DOVER-FOXCROFT – A local man whose 92 English springer spaniels were seized in April by local and state authorities and later forfeited to the state, is fighting back.

Mark Hagelin, 45, on Thursday filed a notice of appeal in 13th District Court regarding Judge Kevin Stitham’s decision in June to forfeit the dogs and their more than 20 offspring to the state’s Animal Welfare Program to be sold.

He also filed a motion to proceed with the appeal without a filing fee.

Earlier this week, Hagelin filed two lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Bangor which allege that his rights and those of his parents were violated when the state imposed a quarantine on their kennel in November 2003 and by subsequent actions, including the taking of the dogs.

Efforts to reach Hagelin on Friday for comment were unsuccessful.

“Our feeling is that at this point the defendant’s appeal is frivolous,” Piscataquis County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy said Friday. “It reflects an indifference to the welfare of the dogs and is more or less an obstructive move.”

Almy said he is going to “press hard” to ask the court to require that Hagelin post a cash bond in a significant amount to cover the cost of boarding the animals. “His [Hagelin’s] attitude is somewhat callous,” the prosecutor said.

State animal welfare officials, state police, local and county police in April raided the Gray Hill Road home and kennel owned by Hagelin and his parents, Carol and Burton Hagelin Sr., after they received information that the Hagelins’ dogs were not receiving proper treatment.

The officials seized 92 dogs and puppies after they allegedly found little water or food for the animals, some of which were housed in a kennel and others inside the family’s home. Authorities said the home was littered with feces.

Mark Hagelin and his father Burton Sr. were each charged with animal cruelty as a result of the search. The criminal cases are scheduled to be heard in court next month.

Since their seizure, the dogs, which now number more than 120, have been boarded at various humane facilities throughout the state.

Christine Fraser, veterinarian with the Animal Welfare Program, said Friday that the boarding fees for the animals amount to about $40,000. She said the animals could not be released until the court advised them to do so.

To avoid mounting fees while the appeal process is under way, Almy said Friday he would try to get Judge Stitham to issue an order that Hagelin must post a bond on the appeal for it to go forward.

That bond would show that Hagelin could pay the approximate $400 a day for the care and upkeep of the animals in state custody during the appeal process.

However, in his notice of appeal and motion, Hagelin said he was indigent and was unable to pay the filing fee for the appeal since the seized dogs and puppies were his only source of income.

“In essence, the fee has a ‘chilling effect’ on the defendant’s right to appeal and is therefore unconstitutional,” he wrote in his notice of appeal. “For an indigent defendant the filing fees can discourage him from a legal exercising of a constitutional right.”

Hagelin, who is acting as his own attorney, alleged that the court made numerous errors and that he was entitled to a “trial de novo in equity” to reverse the errors.

He also mentioned in his appeal the two lawsuits he had filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor. In those lawsuits, Hagelin is suing the state; Norma Worley, director of the state’s Animal Welfare Program; Thomas Eddy and Jennifer Howlett, humane agents for the program; Robert Spear, agriculture commissioner; and state and local law enforcement officials.

The lawsuits allege that the state’s actions violated the Fifth, Ninth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The Fifth Amendment includes the rights to due process and to compensation when private property is taken for public use. The Ninth Amendment has been interpreted to confirm the existence of rights not otherwise listed, such as the right to privacy. The 14th Amendment prevents states from passing laws that abridge the rights outlined in the U.S. Constitution.

The Hagelins are seeking $1 million in punitive damages and nearly $150,000 in compensatory damages in one lawsuit and more than $150,000 in compensatory damages in the other.

A previous federal lawsuit filed by Mark Hagelin was dismissed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk when Hagelin failed to pay the $250 filing fee after she denied a waiver of the fee because of hardship.

Hagelin has now paid the $250 filing fee for one lawsuit and Kravchuk waived the filing fee in the other one.

BDN reporter Judy Harrison contributed to this report.