Orange City man charged with animal abuse for abandoning crated dog

FLORIDA -- When a Port Orange couple in late March found a crated dog that had been dumped in a remote wooded area of Orange City, they called police, triggering a two-week investigation that resulted in the arrest of an Orange City man on animal-cruelty charges

Nineteen-year-old Travis Nin was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail April 9 and was being held on $6,000 bond.

 

The male dog named Tim is still alive. The white-and-tan Chihuahua was found in a dog carrier that had feces and urine inside, according to a report by Orange City Animal Control Officer Marian Quinones.

Quinones wrote that Tim was emaciated and covered with the “debris” from inside the crate. She estimated “the dog had been inside the carrier approximately one to two weeks,” and said the Chihuahua showed obvious signs of neglect and medical trauma, including an eye problem.

Quinones took Tim to Orange City Animal Clinic for treatment.

A few days later, Quinones discovered the same dog had been picked up by animal-control officials in DeBary in August. Using records on file with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Volusia County, Quinones doggedly tracked down the owner, who said the Chihuahua had been given to his son.

Authorities said the son, in turn, said his roommate had complained that Tim was not being cared for, had fleas, and was damaging their apartment.

The roommate, Nin, told the son he had taken the dog to a local shelter and paid a $20 surrender fee, according to Quinones’ report.

After Tim was found, Quinones reported, Nin admitted to her he had been unable to pay the $20 surrender fee required by two different shelters, so he left the dog and carrier in a wooded area west of some commercial buildings off South Volusia Avenue.

Nin said he had "hoped" someone would find Tim and a bag of food he left nearby, Quinones reported. The food was not inside the carrier, she noted in her report.

Quinones was skeptical.

“The dog was located in an area that is uncommon and not visible for any patron and/or employees of any of the businesses,” she wrote in her report. “The dog was located on the west end away from the building and past the concrete parking area behind the Dumpster, approximately twenty feet into the wooded area.”

Nin was charged with intentionally causing pain to the animal by abandoning him in an area where it wasn’t feasible for a person to find him, and depriving Tim of “life-sustaining necessities” for several weeks.

The dog became emaciated, and developed a skin condition and internal parasites, and both of his eyes became infected, leading to blindness in one eye and permanent damage to the other, Quinones said in her report.

Nin was charged with animal cruelty, a felony, and abandoning an animal without sufficient food or water, a misdemeanor. As of April 10, he had not bonded out of jail.

Tim, meanwhile, is doing “fine,” said Heather Olszewski with the Orange City Police Department.
“It has been taken by a Rescue Group called Pawsibilities out of Port Orange, and is being fostered at this time,” Olszewski wrote in an email.

Tim’s former owner, Andrew Garcia, 19, added, “I hope he gets to a good family, and he fully recovers.”

(The DeLand-Deltona Beacon - Apr 10, 2015)