Kennel Owner Who Fled Ohio Train Derailment Says Business Destroyed
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Champion dog breeder, trainer, and kennel owner Katie Schwarzwaelder was out of town celebrating her 30th birthday when alarming phone calls got her phone jumping.
Friends and neighbors saw distant smoke in the direction of her 27-acre property in Darlington Township, Pennsylvania, and thought her kennel was on fire. Schwarzwaelder immediately called her kennel manager.
The kennel manager told Schwarzwaelder the kennel was not on fire. Folks were seeing a fire from the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. The train tracks come within 10 feet of the edge of her property, and the derailment—about 650 feet from the Pennsylvania–Ohio border—was a half-mile from the kennel.
That was on Feb. 3. The roads were blocked by fire trucks and anyone not already in the perimeter of the incident was not allowed back in. Schwarzwaelder put the word out that local folks in the zone could bring their dogs to her kennel for free, while they figured out where to go.
Evacuation
The Northern Border kennel cares for all types of dogs while owners are away. Through the breeding and training of European Doberman pinschers, Schwarzwaelder’s other business—Von Schwarz Doberman Kennel—has produced five of the most recent national champions in the United Doberman Club’s schutzhund competitions in 2018–2022.
Schutzhund is a competitive tracking, obedience, and protection dog sport that is the basis of training police dogs.
“We came home Sunday around 5,” Schwarzwaelder told The Epoch Times. Until then, the road was closed to those outside the zone. But three hours later, in the dark, they were told to evacuate in preparation for what Norfolk Southern called a “controlled burn” of chemicals from the train.
Owners were called to pick up their boarded dogs. That left 30 working dogs for Schwarzwaelder to evacuate.
They put the Dobermans in crates in the back of a truck, transported them to her boyfriend’s brother’s house nearly 20 miles away, and settled the crated dogs in the basement. Making numerous trips, they evacuated dogs throughout the night, from 8:30 p.m. to 6 a.m.
“We have been evacuated since then,” Schwarzwaelder said.
As competitive dogs accustomed to travel, they are used to being crated at times, but it has been a month of crate living in a borrowed basement. Schwarzwaelder takes the dogs out for exercise, but the property is not fenced and it is in a residential neighborhood.
“It’s not super comfortable, especially with neighbors and other dogs around. It’s about the least ideal situation, but really the only option because they were nice enough to let us do what we’ve done,” Schwarzwaelder said of her hosts. “We had a huge, huge operation. It was essentially a dog paradise. Now it’s an evacuated ghost property.”
In addition to indoor/outdoor kennels, her property has multiple fenced acres where dogs can play and run freely. But it doesn’t feel safe to go home, she said.
Rash on Returning
Just a few sets of clothing went along when she first evacuated, so Schwarzwaelder returns to the property when she needs more clothing or other items from the house. It makes her sick, she says.
“When I go back—it’s not just me, it’s a lot of people that have been there—for me personally, it’s been rash on your neck and face, coughing, burning of your nose, burning of your throat. I’ve had blisters in my throat and all inside my mouth, pulsation in your eyes—it’s almost like your eyes have a heartbeat.” Schwarzwaelder said. “I had on capri leggings one day and from where the Capri ends and my foot began, I had the rash there.”
Each time she returns, her symptoms come back within 15 to 20 minutes. Symptoms subside within two hours of leaving, she said. It’s like an allergic reaction.
Schwarzwaelder went to the clinic that Gov. Josh Shapiro ordered be set up in response to the derailment, through the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
“I was seen immediately due to the symptoms, and the doctor suggested that I absolutely not return to that location and expose myself, and if I absolutely had to, she prescribed me an Albuterol inhaler and antihistamines and Tylenol or Advil for the migraine. I believe the inhaler had steroids in it as well. So if I had to go back, I had to premedicate.”
Schwarzwaelder believes officials are downplaying the severity of the situation and the potential risks for humans and animals, short and long term.
“I don’t think that anybody from Norfolk Southern would live where we live. I don’t think anybody from Norfolk Southern would board their dogs where my kennel is,” Schwarzwaelder said. “I worked my entire life to be in the position where I was, which was essentially debt free. And now I will have to put myself back in debt if I want to continue with the business that I started as a young kid and built to the level that it is now.”
Permanently Closed
“Northern Border, which is my boarding and training facility, is permanently closed because my clientele was the community, and the community is now destroyed,” Schwarzwaelder said.
“Nobody’s going to be going on vacation. No one has the financial means to do the training. And so even if, by some chance of God, the remediation of the property would subsequently deem it safe at some point, my clientele, which is my community, is not there. It’s broken. It’s destroyed.”
She predicts the area will be a ghost town in the future.
Her breeding business, Von Schwarz Dobermann, will continue at a new location.
“The only thing that’s been reimbursed by Norfolk thus far is essentially displacement costs, gasoline, food, housing,” Schwarzwaelder said. “So, essentially, it’s my own dime to pick up and move the breeding kennel and my home elsewhere, while obviously still maintaining and paying for the evacuated property.”
“No one’s going to buy it. Why would someone want to live in Chernobyl? We’re going to stay evacuated until, hopefully, we can be financially compensated by the responsible party.”
She believes the state or federal government should also have some kind of relief funds or financial support to help those affected, perhaps in the form of grants or low cost loans.
“I have tremendous asset loss. I have business loss, I have business interruption. I have the need for, potentially, medical monitoring in the future. I have a business that revolves around breeding animals and we have no idea the severity of the reproductive consequences of this exposure,” she said. “I mean, my whole life is on the line here.”
