Pet-Abuse.Com - Animal Abuse Case Details: Dogs neglected, 12 seized, 4 more found dead

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Case ID: 13930

Classification: Neglect / Abandonment

Animal: dog (non pit-bull)

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Prosecutor(s):

Jeff Fink

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Dogs neglected, 12 seized, 4 more found dead
Kalamazoo, MI (US)

Incident Date: Monday, Jun 23, 2008
County: Kalamazoo

Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Alleged
Case Images: 3 files available

Alleged:
» Andrea Allen
» William W. Allen

Case Updates: 2 update(s) available

Four dead dogs were among 16 dogs removed Monday from a house just west of Kalamazoo, authorities said.

Several of the dogs were being kept in metal-wire and plastic crates, and large amounts of feces were found inside the house in the 8000 block of West KL Avenue, said Steve Lawrence, director of Kalamazoo County Animal Services and Enforcement.

Animal Services workers were called to the house after Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department deputies responded to a report of possible animal neglect at about 10:30 a.m. Monday. Police said the house is being condemned.

Lawrence said authorities found a dog skull in one crate, the bodies of two dogs in a metal-wire crate and another dead dog in a plastic crate.

``The conditions were pretty nasty,'' Lawrence said after viewing photos of the house. ``This is probably one of the worst (cases) we've seen in a long time.''

Several of the dogs that were alive when police and Animal Services workers arrived Monday also were being kept in crates, Lawrence said.

Three dogs were found in a crate fit for one to two dogs, and the floor of the crate was covered with about an inch of feces. Two of the dogs in the crate were emaciated, and one had golf-ball-size mats of hair and feces on the bottom of its feet, Lawrence said.

Authorities also found a pair of 6- to 8-month-old Australian shepherd puppies with teeth that were in bad condition and similar to what officials might normally see on a dog as old as age 6. Lawrence said authorities believe the dogs' teeth may have been damaged from eating feces.

The 12 dogs taken from the home alive have been turned over to Animal Services by their owner. Officials will provide veterinary care to those that can be treated and put them up for adoption, Lawrence said. One or two may have to be euthanized because of ``aggression issues,'' he said.

Police continue to investigate. They plan to submit the results of their investigation by the end of the week to the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor's Office for review and possible felony charges, sheriff's Lt. Robert Phillips said this morning.

Case Updates

The owner of a house where police and animal-control workers found four dead dogs and seized a dozen others has been charged with felony animal cruelty, authorities said.

The Kalamazoo County Prosecutor's Office authorized a warrant Tuesday charging Andrea Kay Allen, 28, of Oshtemo Township, with one count of animal cruelty and neglect, a news release said. The charge is punishable by up to four years in prison, and/or a $5,000 fine and up to 500 hours of community service. Allen also could be ordered to pay costs for the care and housing of the dogs, the prosecutor's office said.

Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office investigators have said a sheriff's deputy and an Oshtemo Township ordinance officer discovered the dogs at about 10:30 a.m. June 23 after the ordinance officer received a report that the owner of a home on West KL Avenue had not been seen for several days.

Kalamazoo County Animal Services and Enforcement officials have said several of the dogs, which included eight Australian shepherds and four small mixed-breed dogs, were kept in metal-wire and plastic crates and that large amounts of feces were found inside the house.

Authorities found the head of a dog in one crate, the bodies of two dogs in a metal-wire crate and another dead dog in a plastic crate.

"The conditions within the home were absolutely deplorable," County Prosecutor Jeff Fink said in a news release. "The officers who responded needed air masks to breathe while they were inside working to rescue the dogs from that environment."

Fink's office said police and animal-service workers found no food or water for the dogs in the house and that four of the dogs were malnourished. Also, authorities said the bottoms of the cages were covered in "approximately 2 inches of feces" and that all of the animals had feces covering parts of their bodies.

Source: Kalamazoo Gazette - July 8, 2008
Update posted on Aug 15, 2008 - 10:40PM

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Several dogs are dead and a dozen others have been taken to a animal shelter after suffering neglect and abuse at an Oshtemo Twp. home.

Officers say the dogs were living in total squalor at a home on West KL Ave. when they were found on Monday, and those that were still alive were covered in feces, with no food or water.

Janel Hosie, a next-door neighbor, says the owner of the home is actually a dog groomer, but told Newschannel 3 that the inside of the home was in such bad condition that the owner moved out last fall.

"They had to go to the bathroom in the crates, go to the bathroom on each other," said Hosie.

Hosie says that the dogs were basically stuck in prison cell-like cages - sometimes three dogs were crammed into one small cage, and says she heard their owner not too concerned about the situation.

"Like it wasn't really a problem, like she loved her dogs, that she was able to take care of it," said Hosie.

But what animal control officers discovered Monday, is not what they say they saw two years ago when they saw the dogs outside the home. At that point, they say, they found the dogs healthy, and left without concerns for their care.

"We'd never seen, never been in her house to know what was actually going on in that house," said Kalamazoo Co. Animal Services Director Steve Lawrence.

Lawrence says that when they did go inside the home on Monday, they found cages and dogs standing on empty bowls to get out of the feces.

But when given the chance to escape, the dogs didn't move.

The dogs didn't come out, it was like, they didn't know they could, or they'd never been out," said Lawrence.

Janel Hosie says that the worst of it, is that four of the dogs died, and their owner, a groomer, should have been able to care for them better than even the average dog owner.

"It's just unbelievable to me that someone can say they love their dog and let this happen," she said.

Animal services says that some of the rescued dogs will go up for adoption, but others are so traumatized that they have no choice but to euthanize them.

Their owner of the dogs could eventually face animal cruelty charges, and Lawrence says that he never wants her to own a dog again.

If you are interested in adopting one of the rescued dogs, call Kalamazoo County Animal Services at (269) 383-8775.

Source: WWMT - June 25, 2008
Update posted on Jun 25, 2008 - 11:05AM

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Dogs neglected, 12 seized, 4 more found deadKalamazoo, MI (US)

Case Updates

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Dogs neglected, 12 seized, 4 more found dead
Kalamazoo, MI (US)