Green acre dog deaths: evidence proves dogs didn’t chew through wire

Photo via ‘The Tragedy at Green Acre Dog Boarding, Gilbert, AZ’

It was nearly one month ago when tragedy struck at the Green Acre boarding facility in Gilbert, Arizona. In what was initially being called a “freak accident” by police and owners of the facility, justice may finally be served for the 23 dogs that died last month.

Last week, Maricopa County Sheriff’s detectives swarmed the Green Acre boarding facility, seizing computers, boarding records, cell phones, medication, air filters, wiring samples, and other evidence in an effort to understand what exactly happened to the dogs in their care.

According to the kennel owners, someone checked on all of the dogs around 11:00pm Thursday, June 19. When they returned at about 5:30am on Friday, June 20, they discovered the dead and dying dogs. According to initial reports, one of the dogs apparently chewed through the cord that powered an air conditioning unit. The temperature overnight was about 80-degrees.

While the kennel’s owner continues to insist that a dog chewed through a wall and an electric cord that cut off power to the air conditioner, leading the dogs to die of heat exhaustion, evidence collected at the scene proves otherwise.

The cause of their deaths, however, remains a mystery – one that Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is determined to solve.

Dog owners were told that their dogs would be treated with the highest level of care, living in the home like family, sleeping in beds with the owner’s children. Instead, up to 28 dogs were packed into a single 9′ x 12′ room, with only one air vent and a door sealed with caulking to “prevent dog smell from getting into the rest of the house.”

Necropsies performed on 7 of the deceased dogs showed their deaths were consistent with suffocation, a result of too many dogs in a small room with inadequate ventilation. Several universities are now performing tests on tissue samples to determine if the dogs were drugged, as many have suggested.

To follow this story, its developments, and to offer condolences to those who lost beloved family members in this tragedy, follow The Tragedy at Green Acre Dog Boarding Gilbert, AZ on Facebook by clicking here.

You can view the affidavit for search warrant in its entirety here.

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