JOHNSON COUNTY, Ind. – A dog starved to death when an Indiana couple moved out of the home they shared after filing for divorce and left him behind.
Police arrested Michael Setser, 31, and Amanda Setser, 28. They both face animal cruelty charges.
Police received information Jan. 17 about a dead dog in a trailer in Greenwood. Officers found a dog named Chuck dead inside his crate.
The couple was in the middle of a divorce, and they left their shared home with Chuck inside. Neither person took the dog or supplied him with food and water.
According to court documents, Michael called Amanda numerous times telling her to pick up Chuck and her cats because he wasn’t going to take care of them, but she told him she couldn’t take care of them herself.
Amanda told police she returned to the trailer Jan. 12 to collect her belongings. She said Chuck was breathing heavily and seemed ill, but she did not take him to a veterinarian.
According to the veterinarian who performed the necropsy, Chuck died of starvation.
Law enforcement wants to remind people that dogs are protected under Indiana law, and new legislation could keep offenders from possessing another animal for a length of time.