YOUNGSTOWN — A Youngstown woman operating a “puppy mill” will be facing numerous counts of animal cruelty after authorities found starving dogs and two dead puppies at her home, officials reported.
Lindsay R. Sanders, 33, was arrested Wednesday and charged with 15 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and two felony counts, according to court records. Sanders is named as a codefendant in the case, and officials said they expect more arrests to follow.
When deputies attempted to contact Sanders at her 7010 Troy Road home on Jan. 2, they initially thought the faint odor emitting from the home might be its occupant, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office reported.
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“They were concerned about the owner, so they went in,” said BCSO spokeswoman Ruth Corley. “But it was the smell of the dogs decomposing.”
Deputies found kennels inside the home, which previously has been reported as a “puppy mill,” officers said. Inside, however, the deputies found feces on the floor and moldy food in the bowls. One kennel contained the bodies of two lifeless Great Dane puppies.
The remains of the puppies were later examined and their stomachs were void of food, BCSO reported.
Bay County Animal Control removed 15 Great Danes from the Troy Road property that were in “distress” and alerted BCSO to the residence. Numerous dogs were in outdoor kennels that appeared to have not been fed or cared for properly, BCSO reported.
“The Great Danes were extremely thin to the point you could see their ribs and tailbones,” officers reported.
Water dishes within the pins allegedly were dirty with green algae lining the insides of them.
The officers also reported seeing “several pens without dogs in them” where they “observed bones (skulls) inside of them which appeared to have K-9 teeth.”
Sanders was not inside the home when officers attempted to contact her, but they were able to reach her by phone. BCSO said she admitted taying there with her husband before leaving a man named “Red” in charge of caring for the dogs.
Sanders said she “went on a honeymoon and left a man they knew as ‘Red’ on the property,” BCSO reported. “They had met him in a bar mid-December. He needed a place to stay and they needed a caretaker for the dogs while they were gone.”
However, the neighbors said they had only seen the couple at the residence.
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After she refused to return to the home, a warrant was issued for Sanders and she was arrested Wednesday, court records indicated.
The 15 live dogs were taken to Animal Control and determined by a veterinarian to be malnourished and neglected. They were taken to the Northwest Florida Great Dane Rescue in Pensacola to be cared for and adopted out, according to officials.
Officials later deemed the home “uninhabitable.”