A Palatka woman is back in jail and faces 10 animal cruelty charges after a veterinarian found that puppies seized from her home earlier this month had intestinal parasites and were in “very poor condition,” according to court records obtained by HomeFetch.
Christine Ann Woodworth, 67, was booked into the Putnam County Jail on Saturday, just over two weeks after her first arrest. Prosecutors charged her Oct. 12 with six counts of aggravated animal cruelty — a third-degree felony — and four counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty, according to a charging document filed by the State Attorney’s Office for the 7th Judicial Circuit.
In a probable cause affidavit dated Oct. 9, Detective Jennifer Mullins with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office accused Woodworth of failing to get veterinary care for her five puppies and leaving four other dogs without food or water. Mullins wrote the affidavit to seek another warrant for Woodworth’s arrest.
Deputies seized 11 dogs and puppies from Woodworth’s home on Hicks Street Oct. 2 and arrested her on one count of aggravated animal cruelty. Prosecutors later added the new counts to that case. She was released Oct. 7 after posting $2,500 bond.
The investigation began Sept. 24 with a report of a puppy with a broken leg that hadn’t been taken to a veterinarian, according to the affidavit from Woodworth’s first arrest. A woman who knows Woodworth told Mullins that Woodworth texted her about the puppy Sept. 12.
“A puppy is hurt… his leg… don’t know what happened,” Woodworth wrote, according to the affidavit.
The woman said she urged Woodworth to take the puppy to a veterinarian, but Woodworth said she couldn’t afford it.
DIG DEEPER: WOODWORTH’S FIRST ARREST
The new affidavit provides a fuller account of what deputies found when they served a search warrant at the home Oct. 2.
Two puppies and their mother were in a small, “severely overcrowded” wire crate on the back porch with feces, urine and no food, Mullins wrote. Their only water was a small amount in a one-cup measuring cup.
Three more puppies were in a second crate on the porch, surrounded by loose, diarrhea-like feces. Their water was in a saucepan contaminated with feces, and they had no food. Another dog was tied up to a porch pillar with a tether too short for it to reach any of the water bowls, the affidavit states.
Inside the house, the ammonia odor was so strong that deputies couldn’t stay in for long, Mullins wrote. Piles of feces covered the living room floor, and in one room, feces appeared to have been swept into a larger pile instead of removed. The four dogs kept inside had severely overgrown nails, and there was no food or water for them.
After the seizure, Dr. Perry Smith of the Animal Health Center of East Palatka examined the puppies and found that all five had hookworms, a type of intestinal parasite. Four also had coccidia, another kind intestinal parasite, and one had roundworms. He described all five as being in “very poor condition,” according to his findings, which Mullins included in the affidavit.
Smith also X-rayed the leg of the puppy at the center of the original report, a 12-week-old Chihuahua mix, and found a congenital deformity that prevents its knee from bending.
“All dogs were covered in a greasy, fecal smelling coating that indicated they had no clean area to be in,” Smith wrote. “All dogs were terrified of all attempts to handle them and perform any medical services. It was obvious they were not well cared for nor socialized.”
Woodworth remained in the Putnam County Jail on $55,000 bond as of 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to jail records.
Woodworth’s attorney, Amber Moskal, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
