Couple Arrested on Animal Cruelty Charges for Conditions at Shelter

BRADENTON – The Manatee County Sheriff's Office reports that two arrests have been made in an ongoing animal cruelty investigation related to Napier’s Log Cabin Horse and Animal Sanctuary in East Manatee County. Alan Napier, 51, and Sheree Napier, 45, were arrested Thursday afternoon around 4 p.m.

The Napiers are charged with 15 counts of Aggravated Animal Cruelty. Alan Napier is also charged with one count of Fraud. The animal cruelty charges involve nine dogs, five horses and one cat.

On February 5, 2014, deputies executed a search warrant at the facility on State Road 64 East, where over 300 dogs, cats, horses, pigs and other animals were confiscated from the property after deputies and animal services employees found them being housed in rancid squalor.

Napier’s Log Cabin Horse and Animal Sanctuary was an overflow facility that received animals from the county shelters in an effort to accomplish no kill status. 

The county commission and Animal Services Director Kris Weiskopf were inundated with complaints from Manatee citizens demanding to know how such a facility could exist in Manatee County, let alone do business with its shelters without anyone knowing of the deplorable conditions in which the animals were kept (see video below).

County officials have said they will conduct an internal audit to evaluate how complaints about animal cruelty at the shelter were handled, and that a probe will be conducted by Clerk of the Circuit Court R.B. "Chips" Shore.

update: On 4-19-14 at around 11:00 am, Dr. Edward E. Dunham was arrested at his residence in Palmetto on one count of Aggravated Animal Cruelty.  The arrest is in connection with the ongoing investigation involving Napier's Animal Sanctuary.