Dogs in Alleged Animal Cruelty Case Exhumed from Flour Bluff Backyard

TEXAS -- Police and Animal Care Services were back at the home Monday where a 64-year old woman who fostered animals was found dead. It turns out, they were investigating an alleged animal cruelty case that involved a couple of those foster animals.

It was Dec. 15 when the body of 64-year old Rita Woodard was discovered in her Flour Bluff home in the 1200 block of Preston. The Nueces County Medical Examiner determined that she had died from a heart attack following multiple dog bites.

Woodard was fostering 17 dogs at the time of her death, and on Monday, Animal Care Services was called back to her property.

According to investigators, shots rang out Friday night at the home that once belonged to Woodard.

Neighbors said there were two dogs that were being cared for by friends of Woodard's relatives, but the dogs turned on each other and began to get into fights.

The caretakers told Woodard's next of kin that the dogs were severely injured, so they took matters into their own hands, investigators said.

According to Animal Control Services, after the two dogs had gotten into a fight, their injuries were so bad that the caretakers took it upon themselves to put the animals down.

Investigators said the two dogs were shot in the head and buried in the backyard -- something that Animal Care Services says is completely against their policy.

The carcasses of the two animals were exhumed and bagged up. They will be taken to Animal Care Services, where a necropsy will be performed. Depending on what that investigation turns up, investigators say charges of animal cruelty could be filed against the individuals involved in the dogs' deaths.

(KIII - Jan 19, 2015)

Earlier:

• Medical Examiner says Flour Bluff Woman Killed by Dog Attack