People visit the Humane Society of Utah in Murray on Feb. 1. A Salt Lake woman is facing a criminal charge accusing her of allowing her recently adopted dog to starve to death. (Lauren Steinbrecher, KSL-TV)
Estimated read time: 1-2
minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake woman is accused of letting her dog starve to death.
Kyra Elizabeth Evans, 22, was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with torture of a companion animal, a third-degree felony.
On Jan. 7, Evans went to the Humane Society of Utah, 4242 S. 300 West, to seek a cremation for her 4-year-old dog, “Cardi,” that she said “passed away suddenly” and was found dead in her kennel at her home, according to charging documents. Court documents do not say what breed Cardi was.
When employees took possession of the dog’s body, however, they saw that Cardi was “covered from muzzle to tail, on both sides of her body, in urine and feces. Cardi was emaciated, had yellow skin, had tartar buildup, was wet to the touch, had sunken-in eyes and her left eye had a buildup of yellow discharge,” the charges state.
A necropsy determined her cause of death was “chronic malnutrition/undernutrition.” The doctor who conducted the necropsy noted there was no sign of infection or disease and that “the dog’s fat storages had been depleted from a negative energy balance. (The doctor) found that the lack of a detectable cause that could explain long-standing negative energy balance suggest starvation,” charging documents state.
