MEMPHIS, Tenn. — An animal cruelty investigation is underway after four dogs were rescued from a South Memphis home Saturday.
Kevin Smith, 51, is in jail and accused of starving and neglecting his four dogs, and he already had a warrant out for his arrest.
Memphis Animal Services said a tip lead them to a home on Kansas Street where they found the dogs with no food. Only one of the dogs had been given water that was dirty and undrinkable.
Photos from MAS show the dogs are so skinny, their ribs and spines are showing.
Smith is still in jail, facing a slew of felony drug charges in addition to four counts of animal cruelty.
One neighbor seemed oblivious to the alleged abuse, telling WREG he didn’t notice anything wrong with the dogs.
“Oh, they was in good shape,” Smith’s neighbor Cleveland McNeill said. “He be feeding the dogs. The dogs wasn’t skinny or nothing.”
But another neighbor, who wanted her identity concealed, said she had her suspicions all along.
“I could tell something was going on,” she said. “They were being mistreated. It was unusual noises from dogs, you know, other than just regular barking.”
She said she called animal control within the last two months, and court records show MAS did show up and check things out last month. But they said at that time the dogs were fine.
The dogs are now being cared for at the shelter.
With the drug and animal cruelty charges combined, Smith is being held on a $35,000 bond and is due in court Tuesday.
