Alabama: One pit bull eats another leading to animal cruelty arrests for Ashley Mathis and Quenton Mathis

ALABAMA -- A Headland couple faces over a half dozen cruelty to animals charges, including a felony, after deputies found evidence one pit bull dog had attacked another and eaten the dog out of hunger.

Henry County Sheriff’s Lt. James S. Culbreath said investigators arrested 26-year-old Quinton Eugene Mathis and his wife, 26-year-old Ashley Nicole Mathis, both of Headland.

Culbreath said investigators have charged the couple with six misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals and a single felony count of aggravated cruelty to animals.

Culbreath said Ashley Mathis was arrested at a relative’s house Monday afternoon. Deputies arrested her husband around 6 a.m. Tuesday at the same relative’s Headland home.

Culbreath said the charges stemmed from deputies accompanying officials with the Henry County Department of Human Resources as they went to the couple’s home to take custody of their 4-year-old son.

When deputies arrived they found nobody at the home, which is located a mile or two outside the city limits of Headland in the 1500 block of Henry County Road 45.

 

“We found four pit bulls tied to four different trees. They were just skin and bones,” Culbreath said. “They were chained to a tree with a large, heavy chain. The heavy chains on the dogs restricted them so they could hardly move.”

Culbreath said the pit bull dogs had no food or water and appeared very emaciated with many of their ribs clearly visible. He said two of the dogs could hardly walk because they were so undernourished.

Deputies also found the remains of a half eaten pit bull dog inside the home near another pit bull dog.

 

“The one inside got hungry enough to eat the other dog,” Culbreath said. “I don’t know exactly when the attack in the home took place.”

Sheriff’s Investigator Keith Cauthen said he was the first officer on the scene who accompanied DHR officials to the home. He obtained a search warrant for the home after they heard a dog barking inside and DHR officials recalled there being multiple dogs there previously, not just one inside.

 

“It was horrific (inside),” Cauthen said. “There were dog parts all over the place, and there was one healthy dog in there, which had been consuming the (dead) dog.”

Culbreath said deputies also found the dead remains of a chicken inside a pen in the yard. He said they learned the family had moved out of the home two to three weeks ago and apparently left the six dogs and chicken behind. He said they later found the couple at a relative’s house.

“It was a very terrible sight,” Culbreath said. “In 23 years this is the worst animal cruelty case I’ve ever seen. This goes beyond animal cruelty. It’s torture.”

Both Quinton and Ashley Mathis were taken to the Henry County Jail.

(Dothan Eagle - Dec 1, 2015)