A man charged for the 21 dead dogs found in a home has a history with the animal control. In the year 2007, court records show that Vernon Silver of the Hampton, Virginia was found guilty of cruelty towards an animal, a pit bull. In the year 2014, the animal control responded to his home again.
Documents show that the officers found 16 dogs in the standing water, in mud, feces, and urine. Rain was in the forecast for the next 48 hours and the dogs had no place to go to get out of the water and also the "caretaker/owner could not remove them from the situation."
There were also four dogs in the small crates inside a shed and were also unable to move.
Out of a slew of charges, online records show that Silver was found guilty of four counts of the animal cruelty.
He was sentenced to two years unsupervised probation and also prohibited of possessing, owning, and maintaining of any animals during his suspension period.
Silver's previous charges were misdemeanors.
According to Senior Vice President of the Cruelty Investigations with the PETA, Daphna Nachminovitch, the legislators introduced a bill this year which sought to make cruelty to animals a felony, even if the animal does not die, but the bill did not pass.
Nachminovitch said that PETA had complaints about his address in the year 2008 as well.
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Silver's new charges include the felony animal cruelty, second offense in the five years, which will be prosecuted by the Hampton Commonwealth's Attorney.
A felony animal cruelty charge can result in a sentence of up to five years in the prison.
Hampton Police also asked for the dog fighting charge, but magistrate's office said that there was not enough evidence.
It is still unclear how Silver got access to the Porchin Place home, where the 21 dogs were found dead.
A neighbor told to the News 3 she called animal control about the smell outside the home more than two weeks ago, but she said nothing was done.
A Hampton Police spokesman said on February 9, just before 5 p.m., animal control officers were dispatched to the 200 block of the Pochin Place in reference to check the welfare complaint. The Animal Control officer cleared the complaint after no response at the residence.
Mrudula Duddempudi.
