A Marine from Beaufort’s Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) faces a number of felony costs of animal cruelty for reportedly neglecting 5 pets she was employed to observe throughout a Hilton Head man’s trip, leaving one canine to die of hunger after not visiting the proprietor’s home for a five-day interval.
Victoria Marie Spencer, 20, was arrested Thursday morning at MCAS Beaufort and launched on bond just some hours later, mentioned Maj. Angela Viens, a spokesperson for the Beaufort County Sheriff’s workplace.
Spencer was employed by way of the web pet-sitting service Trusted Housesitters to observe two canines and three cats belonging to the islander, who lives in Hilton Head Plantation, Viens mentioned. Investigators say the lady agreed to pet-sit for a nine-day interval to start with of September, with common visits to the house to feed the animals and let the canines out of their kennels.
After not listening to from Spencer a couple of days into his trip, the house owner checked the footage from his doorbell digicam on the residence’s entrance entrance — solely to find Spencer appeared to not have visited the home for the previous 5 to 6 days, in line with Viens. He frantically phoned a neighbor, who checked the home to seek out the animals in a heart-rending state of neglect.
Each canines’ kennels have been “cluttered with feces” and tattered bedding, in line with a Sheriff’s Workplace report, and one canine had died attributable to an absence of meals and water. The opposite was struggling seen hair loss, with accidents to its snout, paws and nails from making an attempt to flee its cage, Viens mentioned. The canines had reportedly been left for over 5 days, with meals and water of their direct line of sight from the kennels.
Left to roam inside the home, the house owner’s cats weren’t visibly injured however had additionally not been fed or checked on, police say. Their litter field was “utterly full,” with feces and urine discovered all through the home.
Utilizing the doorbell footage as proof, Sheriff’s Workplace investigators charged Spencer with 5 counts of animal cruelty — three misdemeanor counts for the cats, and two felony counts for the canines.
“We’re extremely sorry to listen to of this horrible incident,” a spokesperson from Trusted Housesitters wrote in a press release to The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette Friday morning. “We have now provided our deepest condolences and our fullest help to the house owners and we’re liaising with the Sheriff’s Workplace to offer no matter help we are able to of their investigation.”
The assertion emphasised that pet security is the corporate’s “absolute precedence” and that workforce members will probably be reviewing the incident “to make sure that our techniques and vetting procedures are as robust as attainable.”
In accordance with their web site, Trusted Housesitters requires all sitters to finish an intensive background test, together with felony historical past, ID checks, exterior references and electronic mail and cellphone validation. Spencer’s account on the positioning couldn’t be discovered and seems to have been eliminated.
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