Pet Dog Found Dead In Tennessee Home After Being Abandoned For Almost A Month, Owner Charged

A man was charged with animal cruelty recently for abandoning his dog for almost a month before the canine died in his home in Blount County, Tennessee.

The man was charged after the police received complaints from neighbors about the dog’s death. Jim Dale, the animal control director of Blount County, said the authorities received three separate calls informing about the dog in pain in the past weeks.

Jannah Lamb, a resident in the neighborhood, said she heard the dog howling in pain every single night, for weeks.

“This particular night she was going on and on and on, and it sounded like she was in distress,” Lamb told local media

The painful howling eventually stopped one night and the dog was found dead the next morning. Several neighbors tried to help the dog but it was all in vain as they couldn’t enter the house.

“I looked inside. There were feces in there and things scattered around, and nobody around. I began to ask the neighbors if they’d seen the owner. And they said no, So I called the police and they came,” Lamb said.

Officers who responded to the scene found an empty bag of dog food lying around.

“There was nothing. And the smell was pretty bad, and we knew she had died,” Lamb said.

Authorities said that in cases like this there weren’t many laws that allowed either law enforcement or neighbors to breach the private property and rescue the dog.

“If it's an abandoned animal, we cannot remove the animal right away. We have to post it for five days. After five days of no response, then we can try to get a warrant to remove the animal," Dale said.

The animal control contacted the dog's owner and he was charged with animal cruelty.

“Somehow, this poor dog slipped through the cracks,” Lamb said. “I don’t want to point any fingers, but I’m hoping this dog hasn’t died in vain,” she concluded.

The neighbors buried the dog and are now in talks with the community's authorities to ensure that necessary measures are taken so that such incidents do not repeat.

No additional information was available at the moment and the name of the owner was not released by the authorities.