A starving stray dog led police to multiple malnourished animals and two dead puppies Tuesday.
Some of the dogs had apparently stayed alive by eating a litter mate.
Christopher Bryan McNeil, 21, of 210 Ray St., Tabor City, was released on a $15,000 unsecured bond on nine charges of misdemeanor cruelty to animals and two felony counts of killing an animal by starvation, according to warrants and jail reports.
Ptl. N. Forster of Tabor City Police reported that he was on patrol near Stake Road when he saw a malnourished, gray female dog at the Coleman’s Drive In parking lot. Forster said he had previously seen the dog at other businesses, and noted that she was underweight and did not have a collar.
Employees told Forster that the dog came from a home on Jernigan Street, and that she had recently had a litter of puppies.
Forster followed the dog to 210 Ray Street, where he met McNeil. Forster was informing McNeil about the town’s leash law when he saw another female dog, chained to a boat and “lying in the mud” with five puppies. The puppies appeared to be about three days old, forster said, and one was dead.
“The four newborn puppies were huddled together in the mud just under the cover of the metal boat,” the report said.
Forster then spotted another, male dog chained to a tree. That dog also appeared malnourished, Forster reported. Three adolescent puppies were in a shed near the boat, one of which was dead. The other two were also malnourished, and had apparently been eating the dead puppy.
One dog had a “trash can partially filled with water” and there was also a small bin filled with dirty water.
McNeil told Forster he had taken possession of the dogs but had not been able to care for them or find any other way to care for them, according to the report.
Columbus County Animal Protective Services assisted in the investigation, and is caring for the surviving dogs. McNeil is scheduled to appear in court Friday.
