Corina Vanek

The Republic | azcentral.com

Maricopa County sheriff's detectives returned Wednesday morning to the Gilbert kennel where more than 20 dogs died last month so investigators could serve a search warrant at the property, according to a sheriff's spokesman.

Investigators were at Green Acre Dog Boarding in Gilbert about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday where detectives planned to check the air-conditioning unit in the building where the dead dogs were housed, in addition to digging around the property to search for more evidence, said Sgt. Brandon Jones, a sheriff's spokesman.

The sheriff's office hired two forensic experts, one electrician and one who specializes in air flow to inspect the room where the dogs were housed, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. The experts were working to determine if the dogs would have been able to survive even if the air-conditioning had been working properly, and if there was enough ventilation in the small room to safely house the dogs.

Arpaio said detectives were also checking phone records and looking at electric meters to see if the facts matched the owners' stories.

Todd and MaLeisa Hughes, who own and operate Green Acre out of their home, have not been arrested nor charged in the deaths. They told authorities that most of the deaths occurred overnight June 19 after one of the dogs apparently chewed through a power cord, disabling an air-conditioning unit to the room in which the dogs were housed.

Detectives unearthed the body of one dead dog in the backyard Wednesday morning, but Arpaio said it was unknown whether the animal belonged to the property owners or if it was one of the dogs that died in the kennel last month.

It will take several weeks to verify the dog's identity and to determine what killed the other animals that died in the kennel, Arpaio said.

Detectives sent the carcasses of the other dogs to the University of Arizona and the University of Michigan to conduct tests for drugs and to determine what killed the pets, Arpaio said, and those results will help determine whether investigators pursue criminal charges against anyone involved with the kennel.

He stressed that while the Hughes family had told multiple versions of the story of the dogs' deaths, they had not violated the law by lying.

The search warrant served on Wednesday was delayed in part, Arpaio said, because some of the people associated with the kennel — including relatives of Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake — were uncooperative with sheriff's detectives, who traveled to Provo, Utah, to conduct some interviews.

Dog owners whose pets died at Green Acre as well as other protesters expressed their gratitude toward Arpaio for his continued investigation.

Shannon Gillette, who lost her two golden retrievers, said she was thankful Arpaio had obtained a warrant.

"This is a step in the right direction to helping get justice for the dogs," Gillette said.

Arpaio stressed that he takes possible animal cruelty cases very seriously, and a thorough investigation is standard procedure in all possible cruelty cases.

"We do this all the time," Arpaio said. "Whether it's one dog or 23 dogs, this isn't unusual for this sheriff."

Before detectives can make a decision about arrests, investigators will need to determine whether the treatment of the dogs was either reckless or knowing and intentional animal cruelty, Arpaio said.

But the sheriff left little doubt about his opinions of the family-run boarding facility in an unincorporated area of the county near Gilbert.

"My dog in jail lives a better life than these dogs were living," he said.

Sheriff's deputies were originally called to Green Acre on June 21 where they found the carcasses of 20 dogs — all different breeds, sizes and ages — piled into a shed on the property.

Arpaio said he was puzzled by a timeline that didn't add up.

Investigators were told the dogs were fine when caretakers, the Flakes, checked on them at about 11 p.m. on June 19, but most were dead or dying by the next check the following morning. The Hughes family was on vacation in Florida when the dogs died, and returned to Arizona when they received the news, Arpaio said.

Arpaio promised the dog owners that he would "leave no stone unturned," in the investigation.

"We want to get to the bottom of this," Arpaio said. "If it takes a month or two months, so be it."