Dogs, cat abandoned in Graham home for weeks only survived thanks to dripping faucet

GRAHAM, Wash. — The animals had been left to live in a feces-covered house with no food or water.

Four dogs and one cat were covered in fleas, emaciated and severely dehydrated. They didn’t move when people came into the Graham home to rescue the pets.

Now, Pierce County prosecutors have charged a 39-year-old man with five counts of first-degree animal cruelty.

He is expected to be arraigned June 29.

Officials said they do not know how long the animals were abandoned, but believe it was at least several weeks.

Neighbors recalled the “animals tearing up the blinds and howling” weeks before someone called Animal Control officers in July 2015.

When an animal control officer arrived at the home, the man’s sister and mother were there and said they had no idea the terrier-mix dogs and cat had been so neglected.

They said they’d last seen the man nearly a month earlier and he’d said he had to get home to take care of his “babies,” according to charging papers.

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The man had not responded to his family’s texts or phone calls for weeks so they decided to drive to his home after learning it was being foreclosed.

When the animal control officer went into the home, she was “immediately hit with the musty smell of dried feces,” records show.

More than 100 piles of feces were found on floors and beds throughout the house. Trash and clothes were strewn everywhere. The toilet bowls were dry and only a dripping bathtub faucet allowed the pets to survive, Animal Control said.

The cat, Ginger, refused to move from the window. She was severely underweight with wounds on both rear legs.

The dogs - Bella, Bentley, Baxter and Bradley - were similarly in bad shape.

Bradley was the worst.

He had nearly 1,000 fleas, was severely dehydrated and emaciated, had a licking wound on his paw indicating stress and was depressed, records show.

The animal control officer “opined that these animals would have suffered a slow death had there not been intervention,” charging papers show.

A veterinarian who treated the pets said they likely would have died in the next week if they hadn’t been rescued.

It’s unclear where the owner was during that time or why he abandoned the animals in the home.

KIRO