A 59-year-old Dunlap woman charged with animal cruelty on Thursday after police found dozens of abused cats, dogs and chickens in her home has been released on $2,500 bail.
Mary L.
Smith made bond and was released from Sequatchie County Jail early Monday afternoon, according to sources there.
Her co-defendant, Phillip McGhee, remains behind bars. Sequatchie County General Sessions Judge L. Thomas Austin, who set Smith’s bail, denied bond for the 48-year-old former volunteer fireman.
The two were arrested five days ago after Dunlap police were summoned to their residence at 181 Valley View Drive , which was crammed with cages full of cats and dogs with no food or water. The house reeked of ammonia, according to a report filed by Detective Bryan Walker, requiring officers to wear respirators.
Once inside, Detective Walker reported, “Officers noticed a cat that had been recently killed in the living room. The cat was being eaten by several of the dogs while officers were present.”
Also noted, according to his reports, were:
· Several newborn puppies located inside open desk drawers and inside a shopping cart located in the kitchen.
· About 14 dogs in the kitchen locked in a wire cage approximately three feet long, two feet tall and 1½ feet wide.
· Mulltiple dogs locked inside cages in the living room.
· There was no food or water located inside the cages where the animals were being kept.
· Some animals were missing fur and had obvious skin conditions.
The discovery of the abused animals came just eight months after Smith’s companion and co-defendant, McGhee, was granted diversion from a one-year jail sentence after pleading guilty to sending sexually explicit photos of himself to a 14-year-old Missouri girl in 2016.
Under judicial diversion, McGhee’s name was placed on the state’s sexual offenders registry – a fact which led to the on-site inspection last week when the abused animals were discovered.
Operating under the state’s Operation Blackout program, which is designed to keep track of known sex offenders during the weeks leading up to Halloween, probation and parole officers went to McGhee’s home and found the hordes of animals kept there.
They notified the Dunlap police department, which conducted an animal welfare check and arrested Smith and McGhee.
To rescue the animals, police contacted Marion Animal Rescue Connection, Humane Educational Society of Chattanooga and McKamey Animal Center of Chattanooga.
At McKamey, where animals in the worst condition were brought, officials said they are caring for 57 animals: 26 dogs, 19 cats and a dozen chickens.
Another 40 animals were taken to a temporary shelter set up at the zipper factory in Dunlap, where they are being care for by MARC and its volunteers.