogs rather than take the dogs to a veterinary clinic, according to the charging documents.
The vet technician helped Mikesell with a Shih Tzu named Walter and took Walter to an animal hospital, where he was diagnosed with Cushing's syndrome, "and when an animal hospital suggested humane euthanasia, Mikesell removed Walter from (the vet tech's) care. When Walter subsequently suffered a stroke, Mikesell again declined to seek out care," the charges say.
The vet tech also observed a video on Outreach Pawsabilities' social media pages showing an English bulldog named "Bogart" who was allegedly in respiratory distress. But "Mikesell declined to have the dog treated," the charges allege.
The vet tech ended up picking up Bogart from a storage unit in West Jordan where "Mikesell was also keeping several other dogs," according to court documents. "All four dogs required medical treatment, which Mikesell declined to seek out.
"In fact, Mikesell reached out to (the vet tech) multiple times to request information on Bogart so that Mikesell could use that information to treat the other sick dogs that had been transported with Bogart, stating that it was cheaper than taking them to the vet," the charges state.
Mikesell was also charged in August in Salt Lake Justice Court in one case with cruelty to animals and having nuisance animals, both class B misdemeanors, and in another case with a dog breeder's license violation, also a class B misdemeanor.
