COLLINSVILLE, Okla. — According to the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office, more than 160 charges of animal cruelty will be filed against a homeowner in the outskirts of Collinsville.
More than one hundred animals were found in deplorable conditions, some of them even dead.
The Sheriff's Office arrested the homeowner after receiving a tip about animal cruelty.
Samuel Anthony Smith is in jail tonight after Sheriff deputies found hundreds of animals in his home in awful condition.
“We received a tip, that the animals here at this home, on the outskirts of Collinsville were not receiving the care that they needed and that they were in deplorable conditions,” Casey Roebuck with the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office said.
Michelle Nadine Garrett, 54, was later arrested and charged with 20 counts of animal cruelty. Authorities say Garrett lived with Smith until recently and shared responsibility for the care of the animals.
When deputies went to check out the property, they saw many chickens, some sharing cages with other dead chickens.
They also saw a donkey, goats, and other animals, many of them without access to food or water.
Deputies could even hear some inside the home, so they immediately got a search warrant and returned to the home.
“We really dug in and saw what we found in this home we were pretty shocked by what we found on the inside," Roebuck said.
They found a total of 160 animals, including chickens, goats, a pigeon, a donkey, and two incubators full of eggs in unlivable conditions.
Fifteen of those animals were dead.
“We were extremely surprised by the sheer number, especially of the chickens, it seemed like every time we would open up one more enclosure, there were just more and more of them," Roebuck said.
Deputies said some appeared to have died recently, while others may have been decomposing for an extended period of time. They said the animals found alive were starving.
“They were very hungry; they were very thirsty. These animals did not receive the care that they needed,” Roebuck said.
Smith is expected to be charged with one count of animal cruelty for each animal on his property found dead and alive, which means upwards of 160 charges, total.
Roebuck said some animals inside were found in a room with the floor covered in feces.
“These are not conditions in which any animal or human should live so based on that the animals have been taken to the Humane Society. They will be kept as evidence in this investigation,” Roebuck said.
The Sheriff's Office is asking the public to please report any animal cruelty cases.
Smith is being held on a $320,000 dollars bond, it's a 2,000 dollars bond for each of the 160 charges.
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