Mother, son arrested after 57 dogs, 13 dead, found at Michigan home

DETROIT — A Genesee County woman and her son are facing charges after police found 44 neglected dogs and 13 dead ones in their home over the weekend, officials said.

Officials held a news conference Tuesday at the home to announce authorities have charged the two.

Some of the dead dogs were found in a freezer while others were found on the basement floor, Genesee County Sheriff Christopher Swanson said.

Swanson made the remarks during a media briefing video posted Wednesday on Facebook. He was joined by Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton, Burton Police Chief Brian Ross and Burton Mayor Duane Haskins.

All the dogs are small, Yorkies or Shih Tzus, the sheriff said. He also said necropsies will be performed to determine the cause of their deaths. Many of the surviving animals have Parvo, a virus contagious among canines that can cause death if untreated, he said.

Leyton said his office has charged the two defendants, identified as Patricia Stone, 49, and her 24-year-old son, Kyle, with cruelty to 25 or more animals, a seven-year felony, cruelty to animals and allowing them to suffer unnecessarily, also a seven-year felony, and failure to dispose of a dead animal, a misdemeanor.

He said had "a difficult time reading the police report" on the incident. The county prosecutor added investigators believe the younger defendant has mental health issues and will need to be evaluated by experts.

As of Wednesday, neither Stone nor her son had yet been arraigned.

"This is more about these animals than it is about these people," Leyton said.

Investigators said the female defendant was breeding dogs at the home.

Ross said officers began investigating after police were contacted at about 8 p.m. on Saturday about a foul odor coming from a home in the 1200 block of Lasalle Avenue near Lapeer and Belsay roads in Burton.

"(The callers) said they thought there was a dead body in the house," the police chief said. "Officers arrived at the scene and found 13 deceased dogs."

He said dogs at the home were kept in cages stacked three high. Those in the cages on top were defecating and urinating on the animals below them, he said. "Just a terrible, terrible situation," Ross said.

The chief added the defendants were living in "a hoarding situation" with clothes and garbage strewn about the home. The cages and dogs were mixed in wherever they could find a space for them, in bedrooms, in hallways as well as in the basement.

It's not clear how long the poor living conditions existed, but Ross said: "it was a significant amount of time."

Police contacted the sheriff's office and the county's Animal Control department for help, the chief said.

Mayor Haskins added the city's code enforcement department has deemed the home to be unlivable and will start legal proceedings to have the house condemned.

The case comes after a Pontiac woman's home was condemned after Oakland County authorities removed 37 animals there.

In another incident, authorities charged three people in connection with the deaths of six dogs in their Eastpointe rental home.

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