Around 20 dogs were reportedly evacuated from a house of horrors where authorities reportedly found around ten others dead last week, in a private home belonging to an employee of the University of Mississippi in the United States.
About ten dead dogs “still attached to their collars and chains” were reportedly found on August 4, after a citizen notified the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office of a possible case of animal cruelty at the address, the local newspaper “Clarion Ledger” reported on Wednesday.
Although no one was at the scene when the police arrived, they reportedly searched the home using a search warrant, according to the American media outlet.
It was then that they discovered around twenty “very poorly fed” dogs as well as the corpses of around ten others, the police force said in a press release.
The investigation reportedly led to the arrest of a 47-year-old man, Terry E. Pegues, the following Wednesday. He faces 10 charges of animal cruelty, the Clarion Ledger added.
But according to the Daily Mississippian, the home belongs not only to the 40-year-old, but also to his wife Charlotte Fant Pegues, vice chancellor of student affairs at the University of Mississippi.
The woman, however, was not mentioned by the sheriff’s office and there are no police reports of her being investigated in the case.
For its part, the university said it was “deeply disturbed and appalled by any instance of cruelty to animals,” while specifying that “the university is not a party to the ongoing investigation (and) is not aware of any charges brought against any employee,” according to the “Daily Mississippian.”