A couple is facing charges after four dead animals and 10 unhealthy dogs were found inside a house in Lawrence County.
According to court documents, police were called to a house on the 800 block of N Ashland Avenue in New Castle for an animal welfare check on July 16.
When they arrived, there was a strong smell of dogs, decay and ammonia coming from inside.
The responding officer said they saw the dogs inside through the windows and reported they all appeared to be filthy and malnourished and had urine stains on them. Some of the dogs were so dehydrated that they were licking dew and recent rainfall off of vinyl on the house and condensation from air conditioning units, the officer added.
Through the back door, the officer saw feces, urine, trash and bugs inside the house.
Police contacted Michelle Lynn Wimer, 34, and Travis Lawrence Laughery, 33, because they had phone numbers connected with the address. Police said they told them they lived at the house but had been staying somewhere else.
The couple said someone was coming to the house to check on the dogs and let them out once a day. Officers said no feces was found outside the house and there was no evidence to check the dogs were being checked on.
After getting a search warrant, police entered the house in Tyvek suits. Inside, they found ten living but malnourished dogs. They had overly skinny ribs, hips, necks and jaws, police said. They were immediately taken to animal shelters for treatment.
A criminal complaint said a partially decapitated dog was found inside two trash bags in the first room. Laughery later told police that the dog was attacked by another dog or some of the others. He said the dog refused to eat or drink after this and succumbed to her wounds a week after the initial attack. He added that he did not have the money for a vet to treat the animal. He allegedly put her in the bags so that he could bury her, something he said could not be done immediately because he did not know where to do it and because he did not have a vehicle.
Police said three dead cats were also found inside a room. Wimer said they belonged to her child, who had not been inside the room they were found in since Christmas Day, 2024.
Laugrey told police he had been trying to clean the house every day, but he and Wimer were staying at a family member’s house in Bessemer during that process.
Wimer told police the situation was unacceptable, saying she had placed herself before the animals. She described the situation, officers said, as “cruel and neglectful.”
The couple faces 74 different charges of animal cruelty and neglect each.
They are being held at the Lawrence County Prison with a $100,000 bail.
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