Massachusetts

Two Indicted in Animal Cruelty Case With Severely Emaciated Dog

The pit bull mix, named Glitch at the MSPCA, was estimated at the time to be 6 months to 1 year old and weighed under 15 pounds when he should have been about 50 pounds

A severely malnourished dog that was brought to a Boston animal shelter in July sparked an investigation that led to the two people who brought in being accused of animal cruelty, prosecutors said Friday.

Michael Coke and Tatyana Denis were each indicted on an animal cruelty charge Thursday by a Norfolk County Grand Jury, the county District Attorney's Office said in a statement.

Denis, 22, was indicted for allegedly misleading police after she and Coke, 24, brought the dog on July 28 to the MSPCA's Angell Animal Medical Center in Jamaica Plain, prosecutors said.

The pair had initially claimed to have found the severely scrawny dog in Canton, Massachusetts, the MSPCA said in August. The pit bull mix was estimated at the time to be 6 months to 1 year old and weighed under 15 pounds when he should have been about 50 pounds.

The MSPCA named the dog Glitch and have successfully put it up for adoption, prosecutors said Friday.

Prosecutors didn't say how Denis allegedly misled police. The MSPCA said in announcing Glitch's case in August that he was found "near death" lying in the grass near Massasoit Community College's campus.

The condition Glitch was in when he arrived at the MSPCA shocked shelter staff and veterinarians.

"When he came in, he couldn't even really lift his head, he had no energy," one said at the time. 

It wasn't immediately clear if Coke and Denis had attorneys. The case will be prosecuted in Norfolk Superior Court.

If you have any information on this case, prosecutors ask that you call MSPCA's lead investigator, Nadya Moreno at 617-522-6008.

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