NEWPORT, Tenn. (WVLT) – A Newport woman is charged with animal cruelty after the Cocke County Sheriff’s Office said they found 16 dogs in a “deplorable condition” at a home off English Mountain Road.
Jodi Rank, the woman accused, said she’s lived at the home for about five years.
“I am not an animal abuser or neglector; those dogs were not emaciated,” said Rank.
Rank said she left her home for two weeks to prepare a new one for her family in Georgia. She enlisted her son to watch after the dogs while she was gone, and she said the dogs were fed and given water every day.
She acknowledged that her son wasn’t home often. Rankin said she had several bags of trash in the shed where the dogs were. When a storm rolled through, she said it flooded the shed. She believed the dogs ripped open the bags of trash, which created the scene that investigators saw when they responded.
“I have mixed feelings. I understand that if you walk in and see something like that, you’d think ‘Oh, that is horrible,’” said Rank.
Rank stated that she only planned on having six dogs and was on a two-month waiting list to get them spayed and neutered. She said that during that time, her dogs had multiple litters of puppies.
“In a way, it’s my fault because the dogs got out and got together with an unfixed male, and so it’s my responsibility to take care of these dogs,” said Rank.
She said that over the years, she has reached out to the Humane Society to try and have some of the dogs sheltered or put up for adoption, but she said that the shelter was always at capacity.
Sheriff CJ Ball said that Rank is still being charged with animal cruelty and all 16 dogs are being held at a temporary shelter awaiting Rank’s arrest and court date.
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