BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – A South Florida woman neglected her dogs and then threw them away in a dumpster after she found them dead, police said.
Devonna Hinds, 23, of Lake Worth Beach, was arrested Wednesday by Boynton Beach police. She faces charges of animal cruelty and unlawful disposal of a dead animal.
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According to a Boynton Beach police report, two dogs were found dead in separate crates inside a dumpster behind SouthTech Preparatory Academy in November. Microchips implanted in the dogs linked them to Hinds, who admitted to throwing them away like trash.
Hinds said she remembered feeding both dogs on Nov. 21, but when she returned that night, they were dead in their backyard crates.
It had been raining that night, so Hinds “assumed they died because they were left in the rain,” she told police.
Hinds said she “cried for a minute when she found her dogs dead but then she just got over it and she decided to get rid (of) them,” the report said.
A necropsy concluded that one of the dogs, named Karma, was emaciated and had been infested with hookworms. The necropsy for Paris determined that the dog had overgrown nails, dirty ears, dental tartar and had been underfed.
Karma had lost 20% of her body weight, while Paris had lost 5%, the report said.
The veterinarian who performed the necropsies determined that both dogs had been neglected over a long period of time.
“This is one of the most disturbing cases I have ever worked,” animal cruelty investigator Liz Roehrich said. “These dogs experienced extreme suffering, and then their bodies were tossed in a dumpster like yesterday’s trash. We are grateful to the cleaning crew who discovered them and called us.”