Nye County officials move over 300 abused dogs to shelter
Nye County Sheriff officials said Tuesday that they hoped to move hundreds of abused dogs found at two separate properties to an animal shelter by the end of the day.
After arresting two residents on animal cruelty charges last week, authorities said they also discovered dozens of dogs stored in a freezer.
Tasha Crabtree, the county’s animal shelter adviser, said officials plan to build 200 extra kennels to house the surviving dogs outside with temporary swamp coolers and shading.
The shelter hopes donations from the public will help provide crates and food for the dogs, she said.
Tails of Nye County, a nonprofit group, and the sheriff’s office set up a GoFundMe to collect donations that had reached more than $15,ooo by Tuesday.
Officials have worked around the clock, Crabtree added, to make sure each of the dogs are cared for while at the shelter.
Authorities seized more than 300 animals from two properties in Amargosa Valley and Pahrump last week, and arrested Oskana Higgins and Vasili Platunov on suspicion of felony animal abuse at the two properties, Sheriff Sharon Wehrly said.
The dogs cannot be moved or adopted until criminal charges are resolved, according to Crabtree.
This weekend, dozens of dogs were found in a freezer in Amargosa Valley, according to Nye Sheriff’s Capt. David Boruchowitz.
Most of the dogs were Caucasian Shepherds ranging in age from 12 days to 9 years, some of them in need of veterinarian treatment, Crabtree said.
On Tuesday, sheriff’s deputies, Nye County animal control officials, and inmates worked to get the animals off the Amargosa property.
The charges against Higgins and Platunov stemmed from an Aug. 22 call Higgins made to Path 4 Paws, an animal rescue in Amargosa Valley. Authorities said she had asked to have a dog euthanized. After a veterinarian examined the animal and noticed severe injuries, workers contacted the sheriff’s office.
The veterinarian believed the dog had suffered for at least a week, having been found at half its expected weight with multiple sores on one side of its body and a severed right front leg that was infected with a fully exposed bone, officials said, rendering the dog immobile. The dog was euthanized.
Two days later, after authorities seized hundreds of dogs from the Amargosa Valley property, 25 more dogs were seized at a Pahrump residence, police said.
Along with workers at the county’s animal shelter, Henderson Animal Control officials helped inventory and evaluate each dog, while Nye County building and grounds officials provided watering systems for the animals, Wehrly said in a press release.
Higgins and Vasili Platunov are due in Nye County Court next month, according to Boruchowitz.
Contact Jimmy Romo at jromo@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0350. Follow @jimi_writes on Twitter.
