By Joe Johnson
An Athens woman was arrested on multiple charges over the weekend for an animal cruelty case that Athens-Clarke County police began investigating six months ago.
The investigation was prompted by a May 21 police response to a home on Sandy Springs Drive where, while investigating a burglary an officer saw that the residents had five dogs, which she did not believe were being properly cared for.
According to a police incident report, three of the dogs were confined to a back porch that was covered with feces and urine and they did not have food or clean water available to them.
Based on the animals’ living condition, and the “owner feeling that the total amount of animals were too much for them,” the owner surrendered two of the dogs to Athens-Clarke Animal Services, which subsequently took canines “Thor” and Zelda” to a local animal hospital, where it was found that the dogs were anemic due to intestinal parasites, according to the report. “This is likely due to the amount of feces in their habitat,” the report noted.
Animal Services made three follow-up visits to the home and provided police with their findings, according to the report.
Animal Services and veterinary documentation provided to police led to the issuing of warrants charging one of the Sandy Springs Drive residents, 26-year-old Kimberly Nicole Bailey, with three misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals, police said.
Bailey was arrested on the warrants and booked into the county jail early Saturday morning and was released a few hours later upon posting a total bond of $3,500, according to the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office.