MIDDLEBORO, Mass. (WPRI) — A Middleboro woman is facing 26 counts of animal cruelty after more than a dozen dogs were found living in squalor last month, according to police.
Kimberly Savino, 43, turned herself in Thursday morning, roughly a week after a warrant was issued for her arrest.
Middleboro Animal Control officers searched Savino’s Precinct Street home on Oct. 18 after receiving complaints from neighbors.
Inside Savino’s home, the officers discovered 17 dogs living in filth, according to police, as well as two cats, a guinea pig and a turtle.
Police said the dogs were found locked in crates covered with feces and urine in the basement. It appeared that the dogs hadn’t been out of the crates for an extended period of time, police said, and did not have adequate access to food or water.
An investigation into Savino revealed that no one regularly lived at the house and she only visited the animals once per week to check on them.