UPDATE: Two arrested in Wicomico Co. puppy mill investigation
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The Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office says they have made two arrests, in connection with the investigation into an alleged puppy mill, in Eden.
Back in April, 300 dogs were removed from a Cooper Road property in Eden, the property owners have now been charged.
Investigators say they have arrested 60-year-old Robert Murphy and 67-year-old Susan Murphy, each on 84 counts of animal cruelty.
The images are painfully burned into the hearts and minds of animal lovers here on Delmarva. Pomeranians, being cleaned and nursed back to health. Hundreds, rescued from a property in Eden.
Up until now, few other details were known about what inspectors found at the home of Robert and Susan Murphy, but now that the couple has been arrested, charging documents now outlining in graphic detail the squalor these dogs were allegedly forced to live in.
It was on April 6th, 2016, that the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office sent one of their deputies to assist Wicomico Animal Control in a kennel inspection at 5084 Cooper Road in Eden. The welfare check, the result of a tip, that there was a large number of dogs on the property.
According to the investigating officer, Susan Murphy answered the door and told the corporal that her “husband had been taking care of the dogs” which were spread out between the home and three out-buildings. Susan allegedly told the investigator “she did not know what the conditions were” in those buildings… “and she was afraid it ‘was not going to be good'”. The corporal stated the moment he stepped foot inside the first outbuilding, he was “overwhelmed by the pungent smell of the kennels and the soiled dogs kept inside them”.
However, further inspection proved this horrible first impression would be nothing compared to what they would soon to see.
An inspection of building 1 revealed a total of “10 dogs” kept in “3 small pens” that contained “trash and debris” “feces observed piled up next to the pens” and “not much air circulating.”
In building 2, Inspectors observed the dogs were “running loose” “covered in feces” and “their fur severely matted.” There were apparently “play pens designed for infants” being used to hold the dogs but “there were holes chewed through the fabric” which is why the dogs were not contained. It appears “there was neither water nor food out for the dogs in Building 2” and inspectors believe it may have been like that “for some time.” The shed-like structure allegedly only had “one small, one inch circle, for ventilation.” In this structure investigators counted 24 dogs. Those dogs, that weren’t running loose, were found in “plastic dog carriers,” and investigators say it appeared they had “been inside them for a substantial period of time.” These dogs also had “no water and appeared to have no access to water for some time.”
The Inspection of building 3 allegedly revealed even more horrors. Like the other buildings, inspectors reportedly found dogs running loose, feces and urine all over the floor, inadequate access to water, but in this structure there were “110 dogs.” Among those running around, lay the bodies of dead dogs, in varying states of decay. The investigating officer explained in the charging documents, how he observed “two deceased dogs,” “skeletal remains,” “a deceased puppy…that was being chewed on by the other dogs. One of the deceased dogs had been eaten by either another dog or by rats.” And the rats were apparently “all over the building”… “all around the perimeter of the structure and along the dog’s cages.” Animal control estimates there were approximately “200 rats in this building that were swarming” in and out of the dogs cages, as well as a number of dead rats throughout the building.
And in the Murphy home investigators found what they describe as the worst conditions.
A member of Animal control “deemed the interior of the Residence to be worse than Building 1, Building 2, and Building 3”. When she was questioned during the inspection, Susan Murphy allegedly told investigators there were “2 female dogs and their litters, plus 14 additional dogs inside the residence” at the time. A count of the animals revealed there were actually 166 dogs inside the house, either found running around, “in cages, play pens, pet carriers, and in large Rubbermaid containers without tops on them.” Investigators described the pet carriers saying they looked as if they “had not been cleaned in approximately nine months to a year.”
It took Animal Control 14 hours to remove a total of 310 dogs from the property.
