WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. — A Winter Springs man is facing multiple animal abuse charges after police say he moved out of a local home and left three dogs there to die.
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Winter Springs Police responded to the home on Benchwood Court back on June 29 after receiving complaints from neighbors that one or more dogs had been abandoned there.
According to an incident report, one of the officers reported being immediately overwhelmed by the smell of decomposition as they approached the home.
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The officers who entered noted the smell of “rotting flesh, feces, urine, and rotting food” throughout the home.
According to the report, there were so many fleas that they made one officer’s ankles appear black and completely covered another’s pants and boots. Both reported multiple flea bites.
Police said they could also hear the sound of dogs barking coming from one room in the home.
In that room, police say they found two emaciated dogs and one that had been dead for “an extended period of time.”
According to the report, a necropsy of the 13-year-old Shih-Tzu named “Fushi” could not reveal the exact cause of death due to the state of decomposition, but revealed clear signs of starvation.
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One veterinarian told police Fushi only had a chocolate wrapper, ketchup, mayonnaise, and 2 cigarette butts in her stomach when she died, indicating she was trying to eat anything she could in the home.
Both of the surviving dogs, pit-bull mixes named Salem and Zeus, showed signs of neglect and required immediate attention.
Salem ultimately had to be euthanized. Zeus is still recovering and is not yet up for adoption, according to an update from Seminole County Animal Services.
Winter Springs police identified 24-year-old Quaid Carpenter as a previous tenant of the home and determined all three dogs had been left in his care.
When questioned, Carpenter told police he and his family had moved out of the home “about a month and a half ago.”
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Police say Carpenter initially claimed he called animal control and left a message to pick the dogs up, but admitted later that he never did.
Carpenter was arrested Tuesday and charged with three counts each of four different animal abuse charges, including animal abandonment and torture of animals. He’s being held in the Seminole County jail on a total of $10,500 bond.
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