From: tcpalm.com
ST. LUCIE COUNTY, FL -- A bulldog and a mixed breed pooch were dead and decaying in locked kennels, while a blanket covered a dead Rottweiler on the floor.
Suffering from malnutrition, a black wolf and a Doberman pinscher each occupied feces-ridden, locked kennels without food or water.
Those were among the animals St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office investigators found after being called Monday night to a home in the 900 block of North Kings Highway, according to an arrest affidavit released Tuesday.
The residence, leased to 40-year-old Michele Edna Nunziata, reportedly emitted an “overwhelming foul odor of decomposition” and contained a “large amount” of urine and feces.
Contacted by deputies on the phone, Nunziata allegedly dodged questions, but eventually said she’d buried dogs in the front yard. No graves, however, were found.
Inside the home, investigators found three slim but healthy pit bulls and a malnourished brown bloodhound. Two cockatiels and two ferrets had no food and water, though a chinchilla did.
Outside, investigators turned up two caged rabbits without food or water and a goose with unsanitary water and no food in a fenced area.
Nunziata eventually arrived and said she “put down” three dogs on Saturday and was “too distraught to remove the animals.” She has no permit for the wolf.
She said her landlord called and said, “The snowman has arrived,” which she explained was code meaning he’d put a “euthanasia syringe” in her mail box.
Nunziata said she administered the solution to three dogs and the syringe was on the kitchen counter. Investigators didn’t find the syringe.
She allegedly kept changing her account of events, and investigators found no evidence she’d been at the home in several days. Animal control officials took possession of the animals.
Nunziata was arrested on 10 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty, six felony counts of animal cruelty and a misdemeanor charge of personal possession of wildlife without a permit.
