(November 2017) California: Enping Qu, 22, poured boiling water FIVE TIMES onto a screaming dog that was locked in a cage, say police

CALIFORNIA -- Two 17-year-old teens at a Chino Valley park called sheriff’s officials after they watched and video recorded a man at a nearby apartment building pouring scalding water on a caged dog Tuesday evening, according to San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials.

“You could hear the horror in the girl’s voice when she said, ‘Oh my god, is that boiling water?’ ” said Deputy Dan Renear on Wednesday.

Enping Qu pouring boiling water on the dog locked in its cage

The teens were in Pinehurst Park around 5 p.m. when Renear said they heard a dog whimpering.

The 17-year-old boy and girl looked around and spotted the caged dog on the third-story balcony of a nearby apartment building, which was more than 50 yards away.

That’s when Renear said the pair saw a man, later identified as 22-year-old Enping Qu, use a tea kettle to pour water over his girlfriend’s dog.

Renear and a trainee, Dominic Ramirez, tracked down the right unit at the apartment in the 16000 block of Butterfield Ranch Road.

Qu, who spoke very limited English, allowed the deputies into the apartment, where they found the dog, still wet and warm, in the cage in the balcony.

Using Google translator on their phones, deputies learned the dog belonged to Qu’s girlfriend, who was at school, Renear said.

As Ramirez spoke to Qu, Renear spotted an electric tea kettle on a warming plate that had been turned off.

“But when I touched it, that thing was still scorching hot. I couldn’t even put my hand on it,” he said.

 

Because the complex is fairly new and doesn’t show up on all maps, Renear said it took Inland Valley Humane Society officers more than an hour to arrive at the complex.

Note: Seriously, this is the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a long time. You couldn't find the address so you drove around for "more than an hour"? 

A Google Maps search shows exactly where the apartment complex is it:

I can't imagine the police just standing around FOR MORE THAN AN HOUR while this little dog, with its burned skin and in horrible pain (they say burn injuries are the most painful of all injuries)... just sat there and suffered. 

“But even after an hour and a half or an hour and 15 minutes, when they tested the water — even after all that time — it was 129 degrees,” Renear said.

Detectives learned Qu poured hot water on the dog five times, according to a sheriff’s statement.

Qu claimed to deputy he "didn't know the water was that hot" and that, the other times he was seen pouring water from the tea kettle over and over onto the dog was, according to him, he "tried to add cold water".

Qu was arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty and animal control officers took possession of the dog. It’s unclear if the dog will be returned to its owner, Renear said.

Records indicate Qu was released on bail.

“I’m a dog-lover and it makes you angry,” Renear said. “It was a very sweet and loving little dog.”

Qu, 22, was arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty. Qu quickly posted bail and was released.

Note: Did Mommy and Daddy give him the money? Many Asian countries, including China, don't have animal cruelty laws. They can do whatever they want to animals without repercussion - that's why they boil dogs alive. Likely, he thought he could do whatever he wanted to animals here in the United States without repercussion -- or he simply didn't care.

(FOX8 - November 8, 2017)

Michigan: Cat left locked inside tote nearly freezes to death in -17 degree weather outside Humane Society

MICHIGAN -- An older male cat left outside the Humane Society of Midland County overnight nearly froze to death.

The organization posted on Facebook that someone dropped off the cat trapped inside a plastic tote outside the main entrance of its facility at 4371 E. Ashman St.

 

It was -11 degrees Fahrenheit that night; with the windchill it felt

like -17 degrees Fahrenheit. This poor cat is lucky he didn't freeze to

death, locked inside this plastic tote with nothing to keep him warm.

An employee found him Friday morning with feces frozen to his body.

"Leaving him like this in these elements could have killed him," the post says.

The cat was treated for hypothermia and is expected to make a full recovery, according to the Humane Society.

A sign in the window right outside where the cat was left warns against leaving animals unattended and even threatens legal action.

 

"We understand it's often hard to know what to do with stray animals but in these weather conditions this is never the answer!" the organization's Facebook post says.

The Humane Society pointed out the Midland Police Department will transport stray animals in need during the winter and volunteers are willing to pick up animals after hours.

Anyone in Midland County who finds an animal in distress in the evening, overnight or on weekends should call the Midland County Central Dispatch nonemergency number at (989) 839-6464 or message the Humane Society's Facebook page to ask for a referral.

(ABC12 - Dec 29, 2017)

Texas: Self-proclaimed animal rescuer Carly Jo Underwood abandoned her 16 dogs to slowly die inside her foreclosed home, say police

TEXAS -- Sixteen dead dogs were found in a former dog rescuer's foreclosed Texas home.

Carly Jo Underwood, 29, of Midland, Texas, was arrested and booked into jail on 16 counts of cruelty to non-livestock animals – torture, after authorities said she left the dogs to fend for themselves when she abandoned her home.

Underwood was last seen at the home eight months ago. She was taken into custody after her flight landed at Midland International Air & Space Port on Wednesday, and booked into jail on the cruelty counts, in addition to three other, unrelated misdemeanor warrants.

Bankers serving a foreclosure notice on Underwood's home discovered the dead dogs.

Some of the dogs were said to have been left in their kennels, while others were free to wander around inside the house.

At least a few of the canines cannibalized each other during the eight months that Underwood was gone. Fecal matter and urine was said to be present everywhere.

 

All that remained of some of the dogs was tufts of fur.

Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter told CBS 7 that inside Underwood's house, 'The stench of the smell was terribly strong.' While walking through the home, he noted, there was no movement in the cages.

'Then you get to looking, Lord, there’s carcasses in there. It’s just fur and bones, and the doors are locked, it was very sad,' Painter said. 

Underwood left her position as a board member at the no-kill Dust Bowl Animal Rescue in Midland last year.

Her former coworker said that she had no idea why Underwood abandoned the dogs — which she believes came from the shelter — to their deaths.

 

 

'From the photos that I have seen, they are unrecognizable. There's no way for me to say what dog is which,' Mesha Randolph, President Of Dust Bowl Animal Rescue, told KMID. She also added that 'There was just fur, fur everywhere. That's all you could see.'

Randolph said that leaving the dogs behind was uncharacteristic behavior on Underwood's part.

'I cant even fathom where her mind is at, where her mind went because I knew her personally and that's not the person I knew,' Randolph said, adding that she could not comprehend how someone who 'truly loved animals could do this.'

In all of his years at the Midland County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Painter had never seen an animal cruelty case this severe.

“We’ve had others that have been bad, where they mistreat the animals. You find some sick, you find some alive, and some dead, but none that were locked up in cages with no hope of getting out,” Sheriff Painter said.

How this former rescuer was able to leave her dogs behind is a question Sheriff Painter was hoping to have answered Wednesday.

“We have not been able to talk to Mrs. Underwood because she has hired an attorney,” Sheriff Painter explained. “He has told us that he does not want us talking to her, so we are at a loss to get a reason or an explanation.”

But what matters now, Painter says, is that Underwood is behind bars thanks to an unlikely ally -- Underwood's own mother had been cooperating with investigators all along.

In fact, she was the one who tipped off deputies of her daughter's flight back to Midland from Nevada.

“No animal or any person should be treated that way,” Sheriff Painter said.

Underwood will be arraigned before a judge Thursday morning and her bond will be set.

Once deputies wrap up their investigation they will turn over the case to the District Attorney’s Office who will then present it before a grand jury.

VIDEO NEWS CLIP:

(Daily Mail - Dec 22, 2017)

(October 2017) California: Family Dog Survives Three Hot Days, Cold Nights Locked Inside Stolen Truck

CALIFORNIA -- A Northern California family is grateful to their community and police department after their Dodge Ram pickup was recovered three days after it was stolen, with their dog still inside.

The truck was taken from outside the Hamiltons' Truckee home Saturday evening while Carolyn Hamilton and her husband were preparing for an outing with their beloved 6-year-old family dog, Albus.

"We just put him in the truck in our driveway, came back in to say goodbye, and literally turned around and the truck was gone," Carolyn explained.

Truckee police and the California Highway Patrol pursued the vehicle eastbound on Interstate 80 that night, but officers called off the chase when they deemed it too dangerous to continue on surface streets in Reno.

For three days, the Hamiltons and many volunteers searched tirelessly for Albus and the vehicle. Truckee Police also kept searching.

Two men were caught on surveillance video stealing items from

an unlocked vehicle before the truck with Albus inside was stolen

"There was some hope in it, and some urgency," Carolyn recalled. "And I think that's a magical equation."

Tuesday night, police found the truck abandoned in a southeast Reno neighborhood with Albus inside. He was weak and dehydrated, but otherwise healthy.

 

 

Albus was named after the character Albus Dumbledore from the Harry Potter stories. And appropriately, there is something almost otherworldly about his survival.

Police said it appeared he had been trapped inside the closed vehicle the whole time he was missing, during very warm afternoons and cold nights.

Carolyn Hamilton said the entire ordeal was very eye-opening for her family, as they thought about people, such as victims of recent wildfires, who have suffered through much worse situations than the stressful one they just experienced.

 

  

  

"We tried to always compare our grief to the larger grief," Carolyn recalled. "And I think what happened is that we were able to just be a little more compassionate for people who experience loss."

After a vet checkup, Albus was able to come home Wednesday, where he got a visit from Truckee police officers.

"They had a tenderness about them that you don't attach to police officers, but we should from now on," Carolyn concluded.

The investigation into the theft is ongoing. Tips may be called into the Truckee Police Department.

TRUCKEE POLICE BODYCAM VIDEO:

VIDEO NEWS CLIP:

(5News - Oct 26, 2017)

Wisconsin: Puppy mill breeder Stuart West found guilty on 62 counts of Animal Cruelty

WISCONSIN -- A split verdict has come down for the Pierce County, Wisconsin man charged with more than 120 counts of animal cruelty for allegedly mistreating the yellow labs he was breeding.

A jury on Wednesday found Stuart West guilty on 62 counts, including failure to provide adequate shelter, failure to provide food and water and mistreatment of animals. He was found not guilty on another 63 counts. Jurors deliberated for 6 hours.

Reports are that West will be sentenced November 30.

West, 68, of Elmwood, Wisconsin, is accused of running a puppy mill. Charges file against West included intentionally providing improper animal shelter space, improper animal shelter ventilation and intentionally failing to provide food for an animal.

In total, there are approximately 125 misdemeanor counts against him.

 

 

A total of 48 dogs were removed from his property in April 2016. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says the dogs were living indoors in small, filthy travel crates, with no access to food or water.

Numerous deceased animals were also found on the property.

 

 

 

In his closing argument on Wednesday, the Pierce County District Attorney reminded jurors of the conditions investigators found when they arrived at West's property.

"It was striking to me, as a professional behaviorist, that the animals were so passive," said Katherine Miller with the ASPCA. "They were afraid, they were trying to get away, they were trembling."

 

 

Jurors were shown these crates that STUART WEST

forced his dogs to live in, some jammed three to a crate

West took the stand Tuesday to defend his operation and his belief in a raw meat diet telling the jury he fed the dogs deer and cattle carcasses which his attorney, Keith Belzer, admitted was controversial.

 

 

"The question is, was he doing something that was criminal under law?" Belzer said. "We've heard expert testimony that that's not appropriate, okay, alright. But he didn't know that. He didn't know that."

KEITH BELZER IS A POS. Who cares if he fed them roadkill... they were stuffed inside cramped pet taxis and left in them 24 hours a day. When they died, he threw their bodies to the side while he continually bred these dogs, churning out puppies to sell. To STUART WEST they were commodities to make him money. He didn't care about their suffering. 

 

 

VIDEO NEWS CLIP:

(KARE11 - Oct 26, 2017)

Earlier:

• Wisconsin: Breeder Stuart West arrested after dead, starving dogs found
• Wisconsin: Trial underway in Wisconsin puppy mill case against Stuart West

Wisconsin: Trial underway in Wisconsin puppy mill case against Stuart West

WISCONSIN --A rural Elmwood man might have used unconventional means to raise dogs, but it didn't amount to the dozens of crimes he's charged with, his attorney claims.

Stuart Earl West had research that backed up the diet of deer and cattle carcasses he fed the yellow Labrador dogs he bred and sold, defense attorney Keith Belzer CLAIMED during the first day of testimony Monday, Oct. 23, in West's trial.

"For the adult dogs, it was a raw-meat diet," Belzer told the Pierce County jury during West's trial.

West faces 125 misdemeanor charges related to his Alma Bottom Pointing Labs facility. The charges allege West intentionally failed to provide food, ventilation and shelter to the animals found on his property in April 2016. He's also charged with multiple counts of animal mistreatment.

Pierce County District Attorney Sean Froelich countered that West's methods weren't just unusual — they were criminal.

Pierce County deputies, joined by members of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the American Humane Society, executed a search warrant April 22, 2016, at West's property after a prospective dog buyer called in a complaint following a visit to the facility.

"He was concerned about what he saw and smelled," Froelich said "The conditions were awful."

That man, Jim Naylor, along with sheriff's deputies, testified to an overwhelming stench that greeted them when they went to the property, where West had converted a farmhouse into a kennel.

"It was nauseating to us to see dogs kept in that condition," Naylor testified.

The dogs found in the squalor were found afflicted with a host of ailments, the prosecutor said. Froelich tallied off a list of maladies, including Lyme disease, anemia, hookworms, dental disease, ulcers, ear infections, muscle wasting and eye trauma that veterinarians documented.

"All 48 Labradors had medical conditions," Froelich told the jury.

More than a dozen dogs were found dead, Pierce County sheriff's investigator Collin Gilles testified.

He said the odor took authorities' breath away when they entered West's house.

"It was awful," Gilles testified. "I honestly would compare it to early stages of a decomposing body."

But the 69-year-old West claimed he is a dog lover who was breeding highly developed Labradors that were being sought by the federal government for their ability to sniff bombs, jurors heard.

Belzer described to the jury how West developed an interest in dog breeding as a youngster growing up in Rochester, Minn., after watching his grandfather raise dogs. Part of that approach meant feeding dogs raw meat, the attorney said told the jury.

As he progressed in his research and practice after taking it on full-time in 1996, West began implementing a BARF — "biologically approved raw food" — diet, his attorney explained.

"It's controversial," Belzer admitted. "There are many veterinarians who don't agree with that diet."

He said West believed the diet wasn't just healthier, but one that led to better fertility in the dogs. And while it was true that West's house didn't have running water — hampered by burst pipes, Belzer CLAIMED — it didn't mean the dogs went without. He CLAIMED West provided water to the dogs.

Gilles said West told him the United States military and the government wanted his dogs for "special purposes" due to their unique breeding.

Jurors also heard from an ASPCA veterinarian who testified to the conditions the dogs were found in. Some were found packed three to a crate, she said.

The jury was later taken outside, where they were shown some of the seized crates being held on a sheriff's trailer outside the courthouse.

Testimony was expected to last to at least Wednesday. Belzer said he expects West to testify in his own defense.

Jurors were shown these crates that STUART WEST stuffed

his Labradors into. Some were packed three to a crate.

One of the rescued puppies.

(WCTRIB - Oct 24, 2017)

Earlier:

• Wisconsin: Breeder Stuart West arrested after dead, starving dogs found