More evidence of human failing

This story from Santa Cruz - USA. Appalling!

38 emaciated dogs taken from house with severed head hanging from tree
By Linda Goldston
Mercury News
Article Launched: 07/28/2008 02:01:50 PM PDT

After a neighbor reported he could hear "animals crying in pain," Santa Cruz County authorities searched the property of a Boulder Creek man Saturday, finding a dog's head hanging from a tree, five dog skulls sitting on a table and 38 severely emaciated live animals.

Inside the house, animal control and sheriff's department investigators found one dog locked in a crate with no food or water and a dog that weighed only half what it should have.

The house "was covered in excrement, urine and debris," said Todd Stosuy, animal control manager. "It was a very disturbing and shocking situation."

Investigators first met with the man on Friday, and he "was under the assumption his animals were being well cared for," Stosuy said. He said the owner of the dogs fled out the back of the house when officers arrived with search warrants Saturday.

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