Utah woman Alexis Marie Callen charged with felony animal abuse along with child endangerment charges after photos of her dog’ mouth tightly shut tight causing serious damages.
A Utah woman has been charged with animal torture after using a hair tie to clamp shut her 3-month-old puppy dog’s mouth shut to prevent her from barking.
Alexis Marie Callen, 19, of Murray, was charged with torturing a companion animal, a felony, after images of the abused animal were widely shared on social media the Gephardt Daily reported.
Callen ‘admitted that she intentionally and knowingly had placed her elastic hair tie around the dog’s snout for a period of 48 hours in hopes to keep the dog quiet from excessive whining,’ according to a police probable cause statement.
A veterinarian determined that the dog, ‘Shadow’ was actually tied up for as long as two weeks based on the severity of her injuries, KSTU reported.
‘Alexis had sole custody of the companion animal,’ the statement continued. ‘Alexis acted in a heinous and cruel manner by inflicting an extreme amount of physical pain to the 3-month-old companion animal (black Labrador mix type dog). Alexis denied the dog essential care by refusing to seek veterinarian care.’
Shadow was severely disfigured in the nose and mouth and needs a $2,000 surgery, according to her veterinarian, Fox 13 reported.
‘Left side [of her nose], it’s completely open even with her mouth closed,’ Shadow’s new foster mom, Caylla Facemyer, told Fox13. ‘You can see into her mouth. It’s pretty bad.’
But it gets grimmer.
Utah mom booked with child endangerment charges too:
Callen was booked on an animal cruelty charge after a welfare check on her 7-month-old child with Matthew Lloyd, 20. Officials said the infant appeared to be malnourished the Gephardt Daily reported.
The apartment was judged to be dirty, and to smell of marijuana.
Callen and Lloyd, both of whom admitted smoking marijuana in the ‘dirty’ apartment in the presence of their baby, face charges of child endangerment, a felony, and misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance and use and possession of drug paraphernalia.
‘A few feet away from the baby was marijuana and various accouterments of drug paraphernalia,’ the probable cause statement says.
But there’s more too.
Callen also was arrested on April 23 on separate child endangerment and drug charges. That case has not yet gone before a judge.
Celestial Zoo, the rescue agency, who first shared images of the distressed dog is asking anyone who would like to donate money for Shadow’s surgery to call Blue Pearl Pet Hospital in Midvale at 801-871-0600 and request the Celestial Zoo Shadow fund.
