| Shawna Morrison

shawna.morrison@roanoke.com, 381-1665

PULASKI -- A pet store owner has a month to rid his Pulaski County property of hundreds of dead rats, a judge ruled Tuesday.

If Alexander Nelson IV hasn't cleaned up his property by his next hearing on Oct. 13, retired General District Court Judge Danny Bird ruled, he will be found guilty of 200 misdemeanor counts of improperly disposing of a dead animal.

The rats will likely be taken to the Natural Bridge Zoo. Karl Mogensen, the zoo's owner and director, offered during a hearing Tuesday in Pulaski County General District Court to take Nelson's "extra rats."

Nelson, the owner of Classy Critters Pet Centers, was charged in June after Virginia State Police went by his property. It was the third time since May 2008 that police investigated complaints about a foul odor coming from the property and the presence of many vultures there.

The property is on Lead Mine Road in the Snowville community. Eight neighbors showed up to Tuesday's hearing to testify about the odor. Pulaski County Commonwealth's Attorney Mike Fleenor called only two to the witness stand. The six others nodded when he said they would provide essentially the same testimony.

"It is unbearable," neighbor Dean Trail said.

He said his home is downwind of Nelson's property, and the stench sticks to clothes, furniture and even food.

"It's really nauseating when you go to eat your supper and smell that," he said.

Trooper M.A. Newberry testified that when he went to Nelson's property in June, Nelson showed him two piles of carcasses that he estimated were about 25 feet by 8 to 10 feet each.

"The smell of rot was just overwhelming, to say the least," Newberry said.

Nelson's attorney, Max Jenkins, noted that the closest house is about a quarter-mile away. He asked Newberry and neighbors whether they were sure they could smell the odor from that distance. They said they were sure.

Nelson, who has homes in both Pulaski County and Roanoke, testified that he raises many of the rats in Radford. Others, he said, come from different companies.

He distributes some of the rats to wildlife centers.

Mogensen said Nelson has provided him with free rats for several years to feed cranes, hornbills, snakes and crocodiles at the zoo.

Nelson said he also puts some of the dead rats in troughs on his property to allow birds of prey and scavenger birds to feed.

Their leftovers, Nelson said, end up in a compost pile. He said the Department of Environmental Quality told him it would be better to compost the animals than to bury them.

He said he has done his best to try to control the odor by mixing the carcasses with mulch and covering them with tarps. He said he also has significantly cut down on the amount he keeps.

"I really don't want to offend the neighbors," he said.

Bird said the evidence was sufficient for him to find Nelson guilty on all counts, but he agreed to withhold a finding until Nelson has time to move what he called his "rat operation."

"I have a farm," Bird told Nelson. "If I have a dead animal, I bury it. You can't just put compost on it."