BURTON – One person has been charged and another will undergo possible mental evaluation after the Burton Police Department discovered 57 dogs being kept in squalid conditions on Oct. 12.
Police were called to the 1200 block of LaSalle Avenue Saturday after a Your Ride driver called 911 to report what was at first though to be the smell of a decomposing corpse, but turned out to be 13 dead dogs being kept in the house.
Burton Police Chief Brian Ross said his officers arrived at the residence on Oct. 12 around 8 p.m. to investigate the report of a suspected dead body.
Ross said the smell of the decomposing animals was “permeating off the people who lived there.”
The police officers found 13 deceased dogs being kept in freezers, some covered by a tarp and other left dead on the basement floor, he said.
Ross added the dogs were in a kennels six feet high, cages stacked on one another so the dogs on the top were urinating and defecating on the dogs below them.
“Just a terrible, terrible situation,” he said. “We contacted the sheriff for resources. He contacted animal control, and they came out to the scene and we rescued the dogs.”
Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson said this is not a case that is unusual to Genesee County and he added when you have a case that is “ever evolving” with animals that are alive and that have to be cared for that’s where animal control and veterinary services work.
The animals are described as shitzu/yorkie type dogs. The deceased dogs are being sent for necropsy to determine why they died.
“Starvation is a concern,” Swanson said. “Neglect and ultimately, when you have dogs that are not getting cared for correctly or starved, it’s torture.”
Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said two adults were arrested. He has charged the homeowner, Patricia Ann Stone, 49, with three counts including cruelty to 25 or more animals, a felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison; allowing animals to suffer unnecessarily, a 7 year felony; and failure to dispose of a dead animal, a misdemeanor.
“This was a very, very difficult police report for me,” Leyton said. “You know I’ve read hundreds if not thousands of police reports in my career as prosecuting attorney. This one and the probable cause statement provided to the judge, written by the Burton Police Department and Sheriff’s Department was extraordinarily difficult to read.”
He went on to say there is the mental health component involved, and he has referred the other individual in the case, Stone’s son, for mental evaluation.
“He has some mental health issues,” Leyton said. “Those will be explored in the courts. Certainly, the young man will have to be sent to the forensic center for an examination as to his competency and/or criminal responsibility in this case.”
He added these people were “obviously overwhelmed” and it was a situation where the mother was breeding dogs, and it got out of control.
“Breeding dogs is a responsibility, it’s not a hobby,” Leyton said. “It’s not something you do lightly. These are live creatures and if you become overwhelmed you need to reach out for help.”
Swanson said if you are overwhelmed or suffering from a mental health crisis, there are resources available in Genesee County to assist.
A call to 911 would have been enough to get the Burton Police Department involved to help out with any situation, he said.
“When you get to 57 dogs, that’s when it gets overwhelming,” Swanson said. “That enough to overwhelm the system.”
Burton Mayor Duane Haskins said when Ross informed him of the deplorable conditions at the residence he sent the city’s code enforcement officer to the home.
That officer condemned the home, he said, and it will have to go through court proceedings.
“We all love pets,” Haskins said. “We’re all owners of them and we want to care for them in any way we can. So, I can’t thank (the police and sheriff’s department) enough for their hard work being involved in these tragic situations to make things better and to make it turn around.”
Swanson said all the dogs were infected with parvo and have been isolated by Genesee County Animal Control, who is taking care of them to the best of their ability.
He said the owner has signed off on ownership of the dogs and they will be rehabilitated and rehomed if they survive.
