Police find kids in home with 68 pit bulls
BY JON SCHUBIN AND TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
Mike Hutmacher/The Wichita Eagle
The dogs found in this home near 21st and Grove were taken to the Wichita Animal Shelter, where they will stay pending prosecution.It started with a tip: A social worker, accompanied by police, came to a door in north Wichita wanting to know whether there were children living in a small house with a lot of dogs.
The man who answered the door said no, but then the social worker and the cops heard the voices of children. The police forced their way in.
What they found were two children and a sight that startled them: 68 pit bull dogs, crowded in cages, in a house full of the sound of barking and the smell of dog urine.
Some of the dogs had scars, as though they had been fighting. Police believe the dogs were being sold on the Internet.
The children, ages 11 and 5, are now in protective custody.
The children were taken from the home in the 2300 block of East Shadybrook, near 21st and Grove. Police said the house was used as a dog breeding center.
Police Capt. Randy Landen said the children's 32-year-old father answered the door and told the worker there were no children inside.
Inside they found dozens of dogs kept in plastic cages, some together but most separated. Several more were found in the yard. The dogs, all pit bulls, were mostly adults.
The house was in very poor condition, Wichita police Sgt. Brad Agnew said.
The father was booked into jail on suspicion of resisting arrest, obstructing the legal process and child endangerment.
The mother was not charged.
The children and their mother had been living in the house since March, Landen said, despite poor conditions.
"I can't even imagine what it was like to be in that house," he said.
This is the first local case of large numbers of dogs bred for sale inside a home, Landen said.
A household can legally have a maximum of four dogs without a kennel license.
"It's the most substantial case I've ever dealt with," Agnew said.
The dogs were taken to the Wichita Animal Shelter. They will remain there pending prosecution, said Kay Johnson, Sedgwick County director of environmental services.
Ellen Querner of Pals Animal Rescue said the Wichita Animal Shelter called her this morning and asked if she could take some of the other animals out of the shelter to make room for the pit bulls.
Querner said she and another Pals volunteer went to the shelter and took out five dogs and two cats that were up for adoption. Querner said she hopes to get at least three other adoptable dogs out of the shelter.
Neighbors said they didn't know there were any dogs inside the house -- let alone 68.
A man who identified himself only as Fabian said he never saw children or dogs at the home.
"It ain't my problem," he said. "I just hope he's all right."
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