Lindsay Meelan, Clark Mills, NY woman charged with animal cruelty for abandoning ’emaciated’ dog in empty apartment in Utica after moving out. Animal was days away from death.
An upstate New York woman has been charged with felony animal cruelty after she abandoned an ‘emaciated’ dog days from starving to death at an apartment, authorities said.
Lindsay Mills, 36, of Clark Mills who was arrested on Wednesday is alleged to have abandoned the pit bull mix, Rhett, in an apartment in Kirkland, just outside Utica, on May 16, according to a Facebook release from the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office.
Rhett who was found ‘extremely emaciated,’ and ‘dehydrated,’ and too weak to stand, was pictured with his ribs and spine sticking through his thin layer of flea-ridden fur at the time of the animal’s rescue.
Upstate NY woman abandons emaciated dog in apartment after moving out
‘To see pictures of him is startling … but to see him in real life is absolutely shocking,’ Kindred Spirits Greyhound Adoption, the rescue organization that is helping him get back to health, said in a fundraiser.
‘His owners had moved and left him locked in their apartment to fend for himself. No one knows how long he’d been there but we were told he was probably days from death.’
Rhett has since had an emergency blood transfusion and been treated for starvation, anemia and fleas, WKTV reported. He was finally strong enough to stand on his own about a week after being found.
‘This dog with the sweet personality won over everyone he met and we just couldn’t let him die,’ said the rescue group in a fundraiser for the abused animal.
‘He is by no means totally out of the woods yet but has been moved to a foster home where he is receiving much love and great care and continues to slowly improve,’ the group wrote.
Rhett moved out of the veterinary hospital and into a foster home, where he ‘continues to slowly improve.’
Mills following her arrest was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals — a felony — as well as misdemeanor animal cruelty. She was released and is due to appear in Kirkland court on June 17.
Not immediately clear is why the dog owner chose to abandon the canine and what prior animal abuse the animal suffered at the hands of Mills.
Here is the link to the fundraiser to assist Rhett.
