WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. – A 24-year-old man faces animal cruelty charges after abandoning three dogs — one of which died — at a home in Winter Springs, according to police.
Officers said they responded to the home along Benchwood Court around 1 p.m., June 29, to assist Seminole County Animal Services in removing dogs from the residence.
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According to an arrest report, officers were “immediately overwhelmed by the smell of decomposition” when they approached an open garage door at the home. They noted in the report that two animal control notices and three utility disconnect notices were taped to the front door, as well as how a responding animal control officer gained access to the house by obtaining a code for the garage door from a neighbor.
Police said they had “exigent circumstances to enter the residence” due to information already gathered at the scene.
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According to the report, there were at least 10 empty bags of dog food and one partially full bag in the garage, as well as personal belongings. The door to the home from inside the garage was open, police said.
Officers said they could hear dogs barking in the home. When they approached the door, officers reported the smell of decomposition grew in strength, as well as that of feces and urine.
When police entered the home, officers said there were piles of dog feces all over the floors in every room, as well as old, dried urine.
The home appeared to be in disarray with furniture, trash and old food present, along with flies, cockroaches, gnats and beetles on the floors, according to the report.
Police said the HVAC system was on, but the home did not have any water services.
“The smell inside was extraordinarily strong and smelled of rotting flesh, feces, urine and rotting food,” the report reads, in part.
When officers entered the south side of the home, they said they became covered in fleas to the point where an officer’s ankles appeared black due to the amount of bugs crawling on them.
According to the report, officers noticed two living dogs and one dead dog in the last room they checked. While removing the two living dogs, officers noted they could see the ribs of one of the dogs and could hear the other dog making “breathing sounds as if he was sick,” adding the ribs, hip bones and spine of the second dog were also prominent.
Officers said the dead dog was covered in maggots, suggesting decomposition had been taking place for an extended period of time.
According to the report, police made contact with a man at an address along Mosswood Circle — identified as Michael Quaid Carpenter, 24 — who was a prior tenant of the derelict home.
Carpenter said the home on Benchwood Court is where he and his family used to live, adding he did not know who was currently there.
He claimed to have called animal services “about a month and a half” prior because he was being evicted and had to leave the home on short notice, telling police he assumed the dogs had already been picked up.
Carpenter admitted the dogs were “ours,” referring to his family, and said there were supposed to be three dogs at the residence. He also told police the last time he was at the home was at the beginning of May, according to the report.
He told police that it was a family decision to leave the dogs behind.
A necropsy on the dead dog suggested it starved to death, noting a chocolate wrapper, ketchup, mayonnaise and two cigarette butts inside of its stomach as indicative that it “was trying to eat anything (it) could inside the residence.”
Reports on the other two dogs showed one was “significantly emaciated,” having lost 50% of its body weight. The other dog had lost 25% of its body weight and was vomiting Styrofoam, according to the report.
After questioning Carpenter a second time on July 31 about which phone number he called animal services from, he reportedly said, “I told the other officer I was going to call, I told her I was going to call but I didn’t, because they were closed and I work late, I was unable to call,” contradicting what he told police days earlier. An officer asked Carpenter directly if he had ever called animal control, to which Carpenter allegedly replied, “No sir.”
Police, citing the evidence and their investigation, concluded that Carpenter was the person left in care of the three dogs.
Carpenter was arrested on Tuesday, records show. He faces three counts each of confining animals without food and water, keeping animals enclosed without exercise and air, animal abandonment and animal torture, held on $10,500 bond at last check.
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