DOVER, DE - The Delaware Department of Agriculture is facing scrutiny after employees allegedly received state funds for boarding farm animals seized from what the Department claims were situations of neglect or abuse.
Numerous animals involved in those confiscations, reportedly initiated and overseen by the Poultry and Animal Health Section of the Department, have died after being seized, according to a Delaware lawmaker and local animal rescue operators.
An internal Delaware ethics agency says some of those seized animals’ caretaking was allegedly not offered to established rescues and rehabilitation centers in Delaware and were instead entrusted to at least one State employee who received significant reimbursement.
According to State Senator Dave Lawson, one of the employees of the Delaware Department of Agriculture under the State Veterinarian took in nearly 500 chickens rescued from an alleged neglect case. That employee was paid over $90,000 for boarding the birds, none of which survived, Lawson says.
“The chickens ended up dead,” Senator Lawson tells WBOC.
The Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Michael Scuse, has been accused by the ethics agency of violating multiple codes of conduct within Delaware State law in these transactions.
Public Integrity Investigation
The Delaware Public Integrity Commission (PIC), an independent body within Delaware’s government, launched an investigation into a then-unnamed government agency over the summer after receiving anonymous complaints regarding violations of State Employee Codes of Conduct within the agency.
The PIC then held a special, closed-door meeting on July 24th to address the findings of the investigation and weigh the validity of the complaints.
The minutes of that meeting were made public on September 22nd. According to those minutes, the Commission substantiated the allegations against at least three Delaware state employees for taking state funds not associated with their government roles.
One employee, named only as “Employee A” in the Commission’s redacted minutes, received two checks in the amount of $74,410 and $15,655, respectively, for contracted services outside the employee’s official responsibilities.
Additionally, the Commission found that four other employees of the unnamed government division had been involved with improper reimbursement, bringing the total number of implicated Delaware State employees to seven, according to the July 24th’s meeting minutes.
In their findings, the Commission noted any contracts the State entered into with existing employees were supposed to be open to public bidding if over the amount of $2,000. According to the Public Integrity Commission, some of those contracts within the unnamed Delaware division never were, and employees had exclusive access to the contracts with the department they already worked for.
Among those seven implicated is someone who the PIC refers to as the “Agency Secretary,” who admitted to the Commission the contracts had not been publicly made available to bidding, according to the July 24th meeting minutes.
“By admission of the [Agency] Secretary, in a letter dated June 28, 2023, the [Memorandum of Agreements] issued on May 11, 2023 was not publicly noticed and bid. As party to the MOU, [Employee A], knew that the contracted services had not been publicly noticed and bid,” the PIC’s Special Meeting minutes note.
“[Employee A] used her position as an employee of the [Agency] to secure over $90,000 for less than 30 days work,” the PIC’s meeting minutes go on to read.
Compensation for Boarding Animals Seized by the Department of Agriculture
WBOC has obtained animal boarding contracts previously awarded to an independent nonprofit that has worked with the Department of Agriculture’s Poultry and Animal Health Section, as well as contracts awarded to the state employees who allegedly received payment for boarding animals. The contracts outline the usual rates a rescue and rehabilitation facility is reimbursed per animal taken in after a State seizure of farm animals.
That boarding of seized animals at an outside rehabilitator normally lasts 30 days before the animals become property of the state, according to the Department of Agriculture’s talking points memo.
Poultry boarding reimbursement, per the contract agreement, is set at $5 per bird per day, with a one-time $50 per animal physical examination reimbursement fee. At these rates, boarding 450 birds for 30 days would see a total reimbursement from the Department of Agriculture at $90,000.
WBOC has also obtained state records of two payments to one employee exactly matching the amounts specified in the Public Integrity Commission’s investigation. Two checks were written out to the employee on June 22nd for $74,410 and June 26th for $15,655.
The employee was previously listed on the Poultry and Animal Health website as an Administrative Specialist for the department. Her yearly salary, according to state information, was just over a third of the more than $90,000 she received for one month of boarding the confiscated animals.
In fiscal year 2023, those contracted payments to that one Delaware employee made up nearly 5% of total spending in the Delaware Department of Agriculture’s Animal Health Division, according to Delaware’s online public spending records.
After July 24th, the day of the Public Integrity Commission’s special meeting, that employee was no longer listed on the Poultry and Animal Health section of the Department of Agriculture’s website.
“I believe she was the executive secretary to the State Vet,” Senator Lawson said. “That’s who took the chickens, and received a large amount of money.”
“There’s a problem there,” Lawson added.
Delaware’s State Veterinarian is Dr. Karen Lopez, who the employee was listed directly under on the Poultry and Animal Health Section until July 24th.
“Over the past three years, animal welfare cases involving horses, poultry, and livestock have increased in frequency and number of animals seized,” Scuse said in a statement released on November 6th. “This year, the Department of Agriculture had several unprecedented cases, requiring me to exercise my emergency authority for procurement to quickly place these animals in the care of facilities and individuals who would ensure confidentiality surrounding these investigations and who have experience with farm animal husbandry.”
There are no public online records of previous contract animal boarding payment to the employee who received the birds.
Poultry Health
The Delaware Department of Agriculture “has a Memorandum of Agreements (MOA) with several facilities, and sometimes, depending on the number and types of animals, we must enter into new MOAs if we need additional sites that meet our qualifications and have a working knowledge of large animal husbandry,” according to the Department.
Senator Lawson says the reportedly more than 400 birds seized and entrusted to the “executive secretary” were kept in what appeared to him to be two 10x10 chain link dog kennels without shelter.
“It’s a small lot,” Lawson also said of the property where the chickens were allegedly taken.
According to Georgie Cartanza, a Statewide Poultry Agent at the University of Delaware’s Cooperative Extension, chickens (depending on size and breed) should get 3 to 6 square feet per bird to avoid stress and possibly spreading illness.
At that smallest area recommended per the Cooperative Extension, 450 chickens would require 1,350 square feet. Senator Lawson’s allegations would put the birds’ given space at 200.
In a response to the Public Integrity Commission’s investigation, Agriculture Secretary Scuse said, “The health issues are an extremely important consideration in finding boarding facilities. Though Delaware has many farms with poultry and livestock, a suitable facility must be able to quarantine the animals and implement proper biosecurity measures to care for these animals without spreading disease that could damage Delaware’s agriculture industry.”
Scuse, according to his statement to the PIC, said that the State Veterinarian, Dr. Karen Lopez, could not find an organization able to accommodate the number of animals seized in May, hence why they turned to the Department’s employees.
Debbie Guelette, of Hartly, runs a 35-acre non-profit animal rescue not far from the Department of Agriculture’s headquarters in Dover. Guelette says she has worked with the Department’s Poultry and Animal Health Division before, taking in and rehabilitating seized animals. Some of the animals seized by Delaware’s Department of Agriculture from neglect or abuse cases still remain on her farm.
According to Guelette, she was originally contacted by the Department of Agriculture to take a portion of the upwards of 400 seized birds. That offer, she says, was rescinded, and the birds were instead given to someone else..
“Seventy of the birds were going to be placed in dog kennels away from my birds and they were going to be tested for [Avian Influenza] before they came here,” Guelette says “And then all of a sudden, I was told that they found somebody to take all of the birds.”
Another rescue and rehabilitation operation in Delaware tells WBOC the same - Vickie Henderson, who mainly specializes in terrapin rehabilitation but has boarded birds for the state, was also contacted to take in the chickens. She, too, said yes to the Department of Agriculture, but none of the chickens were brought to her.
“They were housed in dog kennels in close quarters,” Debbie Guelette tells WBOC of the confiscated chickens in this case. “From what I understand, they were all euthanized.”
Guelette says she believed animals confiscated by the Delaware Department of Agriculture were supposed to go to a non-profit rescue or rehabilitation. These birds reportedly did not.
“I was surprised they went to somebody who was not even a business,” Guelette told WBOC.
“A little bit of nepotism, there,” she added.
Senator Lawson says he asked the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture Michael Scuse what happened to the chickens. He says the response was, “we had to put them down, they were all diseased.”
“A month later?” Lawson reportedly asked. “My question to Mike was, ‘Excuse me, if they were all diseased, why didn’t you put them down initially?’”
Lawson says Scuse’s response was, “‘Well they were diseased, we had to put them down.’”
“After $75,000? Of taxpayer money?” Lawson recalled saying in an interview with WBOC. “You’re okay with that? I’m not.”
“And then I didn’t know about the other 15 [thousand] they apparently got,” Lawson said.
According to the Department of Agriculture’s Talking Points: Delaware Livestock Welfare Investigations and Seizures memo the Department sent to WBOC: “When animals live in deplorable conditions, they are often very sick, with unknown diseases and pests, and suffer from malnutrition and dehydration. Following biosecurity protocols, these animals must be isolated from other animals at a facility so as not to infect others. In some instances, the health of some of these animals is so poor that they cannot recover, and the most humane thing to do is euthanize them.”
“Our goal was to ensure that these animals received the care they needed to help them regain their health and ultimately enter back into production,” Scuse told the Public Integrity Commission in June.
Further Allegations
Another employee of the Delaware Department of Agriculture, according to the Public Integrity Commission, received over $10,000 in contracting with the state outside of their government role for taking in close to 50 hogs earlier this year. The Agriculture Department’s Administrator for Department Management Jimmy Kroon’s was also found by the Public Integrity Commission’s investigation to be in violation of Delaware codes of conduct law in entering that contract with the employee.
The spouse of another employee, now retired from the Department of Agriculture, also received close to $31,000 for taking in animals, according to the PIC. The allegations against Scuse for entering into that contract were dropped by the PIC, who said Scuse’s relationship with the employee’s spouse was “too attenuated.”
The Delaware Department of Agriculture rejected two Freedom of Information Act requests from WBOC this summer for the first employee’s contracts, or documentation as to why she received over $90,000, citing an “ongoing investigation.”.
Senator Lawson tells WBOC an investigation involves the family the more than 400 birds were originally confiscated from, who he says now face over 530 counts of animal cruelty charges. According to both Lawson and the Public Integrity Commission, that animal cruelty case extends beyond the chickens, including sheep, goats, horses, and cattle.
“Why seize all of these animals and then basically slaughter them and euthanize them at the end of the time period, incur that huge state deficit?” Guelette asked. “It doesn’t make sense to me. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Guellette says she has stopped doing business with the Department of Agriculture’s Poultry and Animal Welfare section, saying, “It used to be, it felt like I was doing a good thing.”
“This last case just left me with a really bad taste in my mouth,” Guelette says.
The trial for the original farm animals’ owners is slated to begin in December, according to Senator Lawson.
Multiple rescues and rehabilitation farms across Kent and Sussex County have rejected interviews and on-camera appearances with WBOC for, what some say, is a fear of retaliation from the Delaware Department of Agriculture’s Poultry and Animal Health Division.
“What sucks for me is my business is in agriculture, so if I piss someone off, they can make my life miserable, no matter how right or wrong they are,” an anonymous rehabilitation and rescue owner told WBOC.
When asked if there were more cases of ethics concerns involving Delaware animals, Senator Lawson said, “Oh yes, there’s one down in Harrington I know of and another one possibly in Laurel.”
“The more you look into it, the more it stinks,” Lawson said.
Complaint Against Secretary Scuse
On November 6th, the Public Integrity Commission publicly released a formal complaint against Department of Agriculture Secretary Scuse, alleging he violated Delaware codes of conduct eight times in benefiting a private enterprise above the Department of Agriculture and entering into contracts with employees.
In their complaint, PIC claims Scuse’s own Deputy Attorney General warned him not to pay his employees for contractual work.
“Despite receiving this advice from his DAG, MNr. Scuse decided to pay the employees anyway.” the PIC’s opinion reads.
Scuse engaged in conduct that was “in violation of the public trust and which will reflect unfavorably upon the State and its government,” the PIC also said in their complaint against Scuse. “Mr. Scuse authorized over $100,000 contractual payments to DDA employees.”
In the complaint, the PIC says any person charged with and found in violation of State codes of conduct may be subject to a written reprimand or censure.
When asked if there were any other repercussions for these violations, a spokeswoman for the Public Integrity Commission told WBOC that the only penalty they can impose is publication of their opinion.
Whether the Public Integrity Commission will pursue complaints against the two Delaware employees who reportedly received payments from the Department of Agriculture, or the other employees who allegedly took part in those payments or knew about them, is unclear.
A Delaware Department of Agriculture spokesperson told WBOC Secretary Scuse would not be available to answer questions or speak with us in an interview.
WBOC reached out to Governor John Carney’s office in regards to the allegations against Scuse, who Carney appointed in 2017, but were told the Governor’s Office had no comment.
The employee who received the $90,000 is still employed in the Department of Agriculture’s Poultry and Animal Health Section as of the publication of this article.
A PDF copy of the PIC’s full complaint against Scuse is attached to this article. Scuse’s complete response to WBOC can also be read below:
Secretary of Agriculture Michael T. Scuse issued the following statement after the completion of the Delaware Public Integrity Commission’s investigation following a complaint concerning significant payments to vendors, including state employees, earlier this year involving several large animal welfare cases, in which animals were seized by the Delaware Department of Agriculture (DDA). No further information on the animal welfare cases can be disclosed as they are still pending court hearings.
“Over the past three years, animal welfare cases involving horses, poultry, and livestock have increased in frequency and number of animals seized. This year, the Department of Agriculture had several unprecedented cases, requiring me to exercise my emergency authority for procurement to quickly place these animals in the care of facilities and individuals who would ensure confidentiality surrounding these investigations and who have experience with farm animal husbandry. Due to the level of disease, the facilities had to quarantine the animals and implement proper biosecurity measures to care for these animals without spreading disease that could damage Delaware’s agriculture industry.
We have witnessed a decrease in rescues that can assist with large-scale seizures involving farm animals, which created a need to contract with some of our staff who met the requirements for caring for these animals. All vendors involved in these seizures were paid a flat per-animal rate based upon the species that was set in 2016 to cover costs, including physical space and equipment to care for the animals, proper nutrition, medications and treatments administered by the facility, implementation of biosecurity requirements, bedding, and time to provide high-quality care. The Department has been working to expand the list of suitable farms that can board animals seized, so they can receive the care they need to help rehabilitate neglected animals to good health and re-introduce them to quality lives as farm animals.”