Oklahoma: Cruelty charges filed against Sue Davis and Randall Dick in Delaware County puppy mill case. More than 100 dogs crammed into small cages, nine dogs found dead and rotting.

OKLAHOMA -- A Delaware County man and woman were charged with animal cruelty after the sheriff’s department seized over 100 dogs that had not been fed in six days, authorities said Thursday.

Sue Davis, 52, and Randall Dick, 55, were charged in Delaware County District Court in Jay with 12 counts of cruelty to animals. They remain in custody on $20,000 bail.

 

According to a probable cause affidavit signed by Deputy Mark Berry, authorities found 107 cocker spaniels and miniature poodles in a rural puppy mill near the Arkansas border.

Nine dogs were found dead and three dogs found in a wooded building were in poor health and very thin. Other dogs were crammed into small cages — often without sunlight — and left to walk in inches of their own feces.

The dogs have since been taken to a Denver animal shelter.

The couple was living in a tent near the dogs’ cages. Authorities said because of a dispute with the landlord, Davis hadn’t been on the property for a week and the dogs not fed. The property owner reported the dogs’ condition to the sheriff’s office several times, the affidavit states.

Berry said at the time of the pair’s arrest some of the dogs were eating the dead dogs.

DAYS WITHOUT FOOD
The couple purchased three bags of dog food from an Arkansas feed store on Oct. 21 and told authorities the animals were last fed on Oct. 25.

On Nov. 2, the day the dogs were seized, the couple brought out four bags of dog food.

In August Davis approached an Arkansas feed store wanting to buy 20 bags of dog food on credit because she had to feed 200 dogs, the affidavit states.

The store reported Davis has a $1,141 outstanding feed bill.

(NewsOK - November 13, 2008)