Farm or no farm? Summit man challenges animal cruelty case as most charges held for court

Pennsylvania State Police troopers and members of at least one other assisting agency traveled in early October to an Edinboro Road property in Summit Township to view allegations of animal cruelty and neglect captured on cell phone video with an expletive-filled narration of what the video was showing.

The tour of the property on Oct. 8 led to search warrants, the removal of about 200 animals in October and the questioning of the man who owned them.

In late November, state police charged the owner, 49-year-old Gregory S. Havican, with 163 felony, misdemeanor and summary counts of animal cruelty and neglect. Investigators citing the poor physical condition of the seized animals ― dogs, pigs, goats, chickens, ducks and pigeons ― a lack of food and water and the unhealthy condition of the places the animals were kept on the property.

Havican is now facing trial on a majority of those charges.

More:163 cruelty counts: Summit man charged after live, dead animals found in 'inhumane' state

The case against Havican is advancing following a nearly nine-hour preliminary hearing before Summit Township District Judge Brian McGowan that was held over two sessions 23 days apart in two different courtrooms in the Summit Township Municipal Building. The emotionally charged and at times raucous hearing, which wrapped up late Friday afternoon, featured multiple objections, loud exchanges between lawyers and the judge and even tears as a number of witnesses were called to testify for prosecutors and the defense.

McGowan held Havican for court on felony counts of aggravated cruelty to animals and misdemeanor counts of animal neglect relating to most of the dogs and puppies and a majority of the chickens.

McGowan dismissed felony and misdemeanor charges related to the goats, the pigs, a small number of chickens and three puppies. The charges related to the pigeons and ducks were summary offenses and were also held for court, along with all of the other summary counts filed by state police.

Prosecution, defense strategies outlined

Prosecutors used video, statements of troopers and others who viewed the property, and information provided by three veterinarians who examined the seized animals, to argue that Havican endangered and harmed the animals, some of which died, by the way they were kept and were treated on the property at 7671 Edinboro Road.

The defense strategy revealed through the questioning of Havican's lawyer, Charbel Latouf, centered on whether the Edinboro Road property would be considered a working farm, thereby making it exempt under a provision of state law from animal cruelty and other offenses related to the keeping of animals.

Latouf also raised questions about whether moving the animals from the Edinboro Road farm and they way in which they were kept on other farms following their seizure could have led to their poor health conditions and to the deaths of some of them.

The opening of Havican's preliminary hearing on Jan. 17 featured nearly three hours of testimony that centered on the conditions of the Edinboro Road farm. Those who testified under questioning by First Assistant District Attorney Jessica Reger included a man who said he was hired to feed the animals, but not clean their enclosures, and who filmed the conditions on the farm after he said he became upset when he witnessed a puppy chewing on a deceased puppy.

The video the man shot was passed along to authorities who later visited the property in October. They included the owner of the Erie-based A.N.N.A. shelter and Pennsylvania State Police troopers. Their testimony included statements about finding animals caked in feces in kennels full of feces, a lack of food and water for the animals and a burn pile where bones and a deceased puppy were found.

More:Testimony in Summit man's animal cruelty case centers on conditions; vets to testify next

Veterinarians take the stand

Reger on Friday presented testimony from three veterinarians who said they assessed a number of the animals after they were removed from the Edinboro Road property.

One veterinarian who said he assessed 10 goats testified that a few were in pretty good shape, while others were pretty thin. Using a rating scale from 1 to 5, with those rated a 3 or 4 considered healthy animals, the veterinarian said that he gave the goats ratings of 2, 2.5 and 3 and characterized most of them as being underweight.

The veterinarian said it was easy to raise the ratings of the goats by increasing their feed and worming them. The veterinarian also said he believed he examined the animals in December.

The veterinarian said under questioning by Latouf that the worming was done as preventative medicine, and he did not have the medical history of the animals and did not know if they had been wormed previously.

More:'Defective horses' led to prior legal problems for defendant in Summit animal cruelty case

A second veterinarian who examined the chickens, pigs and a puppy testified that the puppy had a bad intestinal infection and eventually succumbed to the infection. He said he rated the puppy as a 1, as it had no body fat and no reserves, but could not say if better nutrition would have saved it as he has seen robust animals die from such an infection.

The veterinarian said one of the pigs he examined was in "surprisingly good condition," and suspected that it had been recently purchased. The pig was eating and doing well, but its condition later deteriorated and it died of pneumonia, he said.

The veterinarian said the more than 50 chickens he examined all had similar conditions, as they had very little muscle mass. He said he rated them as a 1, considering them to be emaciated, and stated that such an animal's score can easily rise with the correct nutrition.

The veterinarian said he believes the chickens that died had died of starvation, and when he examined a few of the chickens that died he found no food in their intestinal tracts.

The veterinarian agreed when Latouf asked him if the chickens could have gone into shock when they were removed from the Edinboro Road farm and could have stopped eating. He also agreed when Latouf asked if the chickens could have died after contracting a disease, which they were not tested for.

According to testimony, the chickens were seized on Oct. 8 and Oct. 9 and the veterinarian examined them on Oct. 10. The veterinarian examined a few of the chickens that had died on Oct. 18.

The third veterinarian testified about the conditions of 18 dogs and puppies she examined less than a week after they were removed from the property. She said a number were underweight, some severely; a number had flea infestations to the point where there was concern about them possibly contracting flea anemia, which can be lethal; and some had skin infections.

The veterinarian also said one of the dogs underwent surgery so it could urinate properly; one had wounds on the tips of its ears; one had broken incisors that would have to be extracted, and one had an abnormal tail tip that indicated previous trauma.

All of the dogs ate very well and gained weight under care, the veterinarian testified.

The veterinarian said under questioning by Latouf that she did not know if the dogs were being treated for fleas before they were seized and did not know what condition the dogs were in before she examined them.

Defense witness claims no neglect seen

Latouf called as a witness Dan Johnson, the owner of a livestock auction in Sherman, New York, who also owns three farms. He testified he visited Havican's property days before state police visited the property in early October and he did not see any signs of neglect.

Johnson described the dog kennels as nice, said the pigs he saw looked healthy and marketable, said the sheep and goats looked nice, and the chickens seemed healthy and looked "the same as anybody else's chickens."

Johnson also testified that Havican's property appeared to be a farm, and that burning a deceased animal is a common and accepted practice on farms.

Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Summit man challenges animal cruelty charges as some held for court