Pretrial hearing set on Newfound area animal-cruelty charges

BRISTOL — One year after a pair of fires that killed a number of German shepherds, no date has yet been set for a jury trial on the resulting animal cruelty charges against Jennifer “Bobbi” Choate of Chestnut Street, Bristol. A final pretrial hearing originally scheduled for Oct. 31 has been moved to Wednesday, Jan. 2 — a date that coincides with the anniversary of the seizure of additional dogs from a barn in Alexandria.

Choate has pleaded not guilty to five animal cruelty charges in Bristol and 24 counts of animal cruelty in Alexandria.

Forty-nine-year-old Choate had been raising German shepherds at a kennel in Massachusetts before legal and financial troubles led her to move back to the family home in Bristol with her dogs and horses.

A fire broke out at the three-bedroom Chestnut Street residence on Nov. 22, 2017, killing seven dogs. Choate was able to remove several dogs from the basement, but those in a breezeway perished in the fire.

An investigation by the State Fire Marshal attributed the cause of the fire to a heat lamp in the breezeway that may have been knocked over.

The discovery that there were other dogs in the house, as well as three horses in the barn, led Bristol land use officials to order Choate to find other accommodations for her dogs by Dec. 8.

Yet, on Dec. 13, fire broke out at a cottage on the property, killing 29 dogs.

Choate said she was not ignoring the agreement to relocate the dogs, but that “It was an emergency situation.”

During an interview in front of the charred remains of her Chestnut Street home, Choate said she was devoted to her animals but had arranged to board them elsewhere to comply with the town’s order. She said the woman who had taken the dogs was not able to properly care for them, so Choate made new arrangements with a friend in Massachusetts to take them in. She brought the dogs to Bristol, intending to continue to Massachusetts the next day but, in the morning, a fire broke out in the cottage where the majority of the dogs had been housed. By the time firefighters arrived, there was heavy smoke and fire coming from the cottage and three adult dogs and 26 puppies lay dead inside.

Authorities found nine surviving dogs in the gutted remains of the main house and turned them over to the SPCA.

Bristol police subsequently filed animal cruelty charges against Choate. The first charge related to the unheated conditions of the house; the second charge alleged that seven of the dogs were in metal cages that were not dry or able to maintain the dog’s body heat; the third was for failing to provide the necessary care to a dog with an ear infection dating at least to Oct. 31; the fourth was for failing to provide care to a dog with a paw infection which resulted in the need for an emergency amputation; and the fifth was related to leaving unattended the 29 dogs that perished in the cottage fire.

Alexandria police subsequently filed separate charges on Jan. 2, after finding 22 dogs in an unheated and drafty barn that Choate was renting on Burns Hill Road, with the temperature reaching 11 degrees below zero. Police reportedly found the dogs roaming amidst frozen water dishes.

Police seized the dogs and turned them over to the New Hampshire SPCA. They filed 22 counts of animal cruelty, stemming from the lack of proper shelter for the dogs, with two additional charges filed after a veterinarian examining the dogs found that two had untreated injuries.