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Thursday, May 3, 2007

Dentist Cleared of Animal-Cruelty Charges

By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
    A Tijeras man who faced charges of extreme cruelty to animals recently reached a settlement with Bernalillo County.
    Tijeras dentist Robert Belfon has been cleared of all charges.
    Belfon's animals— numbering more than 45, including at least 35 birds— were seized from his property in February 2005. He later pleaded guilty to one count of failure to provide care and maintenance of animals, according to an assistant district attorney.
    Belfon recently settled out of court a separate civil lawsuit stemming from the case. The suit, which would have allowed for the impoundment and sale of his animals, was brought by Bernalillo County Comissioners in March 2005.
    The civil case was prosecuted by attorneys Patrick Trujillo, Jeffrey Landers and Eric Schuler. Schuler declined to comment on the case last week.
    The terms of the civil settlement were undisclosed, but it did require area animal control officers to monitor the animals on a regular basis every two weeks ending May 31 of this year.
    The monitoring has been ongoing for more than a year and no problems were reported, according to Bernalillo County Public Information Officer Liz Hamm.
    According to an affidavit filed by Bernalillo County sheriff's deputy David Brown, Belfon's animals were starved and neglected in 2005.
    Brown came across the situation while responding to a report of a dead horse at Belfon's Tijeras home.
    The horse appeared to be in an advanced stage of decomposition, according to the affidavit. Brown also observed extremely thin horses and dogs, six dead chickens and a dead peacock. Belfon's birds, four dogs and five horses had no access to water or food.
    Belfon later told Deputy Brown "that his animals were 'just fine,'" according to Brown's affidavit.
    Brown also contacted the landlords for a prior address of Belfon's. The landlords told Brown that they had evicted Belfon, in part, because of his failure to care for his animals, according to the affidavit.
    Belfon has been in possession of all of his animals since August 2005, according to Hamm. His settlement in the criminal case required him to make monetary contributions to Albuquerque Metro Crime Stoppers and an animal welfare organization and have a licensed veterinarian visit his property.
    Belfon complied, according to Chris Schultz, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case.