Yvonne Krumrey

Juneau has a problem. A cat problem — indoor, outdoor, stray and feral. And the ones who aren’t spayed or neutered are multiplying at an alarming rate.

There are currently about 100 cats within Juneau Animal Rescue’s system, in foster care and the shelter itself. JAR hits capacity yearly, and it’s fundraising for a new building. But the number of unaltered cats in Juneau is growing faster and faster, and the shelter is struggling to keep up. 

Veterinarian Alicia Harris said it’s hard to know how many cats there are in Juneau. But she says they multiply fast.

“Cats can become reproductively mature as early as four to six months, and their reproductive cycle is every 90 days,” she said. “And the average litter sizes are five to six kittens. So if you do the math … things can multiply very, very quickly and get out of control very fast.”

Two unaltered cats can turn into hundreds in just a handful of years. Harris has worked at JAR for close to a decade. 

“It has absolutely evolved and changed since I started here, and gotten worse,” she said. “Especially with birth defects and things like that, because of inbreeding.” 

She said the litters of kittens that people find and bring in increasingly have health problems.

Andy Nelson with JAR said the majority of kittens are coming from indoor cats whose population got out of control in someone’s home.

“It’s the ones that are indoors that, I think, are maybe more confined to smaller spaces where they’re breeding and repeatedly breeding inside,” he said.

He said he knows there are more in the community reproducing, but it’s impossible to know how many. 

And spaying and neutering can be expensive. JAR has cheaper prices for low-income pet owners, but Nelson says people can call the rescue to see if donations can cover their cats’ surgery.

“I would just say that if people find themselves in the situation or try to avoid the situation, but money becomes an obstacle, to reach out,” he said. “We can always do our best to work with people. 

Nelson said he believes a lot of these cats are the descendants of cats people took in during the pandemic, from litters sold or given away on Craigslist or Facebook. 

Those cats usually aren’t fixed before they are given to their new home, and Juneau had a vet shortage during the pandemic. That may have prevented people from spaying and neutering cats before they started reproducing. 

Nelson said anyone who is overwhelmed by cats in their home or neighborhood should reach out.

JAR Director Rick Driscoll said if anyone wants a new cat, they should consider adopting from the shelter instead of getting them off the internet. 

“When you come to JAR and you adopt a cat, you’re getting a cat that’s been spayed or neutered, that’s got its vaccinations, that’s got a microchip, and there’s a fee associated with that,” he said. “But when people get cats for free, the cost comes later, and the cost is actually more than the adoption fee.”

Nelson said part of that cost is the animals’ health.

“A lot of these come in and they’ve been suffering,” he said. “And so they’re not in good shape.”

But there are community members who are stepping in to help, like Shonda Belknap, who fosters litters of kittens and even pulls litters out from under porches. In a room in her house dedicated to foster kittens, she held up a pale, very furry cat with crossed eyes. 

“His name is Finnegan B Waddles,” she said. “He came to me very, very ill. We discovered through vet appointments that he has congenital hypothyroidism, which is very rare, but he is actually almost ready for fostering, I mean, for adoption” 

Finnegan is inbred. He’s only a few weeks old, but he will require daily medication for the rest of his life. Belknap said fostering brings her a lot of joy. 

“You cannot be stressed in a room with foster kittens,” she said. “They won’t let you. They look at you like you’re the only thing that exists for them. So they need you to be present in that moment.”

She said when she sees posts on social media of Juneau families whose cats are unaltered and reproducing, she offers help.  

“I have reached out several times to people I’ve seen online,” she said. “Like, ‘oh my gosh, that’s 12 cats,’ and I’m like, ‘let’s get mom fixed. Let’s focus on mom.’”

Belknap takes in litters that are surrendered or found, takes care of them until they’re able to get spayed or neutered and vaccinated, and often pays for those procedures herself before finding them homes in the community. 

She said she wants to see the population under control, so existing cats can get the love and care they need. And so those cats can love and care for the people who take them in. 

After eight days of deliberation, the jury in a sexual assault trial against a former Juneau chiropractor returned a verdict of not guilty on two counts, and hung jury on 12 others on Thursday.

Twelve former patients accused Jeffrey Fultz of sexual assault under the guise of medical care. They say the incidents took place during medical appointments between 2014 and 2020 while he was employed at Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium in Juneau.

Fultz’s defense argued that he was offering legitimate medical care to these patients. His attorney said he was not available for comment Thursday afternoon.

Jamiann Hasselquist is one of more than a dozen women who filed charges against Fultz. He was acquitted of the charges associated with her complaints and she won’t be able to refile them.

“I thought that he was going to go in handcuffs after this whole time, you know, four years or so,” she said.

Jurors were unable to return a unanimous verdict on the 12 other counts. Those charges resulted in a mistrial. That means those charges, alongside two that were declared mistrial during proceedings, can be retried if the state chooses to do so.

Christina Love reported Fultz to Juneau police in 2021. At the courthouse Thursday, she said Fultz can leave Juneau, but she and other women are left without justice.

“He gets to hop on a plane, and there are 12 victims in this case that are left here holding it,” Love said. “That is absolutely earth shattering that we’re gonna have to do this all over again, like I can’t even comprehend it.”

Love said she plans to move forward with her charges.

“As long as he’s out walking, we’re going to keep trying to make sure that he’s never able to do this to anyone ever again, ever,” she said.

Hasselquist said she plans to support the women who plan to testify again.

The trial lasted six weeks. A status hearing to decide will happen next for the mistrial charges is scheduled for Sept. 23 at 10 a.m.

This story has been updated. 

This is Tongass Voices, a series from KTOO sharing weekly perspectives from the homelands of the Áak’w Kwáan and beyond.

Juneau’s cat population has been growing out of control for the last few years. Juneau Animal Rescue relies on fosters to help with litters of kittens that people find around town, under buildings and porches.

Tara Thornton is one of JAR’s fosters — she regularly has one or two litters of kittens with or without a nursing mom. Thornton has a passion for caring for these cats, but she says, sometimes it’s a bit hard to give them back.

Listen:

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Tara Thornton: My goal is to never cry at JAR. It’s okay to cry once you get in the car after you give them back. That’s my rule for myself. No crying in JAR, no crying before you drop them off. You always give them forehead kisses and snuggles before you drop them off. 

And realize like you’re doing an amazing service for their lives and you’re contributing to their success, and then finding loving homes and letting yourself then cry it out that evening and maybe get some pizza and ice cream, you know?

I’m Tara Thornton. I foster kittens for Juneau Animal Rescue, and it’s an amazing thing to contribute to the community, and also just so fun to interact with kittens and watch them grow and develop into cats. 

My history of fostering kittens – my mom went to school for zoology, and all I can remember is she always had rescues, like I grew up with rescues in the house. She was always taking in injured animals, specifically cats. Like, she’s definitely a cat lover. So I have lots of memories of being in a Walmart parking lot in the bushes, trying to capture kittens as a little kid. 

Something that’s so important to me is contributing to the community and protecting the cats, as many as I can without letting it overtake my life. Like this is the try to focus on. Like this is the part I can contribute to, is the fostering. I can’t fix all the problems that go [on] out there and spay, neuter everyone’s cats for them, but I can focus on keeping the babies alive and getting them to the point where they can be adopted by the public.

Juneau Animal Rescue is amazing to partner with. I love fostering for them. I feel so supported. I can text or call with any questions. They provide food and litter, wet food, dry food and litter, and just – they’re [an] amazing group of people that are just so compassionate anytime I go in there for checkups and they’re excited to see the babies as they get older and less spicy. And so it really feels like it’s a good team. 

If anyone has been thinking about adopting or fostering, now is the time to act on that, because jar has so many cats within their care, and all their regular cat fosters have multiple litters that they’re taking care of right now. So there’s only so many of us, so we really do need help. For anybody who’s even been curious and thinking about it, to volunteer time, resources, money, whatever you can do. Your home, if you can.

You can let JAR know your level of experience and comfortability and that you’re new, and get into it that way, and maybe take a senior cat – a little bit lower responsibility, or, like less time responsibility, but still really needed. Because I can’t take on three adult cats that need medication every day along with my two litters, and I’m sure the other kitten fosters are in the same boat. 

So we would really need a house that could take one cat that needs medication every day, or one house that could take a bonded senior pair of cats until they could be adopted. So any help is needed, and very much so appreciated.

After a week of deliberation, the jury continues to consider the evidence in a sexual assault trial against a former Juneau chiropractor. As of Friday afternoon, the jurors had yet to return a verdict. 

Twelve former patients accused Jeffrey Fultz of sexual assault under the guise of medical care. They say the incidents took place during medical appointments between 2014 and 2020 while he was employed at Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium in Juneau. 

Fultz’s defense argued that he was offering legitimate medical care to these patients.

The jury has been deliberating 13 counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual harassment against Fultz. 

When the trial started, there were two more counts of sexual assault associated with one alleged victim/complainant, but presiding Judge Larry Woolford declared a mistrial for those counts. Woolford said the state failed to disclose new evidence related to those charges.

Those charges can still be tried if state prosecutors choose to retry them.

Jury deliberation follows standard work hours, and will resume Tuesday after Labor Day. There is no time limit on how long the jury can deliberate. 

If the jury convicts Fultz on any of the counts, there will be a sentencing hearing. That’s when Judge Woolford will determine Fultz’s penalty for these convictions. Convictions in sexual assault cases can lead to years in prison. 

Southeast Alaska’s regional Native corporation has announced its new president. Aanshawatk’i Sarah Dybdahl will be the first woman to hold the position since Sealaska’s founding in 1972. 

The corporation’s board of directors voted to appoint Dybdahl, according to a press release. She currently directs the Office of the President at the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, and previously led the Huna Heritage Foundation. 

In her new role, she will manage Sealaska’s local operations, like their workforce development program.

Board Chair Richard Rinehart said the search for a president took longer than he imagined. But he said Dybdahl’s background in Alaska Native leadership made her a strong candidate.

“We wanted somebody that was going to have a new, fresh perspective, but still be very knowledgeable of where we’re at and what we’re trying to achieve,” Rinehart said. “And I think she has all of that.”

Sealaska changed its leadership structure amid the 2023 departure of Anthony Mallott, who served as both president and CEO. Now, the roles are separate. Terry Downes, the current Sealaska CEO, leads Sealaska’s business investments. Joe Nelson has served as interim president since last year and will continue to serve on Sealaska’s board.

Dybdahl was unavailable for comment Tuesday. 

“It is an honor to serve Sealaska and our shareholders,” Dybdahl said in the release. “Growing up in Klawock, I was shaped by the strength of our people and our culture, and I look forward to building on that foundation to create opportunities that uplift our communities for generations to come.”

Dybdahl’s salary is undecided, but Rinehart said it will be “competitive.” She starts next month.

The trial against a former Juneau chiropractor accused of assaulting a dozen patients under the guise of medical care has ended, and jurors are set to begin deliberation.

The former patients that accuse Jeffrey Fultz of assault say the incidents took place during medical appointments between 2014 and 2020 while he was employed at Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium in Juneau. 

The state prosecutors and Fultz’s defense attorneys gave their closing arguments Friday. It was their last chance to show what all the testimony was intended to prove — or disprove – and to sway the jurors to their side. 

State prosecutors argued that Fultz abused his patients’ trust and sexually assaulted them in a clinical setting. Fultz’s defense said that he provided appropriate medical care to those patients.

Prosecutor Krystyn Tendy told the jury that from the state’s perspective, the only verdict that is consistent with the evidence is guilty on all counts.

“He believed that he could count on their silence. He believed he could stay in control,” Tendy said. “But he was wrong. They didn’t stay silent. He is no longer in control. You are in control.”

Tendy said that Fultz took advantage of the power dynamic between doctors and patients. She pointed to witness testimony about the challenges of seeking care, and the pain the women sought treatment for. 

“That is a relationship that is supposed to be based on trust that is supposed to be based on the principle of do no harm,” she said. “They are literally putting themselves in his hands.” 

The prosecutor said all witnesses — the ones they called and the ones the defense called — showed that Fultz didn’t follow legitimate medical practices. 

“This wasn’t about treatment,” Tendy said. “This was about what the defendant wanted to do and what he did.”

Defense attorney James Christie reminded jurors of Fultz’s education and expertise as a medical provider, and how some of the women accusing him also reported relief from his treatments. He said the questions of informed consent and how exposed the women’s bodies were during treatment come secondary to the primary question. 

“Focus on the question,” he said. “Was the treatment recognized, legitimate, and lawful?”

Christie spent some time reminding the jurors of their role, and what it means to deliver a not guilty verdict.

“The first thing I’ll tell you is that criminal cases are not about choosing sides,” he said. “Voting not guilty doesn’t mean you are for Dr. Fultz. It doesn’t mean you are against the state, it doesn’t mean you are against the 12 women. It means the state did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.”

He told the jury to put aside their feelings about victims of sexual assault. He said that criminal trials must come down to the state’s burden to prove Fultz’s guilt, based on more than speculation or probability. 

“This is not a heart decision,” Christie said. “This is something that’s going to require thought, careful thought.”

Christie said that most of the women accusing Fultz of assault came forward after reading about initial accusations against him in the media. 

He told the jury to deliberate carefully, and remember their duties.

“You all agreed that you would hold the state to its burden,” Christie said. “You all agreed to the presumption of Mr. Fultz’s innocence.”

And Christie told them to carefully consider the weight of their verdict.

“This is not a decision you can undo,” he said.

Jurors will now deliberate until they reach a unanimous verdict. The jury can return a verdict at any time. There is no time limit on their deliberations. The trial lasted six weeks and involved testimony from dozens of witnesses.  If jurors cannot reach a verdict, it will be declared a mistrial.