Martin Co man, Arthur Leedy, charged with 27 counts of animal cruelty

KENTUCKY --  Deputies call it a terrible animal abuse case.

Now a Martin County man faces more than 20 counts of animal cruelty.

Deputy Billy Patrick was called out to a small fire in the Tomahawk community Wednesday night when he saw the dogs.

"I noticed that a bunch of them had mange and fleas and just in really bad shape" says Deputy Billy Patrick.

 

 

 

Once Deputy Patrick made contact with dog owner Arthur Leedy he realized it was much worse than he thought.

"The floor was covered with feces, the walls was covered with feces. He had one little spot in the house that he sat in the chair. It was the only place he had to sit, he couldn't lay in the bed it was covered with feces" says Deputy Patrick.

Twenty-seven dogs were rescued.

"The more the dogs came out the worst they was. They had a few that couldn't walk where they was just older and had mange and their hair was gone" says Patrick.

 

Now I did speak with Leedy and he did not want to be on camera but he says he did everything he could to take care of those dogs.

"He said that they had been losing hair for a couple days and that he couldn't afford to take them to get medical attention" says Patrick.

Stray Hearts Animal Rescue says they took all of the dogs to the vet.

 

"There were six of them with mange, some of them had scabies, I don't have the total on that and then three of them had heart murmurs" says Mandy Goble who helped rescue the dogs.

Officials tell us they killed two of the dogs because they were vicious.

Deputies say they did not arrest Leedy because of his health.

Noting it would cost the county more money that they do not have to put him in jail.

(WKYT - Nov 19, 2015)