HOMESTEAD, Fla. – A Homestead woman is facing an animal cruelty charge after officials found an emaciated dog tied to a tree outside her home with no food or water Wednesday morning, according to an arrest report.
Police said the dog was surrounded by trash and had rotting teeth and a “severe ear infection.”
Recommended Videos
The report states that police were dispatched to 37-year-old Andrea Stewart’s home on Southwest 17th Avenue to assist a code enforcement officer and a Miami-Dade Animal Services investigator.
The investigator told officers that an AT&T employee performing work at Stewart’s home noticed the white pit bull mix tied to the tree and called the county’s animal abuse hotline.
“The animal had no describable body fat, (a) bony appearance from afar and (a) severe abdominal tuck with an hour glass shape,” the officer wrote in the report.
According to the report, Stewart told officers that she had the dog for about a year.
After asking why the dog was in such poor condition, Stewart told police that she had “not seen the dog in a while” and that “the dog goes up and down in weight,” the report states.
Police said Stewart “changed her story several times.”
Stewart, who was out on probation on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and criminal mischief, faced a $5,000 bond on the animal cruelty charge.