A Marcus Hook man has been held for Common Pleas Court on charges that he abandoned three dogs at a local park, and the animals were subsequently found in an adjoining cemetery.
Ali Bilal Muhammad Bey, 40, is charged with three counts each of neglect of animals, a third-degree misdemeanor, and abandonment of dogs, a summary offense.
Magisterial District Judge David R. Griffin heard from Amanda April, who runs a local rescue and volunteers at various shelters in the area.
April told certified legal intern Morgan Maugans that she learned of the dogs through a Facebook post after they were found at Lawn Croft Cemetery May 9. She made her own post May 10 asking the owner to step forward and offering to help if they were having financial or other difficulties.
April said she then learned from another user that Bey was the owner and that he had intentionally abandoned the dogs, who are currently being housed at Brandywine Valley SPCA. April said she compared pictures posted on Bey’s Facebook page to the found dogs and they were “the exact same” animals.
Lower Chichester Police Officer Laurence Hanna said he was called to the cemetery shortly before 5 p.m. on May 9 by a woman who had found the dogs wandering on their own.
Hanna said the dogs were all pit bull mixes. Two appeared to have been pregnant at some point and one was significantly older, 15 or 16 years old, he said. The eldest was named Coco, and the two younger dogs were named Celery and Diamond, according to prior reports.
Hanna said the weather was overcast and rainy that day and that there was no shelter for them at the park or cemetery.
He said none of the dogs appeared malnourished, but eagerly went for food and water when offered to them. They were handed off to SPCA officials and firefighters involved in their rescue posted images of the dogs on social media hoping to locate their owner.
Hanna said April had picked up on that post and he reached out to her to see if she learned anything. That was when he zeroed in on Bey and scheduled an interview.
Hanna read from a statement Bey provided in which he admitted to leaving the dogs in Analine Village Park, which abuts the cemetery.
“I, Ali Bey, have abandoned my three dogs at the park (cemetery) in fear of losing my job,” he wrote, according to Hanna. “My intentions were to focus on my health and should have taken them to the SPCA. I am guilty for doing that. I’m willing to take them back home.”
Hanna said a license plate reader had also photographed Bey’s car heading westbound on Ridge Road at Market Street at 1:14 p.m. May 9 and returning to the same intersection heading westbound at 1:29 p.m.
Defense attorney Jason Price argued that though Bey appeared to have abandoned the dogs, there was no testimony that they had been neglected.
Maugans responded that Hanna noted the dogs were hungry and wet from being out in the elements, and that they had been left alone in an area without shelter.
Bey is scheduled for formal arraignment at the Delaware County Courthouse in Media on July 31.
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