When Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene Wednesday in late morning–the Harbor Freight parking lot off Palm Coast Parkway–the puppies were “panting and severely dehydrated,” and one bystander was shuttling puppies with a deputy from the back of a U-Haul truck, where they’d been stored, to a deputy’s patrol car, to cool down the animals with air conditioning.
The animals’ fur was matted, some of them were covered in feces. A deputy described what she saw: “As soon as I stepped in the back of the U-Haul to help get the animals out, I felt as if I was stepping into a sauna and I could smell the odor of feces. I, the owners of the animals and the witness attended to the dogs by placing them in cages outside of the U-Haul, pouring water on them and giving them drinking water. I noticed a gray water bucket with water in [the] U-Haul truck close to the entrance of the U-Haul lift gate but no water in any cages with animals. The cats only had wet food in a gray bowl but none of the rest of the animals did. All animals eventually stopped panting and were hydrated enough [that] they did not appear to be on the verge of passing out anymore. The fire department assisted with cooling off the animals. There were 4 cats and 13 dogs in the back of the U-Haul.”
The animals’ owners are Jason Donellan-Sparks, 29, and Shawna Doud, 23, whose given address is on Kittles Street in Mims, the community just north of Titusville on the Atlantic Coast. They told deputies they’d left Tennessee the night of July 27 with the animals in the back of their U-Haul. They were both arrested on charges of animal cruelty, a misdemeanor. But it took the quick thinking of a passer-by–Anthony Duncan, a retired cop–to detect that the truck’s cargo was in trouble.
“Upon parking in front of Harbor Freight parking lot a U-Haul truck pulled into the lot as well,” Duncan told deputies in a statement. “As I was walking by the truck I heard what I thought were birds chirping, then when the female that was inside the truck opened the lift gate I noticed numerous dogs and puppies all in distress and panting with their tongues all out. The female then started spraying the dogs with water but it was too hot inside the compartment. I told her it is best to get the dogs out and not to leave the scene.”
Donellan-Sparks and Doud had initially parked directly in front of Harbor Freight, in the heat. When Duncan saw the animals in distress, he directed Doud to park the truck in the shade. That day, the high temperature reached 91 in Palm Coast.
A Palm Coast Animal Control officer who investigated said the care for the animals was poor, they were “extremely dehydrated and she believed if they stayed inside the U-Haul truck any longer they would’ve died,” according to the two travelers’ arrest report. Doud was traveling with her son, whose grandmother was to pick him up. Donellan-Sparks’s step-mother was to take possession of the U-Haul and trailer, so the two travelers could be booked at the county jail. The animals were taken to animal control, where a veterinarian checked them out.
“Here is a great example of ‘see something, say something’ and these animals only had minutes to spare,” Sheriff Rick Staly said. “Thank you to the citizen who spoke up and called us. I’m glad the animals are now in the hands of Animal Control and out of the custody of these two who obviously don’t know how to care for them. The Florida heat is dangerous and animals do not belong in vehicles without proper air flow as the result can be deadly. Thank you to all the agencies who came together to rescue the 17 animals from the U-Haul.”
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James M. Mejuto says
re: Cats and Dogs, U-Haul truck . . . Animal cruelty is a BIG problem in our United Sates but yet not a single
word from Biden regarding animal cruelty for profit.
It’s amazin’. He has a rescue dog , yet not a word !
James M. Mejuto
Concerned and Curious says
Thank goodness the animals were rescued. What happens to them now? What if homes cannot be found for them?
Mythoughts says
I pray the judge that hears this case does not let them go with a slap on the wrist. What idiots would think that any animal would survive this? I think they should stay in jail for a long time and think about what they did and how cruel it was.
What were they going to do with all those animals, was there food in the truck for the animals? Do they have vet records on the animals? Answering those questions will be a huge NO ANSWER.
There are some being on this earth that don’t deserve to own animals or have children and it sounds like these two fit that description.
Karen A says
Terrible… how would they like to be in the back of a U-haul… thank god someone saw and reported it.
Jane Gentile-Youd says
God Bless Anthony Duncan is all I can say… Fingers crossed that all furry babies rescued will have good homes asap. (We have 2 spoiled dachsies and a demanding Amazon bird) but I will ask hubby if we can adopt a new baby. Wish I could take every single doggie.
Andrew says
Yup god bless him for your god saving these puppies. But not the hundreds of children that died that same day…God bless him.
Keep Flagler Beautiful says
What a ridiculous thing to say. You seem to resent that the dogs’ lives were saved. Their rescue had nothing to do with any children who might have died on the same day. Let me ask you this: If the dogs had all died, would it have saved even one human life? No. Get your facts and your logic straight.
Peaches McGee says
Upon reading this article, my wife just blurts out “Can we get another doggo?”. Another one I say? After reading the article myself, we will either; 1) adopt another doggo or 2) donate food/cash to the FCHS.
Every day I love my doggo’s more than I love most humans.
Jill says
Let’s hope they’ve both gotten extra warm rooms at the Green Roof Inn.
Mythoughts says
How wrong I was, I thought God gave everyone that is born gets a brain and common sense, it appears these two weren’t given that when they were born.
How about if their sentence is being put in a UHaul trailor around noon time with the sun beating on it and let them sit in there for about an hour and then let us all know how it feels.
A judge in Iowa one time when a young man called a police officer a pig, the young man’s sentence was to be placed in a pig pen for two hours to learn the difference between a pig and a police officer.
Keep Flagler Beautiful says
Sickening and unacceptable. Why are there no meaningful laws to apply to animal cruelty? In every single case like this, it would be a felony if the victim were a child. Every life has meaning.