The woman who ditched a bag of puppies in a dumpster has been arrested, and police now know those weren't the only dogs she put in danger.
Deborah Sue Culwell, 54, was arrested Monday night and is charged with seven felony counts of animal cruelty.
The Department of Animal Services in Riverside County, California, reported that she was arrested at her Coachella home after surveillance footage of her dumping the pups was used to identify her by her license plate.
Commander Chris Mayer arrested a woman this afternoon on suspicion of felony animal cruelty for the incident involving the alleged puppy dumping in Coachella. More info to follow on our official Website. #RivCoNOW pic.twitter.com/lPX44RBaGm — RivCO animalSERVICES (@helpinRIVcoPETS) April 23, 2019
When they arrived at her home, animal control officers found "the house was overrun with other dogs," according to the county press release.
They found 38 dogs at the residence and "most of the dogs appeared to be in somewhat healthy condition, but some were aggressive or fearful," the county's release states, adding that the “house was in a state of disrepair."
ABC News was unable to reach Culwell, and it is unclear if she has an attorney.
Animal services is now working to determine if the mother dog of the dumped pups, who were believed to be about three days old when they were found on April 18, is among the 38 dogs found at Culwell’s home. Those dogs have been confiscated.
If the mother dog is found, authorities will determine "whether a reunion can be coordinated," the release states.
In the meantime, the abandoned pups are in foster care and a volunteer has been bottle-feeding them.
They were first found by a man identified by the Department of Animal Services by his first name, John, who they said found the dogs in the dumpster and brought them to a nearby auto body shop.
"The Good Samaritan played a major role in saving theses puppies’ lives," Animal Services commander Chris Mayer said in an update on their website, noting that temperatures were in the 90s on the day the puppies were found.
“His actions were humane and heroic."
ascension8438 on April 24th, 2019 at 15:24 UTC »
Why do half of the news sites these days start their articles with a completely fucking unrelated video right under the title, before the body of the article?
I always click it thinking it's about the topic of the article, but this one is about Kim Jong-Un and other world news. Like are these news sites just trying to fuck with our heads? Trying to give us even shorter attention spans? FFS.
sonofthenation on April 24th, 2019 at 15:09 UTC »
My wife worked in animal welfare and this is one of the biggest problems. A person starts out doing good, helping animals, they get more animals, and more. Then, they run out of money and it causes a cascade effect. Animals get sick and die. This is a common hoarding problem. This does not excuse her actions in any way.
Firhel on April 24th, 2019 at 14:00 UTC »
Hopefully due to the popularity of the story and how young they are they can be adopted out quickly when old enough. Poor things.
Edit:I'm not personally looking to adopt one myself. I've got a very needy mutt who takes up all our attention, plus my husband and I both work. It wouldn't be fair for us to get a puppy at this time. As someone else commented, please don't call or email the shelter, the dogs are fine and not up for adoption yet, they're not even old enough to be eligible before we discuss the legal issues. Love all the other dog lovers here. <3