Complaints by current, former volunteers lead to search warrant

Animal Control Officers from the Miami County Animal Shelter removed more than 40 cats from Our Farm Sanctuary on Agenbroad Road on Monday, July 15. They executed a search warrant in response to recent complaints filed by a group of past and present volunteers.

“We took 43 of the cats that had the worst medical conditions,” Miami County Animal Shelter Director Rob Craft said. “We took those cats into the shelter, to start getting them medical treatment.”

While investigating Our Farm Sanctuary, officers found over 100 cats, many of which had serious upper respiratory infections, in unsanitary and overcrowded conditions, according to a press release issued by the Miami County Animal Shelter on Tuesday, July 16. Poor air quality prevented the animals from receiving proper medical care, the release said.

“Within the facility itself, they had over 300 cats,” Craft said.

Animal Control Officers executed the search warrant in cooperation with Deputies from the Miami County Sheriff’s Office. Dr. Paige of West Milton Veterinary was onsite to assist in the investigation and carry out preliminary triage of the animals, the press release said.

Miami County Animal Control officers previously responded to Our Farm Sanctuary in May of 2022 and again in August of 2023 based on volunteer complaints of unsanitary conditions and overcrowding, the release said. The Sanctuary was warned each time to improve the conditions and reduce the number of animals in their care.

“Even with the best intentions, many times rescues find themselves in a position where they are overwhelmed and unable to provide quality care for their animals,” Craft said, “and in this case, after multiple attempts to work with Our Farm Sanctuary, we had no choice but to execute the search warrant and take legal action to protect the animals in their care.”

“We had complaints from volunteers back in 2022 and 2023, and we tried working with the director to resolve those complaints back then,” he said. “We feel like we did make some progress.”

“But with this most recent situation, we had five volunteers, both current and former volunteers, complain, and that was our reason for feeling like we needed to get a search warrant this time, as it seemed like things had maybe gotten worse,” Craft said.

“We are so thankful for those community members who stepped up and reported the conditions at the rescue so that we were able to do our job to protect the welfare of Miami County animals,” he said.

According to Miami County Municipal Court records, Sophia Kartsonis, Director of Our Farm Sanctuary, was charged Friday, July 19, with six misdemeanor counts of cruelty to companion animals. Kartsonis is set to be in court next Tuesday, July 30.

Originally formed in 2019, Our Farm Sanctuary is a 501c3 organization. In addition to cats, the sanctuary also cares for dogs and neglected farm animals, including horses, ponies, pigs, llamas, alpacas, chickens, and goats, according to the organization’s website.

Our Farm Sanctuary did not respond to requests to comment for this story.

“We are aware and understand that there are many questions about Our Farm Sanctuary, how we care for animals, how we house and shelter them, and our adoption process,” a statement posted on the sanctuary’s Facebook page on Thursday, July 18, said. “At this time, we are working closely with Miami County Animal Control. We are reporting our activities to them and seeking direction and guidance from them as we begin to address the issues before us.”

“As we move forward, we hope to share more information about our progress and results,” the statement said. “At this time, however, we are focused completely on the animals under our care, their health and welfare, and, with the help of Animal Control, we are also focused on ensuring compliance.”

“We are doing our very best to work with Our Farm Sanctuary, and the director of their board,” Craft said. “We’re doing our best to help them and to help the animals. We’re trying to improve the conditions there, while we’re also helping them to take care of some of the cats to make it easier for them.”

“There are certainly a lot of good, well-intentioned people who are associated with the organization,” he said. “I think that they have a hard time telling people no, and due to that, they ended up taking on more animals than they could physically take care of.”

Craft said the cats that were removed are currently receiving medication at the Miami County Animal Shelter and will be available for adoption after they have been treated.

“They seem to be doing well,” Craft said. “We’re expecting that the cats will be treatable, and we’ll be able to get them adopted.”

“Our goal is to get all of those cats healthy and adopted,” he said. “Our ultimate goal is to partner with Our Farm Sanctuary as we continue this process, and to continue to help them bring cats from their sanctuary into our shelter, work with them to also start getting the medical care that these cats need, and help them get cats adopted out so that we can get their numbers back down to a reasonable amount of animals that they can take care of.”