Two individuals in Newton have been arrested for allegedly leaving their dogs in a vacant home with no heat during one of the coldest days of the year so far, leading to the death of one of the animals. Police say the other dog was transported to a local veterinary clinic for emergency treatment.
According to a Jan. 23 press release from the Newton Police Department, 30-year-old Erick A. Fuerte Farias and Marissa N. Fuerte were charged with two counts each for animal neglect causing serious injury or death, which are aggravated misdemeanors punishable by up to two years imprisonment.
Utility workers on Jan. 21 responded to a broken water pipe in the home near the 700 block of North Fourth Avenue East. Upon arrival they found the home was vacant with no heat. Ice had formed on the walls from the broken pipes inside. The workers heard a dog inside and contacted the local police department.
Officers found the house was locked, and attempts to contact the homeowner were unsuccessful. Due to the extremely low temperatures and the condition of the home, police made emergency entry into the residence and found one deceased dog and one extremely malnourished dog confined to the kitchen.
Both dogs were without food or water. Police executed a search warrant of the residence, and evidence was found indicating the dogs had been abandoned for several weeks. Both individuals have since been arrested and were transported to the Jasper County Jail on the aforementioned charges.
Temperatures on Jan. 21 were as high as 10 degrees Fahrenheit and as low as -15 degrees Fahrenheit in Newton. Wind speeds fluctuated throughout the day, with the highest gusts being 29 mph. Temperatures and windchill were so cold that Newton Community School District issued a two-hour delay the same day.
Terri McKinney, clinic manager of Parkview Animal Hospital, said the surviving dog is a hound mix who weighed 32 pounds when authorities brought him in for emergency care. He gained four pounds after 24 hours in the clinic, and he has since been transferred to the Animal Rescue League of Iowa.
“He will recover and it’s going to be a slow, slow process,” McKinney told Newton News. “When an animal becomes severely emaciated, you can’t just put large quantities of food in front of them and let them go. You end up creating more issues. So you have to slowly re-feed them.”
Parkview Animal Hospital grades animal body conditions from a scale of one to nine, with nine being “pretty chunky” and one being “extremely malnourished.” Staff rated the dog’s body condition as a one. McKinney said the ARL has a lot of experience caring of severely neglected animals.
“They have the staff to truly monitor him,” she said. “…It’s in his best interest to be where he is at. I truly feel that he will make a full recovery. How much longer did he have left in there (in the vacant home)? Probably not for very long if no one had found him.”
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