A Florida woman was arrested and she is facing charges after dead and dying dogs were discovered in wire cages at her Polk County home. As reported by CBS Tampa, 52-year-old Dashong Bonner is facing two felony counts of animal cruelty and one misdemeanor count of animal cruelty, after one dead dog and two severely emaciated dogs, were found at her Bartow residence.
Animal control notes about the case reveal how horribly the dogs were neglected:
“Dog #1, a brown in color female Pit Bull Terrier named Mocha, was located in a wire kennel with no plastic floor, covered in feces, with a 1/2 eaten plastic dog food bag in the kennel. In the bottom of the kennel were pieces of plastic the dog had digested and passed with its feces. The dog could barely stand and was carried to the animal control transport vehicle at the scene. Upon an evaluation of the dog by the Polk County Animal Control Veterinarian the dog was found to have a body score of a 1, with 1 being completely emaciated and 9 being obese. The dog was found to be suffering from heart worms and hook worms, anemic, severely underweight, and weighing only 24.1 pounds at approximately 5 years of age. This dog suffered repeated pain trying to stay alive eating a plastic dog food bag. The dog was unable to escape the wire kennel and attempt to hunt for food or water.
The dog who died apparently starved to death as well – the report states:
Dog #3, a tan Cur mix male dog named Buster, was located in a wire kennel on the open back porch of the residence. The dog was found to be deceased. The dog was removed from the property and taken to Animal Control where it was found to have a body score of a 1. The dog had no visible fat on its body and appeared to be skin and bones. The dog clearly suffered a cruel death by starving to death inside a wire kennel with no food or water, and no way to escape to hunt for food or water. The floor of the kennel had one small piece of very dry feces in it indicating the dog had not had any food over an extended period of time.
Amazingly, Bonner admitted to the authorities that she didn’t remember the last time that she fed the dogs, and that she didn’t know that one of them had died inside of the wire cage on her porch. She was booked into the Polk County Jail.
Grady Judd, the sheriff, commented on the cruelty case, stating:
“Our Ag Crimes detectives and Animal Control personnel have seen some pretty awful things, but this is the worst case of animal cruelty they’ve encountered in a very long time. These dedicated men and women are working around the clock restoring health to these two severely neglected dogs. It’s a shame we didn’t get there in time to save them all. We appreciate the anonymous citizen who saw something, and said something.”
Will I still fit on your lap mom?
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