D.S. Woodfill

12 News

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has pledged to "take action" if any criminal neglect or cruelty played a role in the apparent heat-exhaustion deaths of 20 dogs at a Gilbert boarding facility last week.

"There are a lot of questions that both this sheriff and the dog's owners have, and, believe me, by the time we are done with this investigation, we'll have the answers to most, if not all, of the questions," Arpaio said Monday afternoon. "If a crime occurred, someone will be held accountable."

Arpaio addressed reporters after meeting with some of the affected dog owners, who he said complained that they were lied to and misled by the kennel operators regarding the number of dogs being cared for at Green Acre Dog Boarding. There were 28 dogs on the property during the incident.

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Deputies called to Green Acre on Saturday morning found the carcasses of 20 dogs — all different breeds, sizes and ages — piled into a shed on the property, according to a Sheriff's Office statement. Initial reports were that 17 dogs had been found.

Todd and MaLeisa Hughes, who own and operate Green Acre out of their home, have not been arrested or charged in the deaths. They told authorities that most of the deaths occurred overnight Thursday 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.

The Hugheses told The Arizona Republic on Sunday that the deaths weren't due to neglect and that they were "heartbroken" over what happened. The couple was out of town when the deaths occurred.

Arpaio's office initially said the dogs died of heat exhaustion in a "tragic accident." The sheriff's statements on Monday indicated that the accidental designation may have been premature.

Arpaio said he regretted not going to the property on Saturday, when deputies told a group of outraged dog owners that they would not call the agency's Animal Cruelty Unit to the scene and that no charges would be filed against the business' owners.

"That was the officer that made that quick evaluation," Arpaio said. "Maybe that's what he felt the evidence was at the time. Maybe he was right, but I'm not going to leave any stone (unturned)."

Arpaio said he was spurred to continue the investigation in part by what Todd Hughes initially told clients — that the dogs had run away.

"That was a lie," the sheriff said.

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

Investigators were told that the dogs were fine when caretakers checked on them at about 11 p.m. Thursday, but most were dead or dying by the next check on Friday morning.

"How can you be healthy at 11 o'clock and dead at 5:30 in the morning? I think that's the key element," Arpaio said.

Investigators are looking at Austin and Logan Flake, the son and daughter-in-law of U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. Logan Flake is the Hugheses' daughter; she and her husband were in charge of boarding operations when the deaths occurred.

"We have been boarding dogs for six years, and it is a family endeavor," according to a Green Acre company profile on rover.com. "We have teenagers down to toddlers, and everyone loves to help take care of and play with our doggie guests."

Arpaio said that the Flakes' relationship to the senator will not affect the investigation and that neither he nor his investigators have been in touch with him.

Requests for an interview with Austin Flake were denied, and a message left at one of his listed residences was not returned.

Arpaio said investigators will re-interview witnesses, businesses owners and caretakers.

"We're going to try to find out the cause of the death," he said. "Fortunately we have six animals that we can get to evaluate.... We're going to check phone records. We're going to check (electric) meters. So there's a lot of work that my office will do to get to the bottom of this investigation to see if there's any violation of the animal-cruelty laws, to see if there's any criminal intent (or) neglect."

Some of the dog owners have enlisted the help of a lawyer.

John Schill of the Phoenix-based Schill Law Group said two clients, Sherie and Jason McIntyre, got a call from Todd Hughes on Friday telling them that their three dogs had died. He called back 15 minutes later and said that one of the dogs, a miniature pinscher named Mia, was still alive and that they were trying to cool her using water. The McIntyres demanded that someone take the dog to a veterinarian, and Hughes relented, he said. Schill said the dog survived.

"So the question comes up, if these other dogs had gotten veterinary care, would they have lived?" he said.

According to the National Weather Service, the temperature in the East Valley at 11 p.m. Thursday was 86 degrees and gradually fell to 72 degrees by 4 a.m.

Miguel Flores, owner of Flores' Air Conditioning & Heating in Phoenix, said it's hard to imagine anything or anyone dying in a home with a broken air-conditioner when the outdoor temperature is in the 80s.

"Nobody dies in 80 degrees, and dogs have more tolerance to heat than a human being," Flores said.

The temperatures will vary slightly in homes without air-conditioning, depending on the type of construction material that is used, he said. Brick homes, for example, will be cooler than wood homes. Still, Flores said, the interior temperature will probably be only about 10 degrees hotter than outdoors.

Brian Serbin, a vet whose practice includes pet boarding at Ingleside Animal Hospital in Phoenix, said a dog is in critical danger if its interal temperature rises to about 105 degrees.

Serbin said a combination of factors, including heat and humidity, may have killed the dogs, who authorities said were all put into one room measuring about 8feet by 8 feet.

Serbin said he's required by city code to have safeguards for the animals. Boarders like Green Acre don't have those same legal safeguards, he said.

Republic reporters Dan Nowicki and Matthew Casey contributed to this article.