A man is charged with animal cruelty after the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office claims he left three dogs to die in East Deer Township.
“It’s just a disgusting situation,” Allegheny County Sheriff Kevin Kraus said.
Sheriff Kraus is discussing the condition of a home in East Deer, where his deputies discovered three abandoned dogs.
Inside the property, authorities discovered bags of dog food thrown across the floor, and the remainder of the house was unclean.
“In this case, it was clear they abandoned them and left them to die. We’re just happy we could get there and save the animals,” Sheriff Kraus said.
The deputies went to the house to give an eviction notice to Christopher Edmunds, the man who authorities believe lived there with the pets.
But when they arrived, Edmunds was nowhere to be seen, leaving the three dogs to fend for themselves with only dog food and no water.
“It’s frustrating. Absolutely horrible, horrific to treat an animal like that. To walk away without any responsibility,” he added.
Sheriff Kraus reported that without knowing the disposition of the canines, his deputies could have been in danger.
“They got there, and realized there were three dogs. They were barking. They didn’t know if they were mean, or aggressive,” he said.
Then they needed to locate a location for the dogs to stay.
“Our initial efforts involved facilities that flat out told us, the dogs are going to be euthanized. None of us wanted to hear that, so we took a lot of extra steps to find facilities that could help us,” he said.
Edmunds was arrested on Tuesday at his place of employment. He was hauled to Allegheny County Jail for arraignment on three counts of animal cruelty and five counts of animal neglect.