A chronic issue of animal overpopulation and a rodent infestation at 791 Galax Trail in Mount Airy reached its final conclusion after a previous hearing ended early due to a medical emergency of one of the participants.
The main issue was that the home presents a health concern to the other homes and businesses around it.
Homeowner Crystal Ritter had appealed the ruling that her home was in violation of the county’s nuisance property ordinance and her appeal was unanimously rejected by the commissioners after lengthy testimony.
County planning director Marty Needham offered some examples of medical offices nearby the Ritter residence that may be impacted noting that Northern Wellness Center was 768 feet from the property and Dr. John Gravitte’s office is 1,370 feet away.
The concern is that animals are co-mingling in a small piece of land where they were, at times, sharing the same food sources that may have become intermixed with various animal’s feces.
Two area veterinarians, Dr. Richard Brinegar and Dr. David Ackerman, both gave testimony they were concerned about potential health risks including transmission of diseases from rodents, ticks, and fleas.
The hearing was managed as though it were in court with witnesses being sworn in by Assistant County Manager Sandy Snow before being questioned by land use attorney Howard Jones on behalf of the county and then cross-examined by Ritter.
Ritter was prepared with lists of questions and her cross examinations attempted to poke holes in the testimony of the witnesses by asking direct questions pertaining to specific facts of the investigation.
When Needham cited that trash was stacked in a parked car during an on-site inspection, she asked which car it was and if he was aware that car was not registered or in use. Jones raised frequent objections to the questions she asked saying she was offering testimony in form of asking a question or misrepresenting previous testimony.
Area neighbors offered their observations and experiences of the situation. Ron Cockerham said he has lived in the area for more than 40 years and had no issue with rats, flies, or skunks until Ritter moved in.
He said that efforts to abate the rats with the likes of Terminix were unsuccessful. “They said there was no way to deal with the rat or skunk problem as long as that property on top of the hill remained in the condition it was in,” he said.
Ritter contends the rats did not come from her property and suggested they originated in her neighbor Pam Bledsoe’s yard — the two properties share a hill. Chairman Van Tucker said, “I’m a farm boy, but darn if it’s not hard to figure out where a rat came from exactly.”
Bledsoe testified she has lived on that property since 1985 and had not had any issues with rats “before Mrs. Ritter got there” and that she is concerned the rodents create a health concern.
She also said the animals and the smell from the lot are compromising her quality of life. She said the smell reminds her of a “pigsty, dog lot, goat farm, something like that — all those smells. We can’t even eat on their deck because of the smell.”
“You have the facts, and you know our needs,” neighbor Delores Taylor said. “This has been going on for way too long… We are all very concerned with this infestation of these rats and the health damage that it can do.”
Brinegar has years of experience as a local vet and also has experience working with the Environmental Protection Agency regarding indoor air quality.
He presented information about his observations from the property including the presence of rat feces both inside and out of the home “and feces mixed in with food of the animals and foul living on the property.”
The animals he said showed signs of stress and dehydration. “The feces told us that.”
He testified the birds were tested for respiratory infection, “Unfortunately we found micro plasm in one of the poultry, which is a very serious disease. It’s a state law that it is a reportable disease... That’s not good for the poultry industry and the economy of this county, or the public health of the county.”
“It’s a tremendous risk and I would urge the commissioners to take extreme and swift action because what we have here — we’re sitting on a powder keg,” Brinegar said.
He added, “If you take small piece of property and put a large number of animals there and they eat, drink, pee, and poop — and there are different species doing it all in a small space there the land is not in a situation to handle that, it’s just a breeding ground and that’s why there are so many rodents.”
The rodents are a major public health concern he said, “because they carry diseases, they come and go as they want, they breed rapidly, and they carry other animals like ticks and fleas. So, you just have this big soup for a breeding ground or a public health disaster.”
“What compounds it is that it is taking place in a neighborhood area where people come for medical services, so they may be sick already. It’s a bad place for this to be and this is a chronic problem.”
Dr. David Ackerman agreed. “There are too many species of animals located on that piece of property and there is infestation of rodents that creates a perfect storm for disease manifestation and also potential changing of some of the viruses that can be transmitted between species.”
“That is the primary reason in animal husbandry multi-species housing has to be somewhat segregated to prevent those problems from happening and there is documentation that does occur,” he said, noting cows that are manifesting avian flu in some instances.
“This environment that we are discussing magnifies that possibility and presents a tremendous public health risk and frankly, in my opinion, living in an agriculturally based community, this affects our economy. Public health is number one here, but economy is number two.”
The terms of the abatement order will take effect which include removing all animals, contracting a professional rodent removal service, and filling in holes in the interior walls of the home through which rodents may enter to access food.
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