Man arrested after police find 4 dogs dead, 39 malnourished

By WESH Staff

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    SANFORD, Florida (WESH) — A Sanford man has been arrested after Seminole County deputies discovered a horrific case of animal abuse.

Deputies were called to the home on East 20th St., on Nov. 22 after being tipped off by a child protective services investigator that there were animals inside the home in poor health.

Responding deputies discovered four dogs dead inside the residence, apparently starved to death.

Initially, 26 dogs were seized after being found to be in poor condition. Officials say they were confined to kennels and not supplied with adequate food and water.

Hours later, a new search warrant was issued and an additional 13 dogs were found.

The owner, 40-year-old Brandon Blake, is facing charges of keeping animals without sufficient food or water and torturing or inflicting serious injury or death on animals.

Thirty-nine dogs were taken to Seminole County’s shelter for care and treatment, but for one, it was too late and had to be put down.

“It died in front of me last night,” Alan Harris, emergency manager, said.

This comes from a shelter that has been no-kill except in severe cases for six years.

“We are animal lovers. Most of us have adopted dogs from the shelter here – tearing up a little bit. This is the last thing we want to see right before Thanksgiving,” Harris said.

The shelter was already full before all of the dogs were brought in. Those dogs cannot be immediately adopted, so they need to adopt others to make room.

“Five dollars for every dog we have that is adoptable,” Harris said.

Crates line one side of a hallway out of necessity. Dogs are where goats or chickens might normally be kept.

“We were already full at the shelter, so now we are literally utilizing every space we have,” Harris said.

The dogs that were taken in, some with ribs showing, need time to heal up and recover.

They’ll make space by hopefully adopting out healthy dogs and will trust the legal system with Blake.

“It was just the worst case. I mean, this was a puppy mill breeding dogs and didn’t care about them whatsoever,” Harris said.

Blake is in jail on bonds totaling $21,000.

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