Chance Jones, an 18-year-old resident of Perrotti Place in Palm Coast, faces a felony animal cruelty charge in connection with the death of a 5-month-old puppy–a Bluetick Coonhound/Australian Shepherd mix.
“The baby suffered senselessly,” said Caroline Johnson, founder of Flagler County’s Saving Missing Animals Response Team, the nonprofit known as Smart.
Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies recovered the dog on July 1 when she was still alive but severely malnourished and in a puddle of urine where Jones had left her–in a detached garage to which he had access by code at the Central Landings apartments. The tenant who leased the apartment to which the garage belonged–Jones’s cousin–had no idea the dog had been left there.
According to his arrest report, Jones had taken ownership of the dog when she was 10 weeks old. The dog was part of a litter that belonged to a couple in Bunnell. The couple was giving away the dogs. Jones sent pictures and videos of the puppy to the original owners in late April. The dog “appeared slightly skinnier but still in overall good health,” the arrest report states. The original owners last saw images of the dog on May 7, when she was in a similar condition.
The lease-holder at the apartment complex, 20-year-old Michael Flemmings, had entered the garage at 1 p.m. on July 1, discovering the dog there. By the time a deputy arrived, Jones was also at the scene. An animal control crew removed the dog. She was taken to East Coast Animal Hospital before being transferred to a different hospital for more care before she died.
Animal Control had named her Sunset.
Jones often spends time with Flemmings at his apartment. He had been there on June 30. Flemmings told authorities he believed that’s when Jones left the dog in the garage, without telling his cousin. When Flemmings discovered the dog, Jones denied that it was his, according to the arrest report, but Flemmings recognized the dog from a prior visit at Jones’s P-Section house, where Jones’s mother had told him he could not keep her, as the family was moving to Russo Drive.
Johnson got a tip tracing the dog’s original ownership, which allowed authorities to reconstruct her last months’ ownerships. After the dog’s death on July 4 “from organ failure due to starvation,” a veterinary doctor informed a deputy that “multiple tests and lab results indicated no pre-existing medical conditions that would account for the dog’s level of malnourishment.”
A deputy encountered Jones on Russo Drive after the dog’s death.
Jones said “the dog belonged to him and he would take full responsibility,” the report states. He said he’d acquired the dog months earlier but was often away from his mother’s house, and thought family members would care for the puppy. He said “the dog was only fed when he returned home every few weeks and stated he had difficulty caring for the dog due to lack of transportation,” the report states. So he walked the dog to his cousin’s apartment complex on June 30. His mother had previously told a deputy that she had driven her son to the complex, and that the dog was wrapped in a blanket. Jones told the deputy he “hid the dog in the garage because he did not want [Flemmings] to see the dog’s malnourished condition.”
The report adds: “The dog was left in the garage without food or water, no way to escape, no source of light, and no fresh air. When asked if he ever attempted to take the dog to a veterinarian, [Jones] stated he had not.” He again took full responsibility, giving the deputy a chronology of events from the time he had taken ownership of the dog.
Jones was booked at the Flagler County jail late Monday night. He remains there on $3,000 bond.
Pippa says
Then give the poor puppy away! These people should be prosecuted to the fullest extent for letting it just starve. Soooo sad
Barry says
This is so inhumane. Some people are animals and they themselves should be treated as such. This should warrant heavy fines and jail time.