Case Details

8 or more dogs neglected, floor covered in feces
Anthony, FL (US)

Incident Date: Sunday, Apr 30, 2006
County: Marion
Local Map: available
Disposition: Alleged

Alleged:
» Thomas J. Gough
» Sandra L. Gough

Case Updates: 1 update(s) available

Case ID: 8306
Classification: Hoarding
Animal: dog (non pit-bull)
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An Ocala couple was arrested on animal cruelty-related charges on April 30 after law enforcement officers found that their dogs had been kept shut up in a small house in Anthony for years.

Dog food had been chucked in through a front door that would open only 10 inches or so because the floor was covered with inches of dog feces, Marion County Sheriff's Capt. Jimmy Pogue said.

The owners - Sandra L. Gough, 51, and Thomas J. Gough, 54 - also would put water in a pan near the door.

Two of the eight or more beagles involved were chained to a small tree near the sloping front porch of the dilapidated yellow wood-frame house.

The Goughs were charged with confinement of animals without sufficient food, water or exercise.

The horrendous conditions came to light after a neighbor, 11-year-old Ismael Gonzalez, and a friend rode by the house at 9900 N.E. 23rd Court on their bikes. They saw that a lot of dogs had gotten out, and Ismael raced home to tell his mother.

"I'm the one who started this whole rescue mission," said Ismael, as he played a video game inside his home Sunday evening.

His mother, Opal Gonzalez, went to the house to look for an adult to talk to about the dogs. Rumor had it, she said, that someone lived in the little house with all the dogs.

She called out for the tenant. The front door was cracked and she tried to push it open but couldn't. Gonzalez said she wondered if perhaps the man was behind the door.

"I thought maybe something happened with that guy," she said.

She called the Sheriff's Office, which sent an officer to do a well-being check. Meanwhile, Gonzalez and a couple of other women in the neighborhood began to round up the dogs.

One woman was bitten by two of them. "The one that was really the worst, it just made you cry," Gonzalez said. "The way that dog hurt - it was skin and bones - and lay there in the back of the truck for an hour and a half like it was half dead."

Marion County Animal Control took seven dogs - beagles or beagle mixes - from the house. An eighth dog was still loose and could be seen running from the house Sunday evening.

The seven were taken to the Ocala Animal Emergency Hospital and examined by Dr. Anne Jones.

She said the dogs were covered in fleas and all had worms. But the main problem, she said, is socialization. The two that bit people probably will be put down for rabies testing.

Even the cutest - a beagle mix named Annie with long hair like a cocker spaniel - acted vicious with an animal control officer, Jones said.

Though the Goughs have signed the dogs over to the county, the lack of socialization may not make them good candidates for adoption.

Animal Cruelty Investigator Carol Cichy said she spoke with the Goughs, who said they had the dogs in the house for several years and would go there daily to feed and water them.

They did not, she added, get the dogs any veterinary care or clean up after them.

"The entire surface of the floor, throughout the entire house, was compacted dog feces," Cichy said, adding that it was several inches to a foot deep.

There didn't seem to be any realization on the part of the dog owners, she said, "that this is not an acceptable way to keep a dog."

Case Updates

On Monday, an eighth dog was removed by Marion County Code Enforcement. The older dog was found living in filth, without proper food and in poor health.

From his jail cell, Thomas Gough, 54, offered no apologies for allegations that he and his wife kept the dogs locked in the house for six years. He said all of the animals were strays.

The dogs, which are now in the custody of a Marion County animal shelter, shiver from the cold even on a warm May day. Seven were removed from an Anthony house over the weekend. All are in poor health, and some may die.

"First of all, to gain access into the house we actually had to dig the animal feces away from the door," said animal cruelty investigator Carol Cichy.

"People need to tend more to their own business instead of everyone else's," Gough told WESH 2 News.

Gough and his former wife, Sandra, own the dogs and the home. Each faces seven counts of confining animals. From his jail cell, Gough didn't deny it.

"I kind of give up on them dogs when we divorced. And if that's wrong, so be it," he said.

Gough and his former wife do not live in the home. He said they would stop by nightly to throw food and water inside the door, but they never let the animals out.

"All the neighbors did was complain about them running all over the neighborhood. So the only solution I had was to keep them in the house," he said.

Gough said he walked away from the home after his divorce six years ago. That's when his wife moved out as well, leaving the dogs behind.

Marion County investigators said the conditions were intolerable.

"But the most striking feature was that the floor was actually built up to a depth of approximately 6 to 12 inches in packed dog feces," Cichy said.

The eighth dog was removed from the home on Monday and taken to a shelter. He suffers from illness and malnutrition.

The charges against the Goughs are misdemeanors.
Source: WESH - May 1, 2006
Update posted on May 1, 2006 - 9:03PM 

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References

Ocala.Com - May 1, 2006

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