Burned mobile home housed up to 50 dogs
Officially, six dogs were killed in a mobile home fire near Mesa, Arizona at the end of March. But the owner of the property, neighbors and witnesses say two dozen or more dog carcasses could remain in the rubble.
Possibly as many as 50 dogs were living on the property; 26 dogs survived the fire.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office says its Animal Cruelty Enforcement unit will not be investigating and considers the case closed.
Deputy Lindsey Smith, sheriff’s spokeswoman, said animal crimes investigators went to the property and found nothing that fit the definition of animal cruelty. Smith said the investigators didn’t comb through the rubble, but found only six dogs that died in the fire.
According to neighbors who dug out the carcasses last week and delivered them to Maricopa County Animal Care and Control, some of the dead animals were in plain sight, but the majority of them were buried in a 10-foot by 12-foot area, under rubble from the burnt mobile home.
The owner of the burnt property, Jamie Endicott, provided the Mesa Tribune with a receipt from Maricopa County Animal Care and Control for 31 dogs that were eventually found.
Twenty-six dogs that lived at the residence were rescued, according to Kathy Swaney, who runs Valley of the Sun Dog Rescue.
The woman who lived on the property, Beth Schmeltz, said she didn’t know how many dogs she had, but she had provided shelter for them all since she began living there in 1996. Endicott was set to file the paperwork to evict Schmeltz the day the property went up in flames.
On Wednesday, residents in the neighborhood held a memorial for the dead animals. About 50 people attended.
Posted by jwoestendiek April 10th, 2009 under Muttsblog.
Tags: animal, arizona, burned, carcasses, care, control, dogs, dozens, endicott, fire, hoarder, hoarding, killed, maricopa, mesa, mobile home, rescue, rescued, rubble, schmeltz, valley of the sun
