Two dogs found in locked storage unit
Crown Point, IN (US)Incident Date: Thursday, Feb 24, 2011
County: Lake
Charges: Misdemeanor
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Elliot D. Aiken
A Gary man was charged with animal cruelty after police found two dogs in crates in an unheated rental shed, with no food or water and covered in their own feces, oficials said.
Police found the dogs on Feb. 24 after the owner of the Crown Point, Ind. storage facility after renters said they heard a dog on the premises, Crown Point Asst. Police Chief Jim Janda said.
The owner called police who were eventually was able to locate from where the sounds were coming, Janda said.
The renter of the locker, Elliot D. Aiken, 37, was called to the facility and ordered to open the locker. Inside, police found a 50-pound, German sheperd-chow mix named Chewbacca and a 15-pound pit bull mix named Sasha. They were being kept in plastic animal crates.
"The stench of the urine and the feces was just unbelievable, the dogs were covered in their own feces," Janda said.
Aiken told police he had been there the day before and fed the dogs, but Janda said police did not find any evidence the animals had had any food or water. He said the dogs looked emaciated. The dogs were taken to Lake County Animal Control for treatment.
"When the dogs first got to the Lake County animal shelter, they put food and water down and the dogs just tore into the food and water," Janda said.
He said the locker was unheated. "It couldn't have been much warmer inside there than it was outside at that time."
Aiken was charged with two counts of animal cruelty, both misdemeanors. At the time, he was wanted on an outstanding warrant for failing to appear in small claims court on an unrelated matter. References |
