Sunday, April 27, 2014
Staff report
YOUNGSTOWN
Police removed five dogs that reports said are severely malnourished from an East Side home earlier this week.
Officers were called to a home in the 100 block of Early Road about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday for a report of a fight. As officers went to leave they found a makeshift kennel on the front porch and two dogs inside that appeared to be starving. The dogs’ bones were showing, and there was no water or food in any of their bowls and algae was growing in the bowls, reports said.
One of the people at the home told police they could not afford food for the dogs and they had been feeding the dogs with food they received from a food pantry.
As police spoke to the family who lives there, they found three dogs in the backyard in similar condition, reports said.
One of the people at the home said one of those dogs was thought to have died over the winter and it was put in a trash can because the ground was too frozen to dig a grave, but a few days later the dog was discovered to still be alive. The people at the home said that dog was never taken to be checked by a veterinarian.
Humane agents were called to take the dogs away for treatment.