PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 Two Port St. Lucie residents were arrested after police said eight dogs were found living in severely neglected and unsanitary conditions at a home in the city.<\/p>\n
The investigation began April 20 after Port St. Lucie police officers responded to a residence in the 300 block of Northwest Biltmore Street following an anonymous tip about the animals\u2019 living conditions.<\/p>\n
According to police, investigators discovered eight dogs suffering from severe dehydration, malnutrition, flea infestations, hookworms and prolonged exposure to urine- and feces-covered conditions inside the home. Several of the dogs were significantly underweight and appeared to be in distress.<\/p>\n
Police said some of the animals did not have access to clean water and were seen attempting to drink condensation runoff from an air conditioning drain line.<\/p>\n
The dogs were removed from the residence and transported to a nearby animal hospital, where veterinary staff determined their conditions were consistent with ongoing neglect and failure to provide proper care, according to investigators.<\/p>\n
Following the investigation led by Detective Canedo and animal control officers, 36-year-old Joseph Calafiore and 33-year-old Alexandria Fiorenza were each arrested on eight felony counts of animal cruelty causing death, pain or suffering.<\/p>\n
Police said all eight dogs are now receiving medical treatment, food and care.<\/p>\n
Authorities urged residents to report suspected animal abuse or neglect to 911.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 Two Port St. Lucie residents were arrested after police said eight dogs were found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-284114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}