DAVIE, Fla. – A Davie man is facing a mountain of criminal charges after authorities said a drug raid at his trailer revealed a dog breeding operation that kept canines in squalid conditions.
Authorities said Sean Christopher Brodnax, 29, was running an illegal puppy mill and trafficking a significant amount of drugs at a home he shared with his wife and their children.
At around noon on Sept. 13, Davie police, Broward County deputies, and agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided Brodnax’s trailer, located at 490 SW 132nd Ave. in the Western Hills Manufactured Home Community. Surveillance video from a neighbor’s house shows Brodnax struggling with an officer after he was taken into custody.
Inside, officers reportedly found the drugs they were looking for: a trafficking amount of fentanyl pills and approximately a kilo of cocaine powder mixed with fentanyl. But they also found about 25 French bulldog-pit bull mixes, many of which were in extreme distress.
According to an arrest report, officers first encountered three of the dogs on a screened-in patio. Police said one of the dogs, a female tri-color English Bully mix, was “clearly in distress” with “explosive diarrhea and extreme trouble breathing, possibly on the verge of a heat stroke.”
Sean Brodnax faces nearly 200 charges for drugs, guns, and animal abuse. Cops raided his Davie home last week and found dogs in deplorable conditions. @WPLGLocal10 https://t.co/F7BER7tDGt
— Ian Margol (@IanMargolWPLG) September 21, 2023
📸 - @browardsheriff pic.twitter.com/RcX97G6SpF
None of the dogs had proper food and water. They said Broadnax did provide them a fan, but it failed to keep them cool.
Police said officers found more dogs inside.
“Aside from the issue of the respondents, who are both residents of this trailer, keeping dogs in inhumanely small cages, the cages themselves were also unsanitary, filled with feces, smelled, and had no bedding on the floor of the cages,” the arrest report states.
The video shows officers carrying most of the dogs out. The arrest documents say none of them could walk on their own for more than a few feet, and that they didn’t appear to be accustomed to life outside the confinement of their cages.
Brodnax was still in jail Thursday facing 181 charges ranging from money laundering, to drug trafficking, to animal abuse. His bond was set at more than $130,000.
Animal control officers took the dogs, and the Broward Sheriff’s Office is now petitioning the court for Brodnax and his partner to lose ownership of them and to never be allowed to own any animals ever again.
Editor’s note: The original version of this story identified the woman living with Brodnax as his “girlfriend.” She is is his wife.