A dog died hungry at the end of a long chain that kept him tied to a post, his ribs pushing against skin. David Lentz, the owner, was arrested January 4, 2006 after allegedly starving the pit bull-mix to death. The Grass Lake Township man was expected to be arraigned January 5, 2006 in district court on a charge of felony animal cruelty.
A necropsy on the dog found sticks, stones, dirt and sand in its stomach. They apparently were the only things it could find to eat at the house on Grey Tower Road, where he was kept with a small plastic igloo for shelter. "I asked him why his dog was dead. He told me he thought it had heartworm," said Mark Abbott, an animal control officer with Jackson County Animal Control who investigated the case.
The dog weighed 35 pounds. Abbott said an animal with that bone structure should have weighed 20 pounds more. The veterinarian determined the cause of death to be starvation. "To me it's just a simple case of neglect. ! Any time an animal dies because of neglect, it's a felony," Abbott said.
The investigation was launched when a neighbor was jogging by the house and noticed the dog wasn't making noise. Abbott said the starvation occurred over a period of time.
Lentz, 62, who does not have a history of animal cruelty, could face up to four years in prison if convicted, and $5,000 in fines and a provision that would prohibit him from owning animals. Case Updates| Posted on Jan 23, 2006 - 5:50PM | A Grass Lake Township man will stand trial for allegedly starving a dog to death. On January 20, 2006, District Judge Joseph Filip bound David A. Lentz over to Circuit Court on a felony animal cruelty charge.
A veterinarian, Dr. Kerry McKinney, testified a necropsy on the pit bull-mix dog indicated it its stomach contained sticks and stones.
A neighbor reported the dead dog on Jan. 3, 2006. Animal Control Officer Mark Abbott said the dog was chained to its house in Lentz' front yard and apparently had been dead for a few days. "It was extremely emaciated, its ribs sticking out, eyes sunken in," Abbott testified.
He said Lentz, 62, claimed the dog died six to eight weeks before and he had not gotten around to burying it. Lentz also said he fed the dog daily, Abbott said, adding that he found a bag of dog food in the house. Under cross examination by defense attorney Jerry Engle, Abbott said Lentz had a healthy cat in his Grey Tower Road home, as well as parakeets that appeared healthy. When Abbott returned to the property to make an arrest, Lentz insisted on feeding and watering his cat before he was taken away, Abbott said. Lentz also told Abbott the dog was a stray that he chained it to keep it out of the road. | | Source: MLive News - January 20, 2006 |
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