WARNING: This story contains disturbing details of the condition the animals were kept in.
NOBLE COUNTY, Ind. (WFFT) – A woman is facing 26 animal cruelty charges after an investigation into reports of her keeping multiple dogs and other animals in inhumane conditions led to her arrest on Tuesday.
Darleen Denise Cervantes, 54, was arrested after multiple dogs were taken off a property she was staying on in Albion.
On September 1, according to documents in the case, the Noble County Sheriff’s Department received a call from Lawrence Kirsch at 7:50 a.m. about two dead puppies on his property that were owned by his tenant, Cervantes.
Police arrived on the scene at 8:20 a.m. and were met by Kirsch and his sister, Sarina Priest.
Kirsch told police to make supplemental income, he let Cervantes put a camper on his property at 1383 E. Baseline Road for $300 a month in February of 2023.
He initially let her bring 12 dogs to the property, but between June and July, more dogs were brought to the property.
Kirsch told police Cervantes was not taking care of the dogs. He and Priest were concerned because the dogs were “real skinny.”
They told police there were two dead puppies and two live ones in the barn.
The other dogs, as well as a raccoon and two foxes, were kept in crates or enclosures, with some of them never being let out.
According to Kirsch, Cervantes had been staying with a friend in Huntertown for two weeks.
Kirsch said most of the animals had no access to food or water.
Kirsch and Priest had questioned Cervantes earlier this year about the condition of the dogs and Cervantes said the animals were losing weight because of the heat and stress.
Conservation officers were called to the property and the investigation there began.
Investigators say there were two dogs, a Pointer and a Bernese Mountain Dog, in a 10 x 10-foot kennel with no food or water.
In a closed shed with a fan blowing they found several animal cages and large amounts of dirt, feces, and animal hair.
In one cage was a very thin red fox, and a raccoon in a bird cage.
Two stacked kennels contained a sick-looking silver fox and a female Bulldog.
There were cages/kennels containing a male yellow Labrador mix and a female Belgian Malinois.
The shed was very warm, according to officers, and no food or water was available for any of the animals. Many empty bags of dog food were in the shed.
Northern Indiana Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation were called to take possession of the raccoon and foxes.
A kennel was found in the barn that had feces and blood on the floor. A dirty food dish and a bucket with dirty water were in the kennel.
Four Belgian Malinois puppies, approximately four months old, were in the kennel, two live ones and two dead ones.
Their fur was matted with blood, feces, and dirty water.
Investigators found four female and one male Anatolian Shepherd/Pyrenees mixed puppies, approximately nine months old, in one stall.
A second stall contained an adult female Rottweiler and five puppies, approximately three or four weeks old.
A female Bulldog was found inside a kennel in another stall.
In a fourth stall, investigators found three male and one female Belgian Malinois.
Police say no food or water was available to any of the dogs in the stalls.
In a dimly lit room, three more dogs were found: a female Australian Shepherd in a kennel, a male Border Collie mix in a dog pen zip-tied shut, and a male Pitbull mix in a very small kennel.
Police say the kennel was too small to allow the Pitbull mix to stand up or turn around, and had a large amount of feces the dog was forced to lay in.
No food or water was available for any of these dogs, either.
The Humane Society of Noble County and volunteers from Shadarobah Horse Rescue were called in.
Shadarobah volunteers took the two live Belgian Malinois puppies to a vet and it was found they had Canine Parvovirus, which is what is suspected to have killed the other two puppies.
Police say they called Cervantes around 5:11 p.m. and told her they removed the animals and asked for verification she owned them.
She denied that all of them were hers and that she had been trying to remove the raccoon and foxes from the property.
She told police the only animals that were hers were the ones in the shed because that had the only air conditioner that worked.
Cervantes said she would come to the Noble County Sheriff’s Department on September 7 to give a statement, but said in a phone call on the 7th that she had gotten a lawyer and would not provide a statement.