MULBERRY, Fla. - A Florida woman is behind bars after more than 30 underweight dogs found in bad condition were seized from a Mulberry property nearly a month ago.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office said Jennifer Flott was arrested on multiple charges, including six counts of torment, deprive, mutilate or kill any animal; aggravated animal cruelty; and impound / confine animal without sufficient food and water.
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Pictured: One dog found on the property. Courtesy: Polk County Sheriff's Office.
What we know:
Officials said they were dispatched to the property, which is located along Laurel Crest Drive in Mulberry, on February 20 after receiving an anonymous Crime Stoppers tip that dogs were seen in poor condition and may be aggressive. The tip also indicated that the two owners, one of them being Flott, may not have been seen at the property in a while, investigators said.
A PCSO animal control officer responded to the property, and eventually got Flott to show up, so he could see the animals on the property. Before that, though, other men at the property told the officer that there was no running water or electricity, according to Flott's arrest affidavit.
Dig deeper:
Once Flott arrived at the scene, the animal control officers said three dogs were found roaming the property — all appearing to be underweight and thin, officials said. Two more dogs were also found confined in a large chain-link kennel without food or water.
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According to the arrest affidavit, the animal control officers also found puppies that appeared to be two weeks old in a wooden box.
Pictured: An underweight dog found on the property. Courtesy: Polk County Sheriff's Office.
After that, authorities said the other owner arrived at the scene and provided a key to a camper on the property, where multiple dogs were found — including a dead dog locked in a kennel in stages of decomposition. It was unclear to the officers how many dogs were inside the camper, because they said Flott was trying to hide the number of animals.
All the animals were surrendered and taken off the property. According to PCSO, 31 dogs total were impounded, including the dog found dead. Flott was booked into jail on Thursday, and she made her first court appearance on Friday.
What we don't know:
It wasn't immediately clear if the dogs' other owner could face charges as well.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from Jennifer Flott's arrest affidavit, which included details about animal control's finding at the property and photos taken of some of the dogs.