On Monday, Sgt. Andrea Dobyns said police were looking for the man who had rented the apartment where the remains of the “emaciated” animals were found on the dead-end Pino Road behind Kaune’s grocery store. She said police believe the man is still in the area and investigators want to question him.
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| The apartment where police say two dogs were found dead on Saturday, apparently from starvation. |
Dobyns said the owner of the triplex at the end of the narrow dirt road called police on Saturday after receiving a call from a neighbor and finding the dead canines.
Walking up the road, one can hear dogs barking from almost every household and on Monday several neighbors said they hadn’t seen the tenant or his dogs for about 6-to-8 weeks.
Three neighbors, who wished to remain anonymous, said they used to hear the dogs bark as they walked past the apartment. One identified the breed as mini-Doberman pinschers.
Dobyns said the landlord had found a filthy apartment. “The entire house was covered in feces and urine,” Dobyns said. “It looks like the dogs starved to death.”
Police photos of the scene show a trashed house, littered with empty wine bottles and numerous stains on the tile floor. According to Dobyns, there was a small amount of dog food on a kitchen counter, but it appeared that the dogs couldn’t reach it.
The apartment also appeared to have clothing hanging in a closet, as if it was not completely abandoned.
Dobyns said no citations or arrest warrants have been issued in the case, which remains under investigation. Although police didn’t confirm the identity of the man they were hoping to question, Dobyns said he worked in the real estate business.
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| Some dog food was found on a counter in the house, just out of the reach of the two dogs. |
Several neighbors said the apartment had been rented to a man whose biography on the website of a local real estate agency where he formerly worked says he lived in Santa Fe “with my two dogs, Georgia and Leo.”
Only one of the dogs found in the apartment had a name tag, which showed the dog’s name as “Georgia.” Dobyns did confirm that the dog with the tag was registered to the tenant of that apartment.
Dobyns said police were told by a relative of the man that he had been working this weekend in Los Alamos. Dobyns also said that it appeared the tenant had paid his rent through October but that he hadn’t been seen at the residence for more than a month.
Attempts to contact the tenant, his landlord and the relative by phone on Monday were unsuccessful.
(santafenewmexican.com - Nov 5, 2012)
