Dogs Mistreated: Owners Face Charges
A Circle XX couple faces 50 misdemeanor counts and infractions involving their care of 24 dogs.
Edward and Janet Marie Aragon have been charged with seven counts each of keeping a dog without proper care and attention and failure to provide an adequate exercise area.
The Copperpolis couple are also accused of infractions of county code for keeping animals that disturbed the peace and having four or more unlicensed dogs without a permit.
Seventeen counts also have been filed on infractions of having dogs without proper licenses and failure to get the animal vaccinated against rabies.
The complaint was filed in Calaveras County Superior Court Nov. 26 by Deputy District Attorney Jeff Stone after a Nov. 5 investigation of the property on Riata Way off Pool Station Road.
Officers from Animal Control and the Sheriff´s Department inspected the premises where a total of 24 animals were kept, Animal Control Supervisor Brent Ferguson said.
Some of the animals were in portable kennels around the 20-acre parcel, others were in dog crates, and there were instances of large dogs in small crates, Ferguson said, adding some of the dogs also did not have water at the time of the inspection.
However, the animals were not impounded and remain with their owners.
Ferguson said there are specific state requirements that must be met to meet the definition of cruelty, and these dogs did not meet the standards.
“The animals appeared, at the time, to be in good health and were not in distress,” Ferguson said. “Our concern was the living conditions of the animals.”
The Aragons were sent a letter of citation from the District Attorney´s Office, ordering them to an arraignment at 2 p.m. Dec. 23.
The maximum penalty on each of the misdemeanor charges is six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, Stone said. The infractions carry a penalty of $100 each.
The residence had been the focus of numerous complaints from neighbors for a few years, Ferguson said, escalating from a nuisance complaint to one of operating an illegal kennel.
Calaveras Enterprise story by Craig Koscho. For more Calaveras news, click: calaverasenterprise.com
