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SIOUX CITY -- Two Sioux City residents have been charged with keeping eight dogs in a small pen in which they were forced to live in mud and their own urine and feces.

Blake Dandurand, 32, and Jamie Dandurand, 31, were arrested Wednesday and each was charged with eight counts of animal neglect, a simple misdemeanor.

According to complaints filed May 7 in Woodbury County District Court, the two kept the small dogs of various breeds in a 4-foot by 4-foot pen in a cellar-type basement with a dirt floor at a home in the 1400 block of Virginia Street. The dogs had no room to move around and slept in their own urine and feces. An animal control officer described the odor in the room as horrific, the complaints said. The dogs were discovered on April 11.

The dogs' hair was covered with mud and feces and was so matted and caked that the animals had to be shaved because workers at the Sioux City Animal Adoption and Rescue Center could not remove the filth, the complaints said.

The dogs had been living in the conditions for a significant period of time, and, according to the complaints, Blake Dandurand said he let the dogs out only eight to 10 times a year.

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