GIBSONVILLE — Police have arrested a woman on a charge of felony animal cruelty after locating a dead dog in her back yard, among other living pets.
Tina Lee Tolliver, 47, 502 Whitsett Ave., was arrested Monday on a charge of felony animal cruelty and given at $3,000 bond by a Guilford County magistrate.
On Sunday, Tolliver and Tiffany Leigh Polly-Matthews, 21, were charged with resisting an officer in connection with the police department’s investigation.
Someone in the area reported a possible animal cruelty case to police Sunday after walking over to Tolliver’s yard and seeing a dead dog.
Upon arrival, police encountered a gruesome scene in the back yard with the dead dog, whose “intestines were protruding from the animal,” according to a news release, as well as two other dogs in the fenced-in area behind the house.
While officers were securing a search warrant, Tolliver and Polly-Matthews arrived and confronted them. Tolliver allegedly used profanity and tried to push her way past officers to enter the house. Assistant Chief Becky Dixon said that at that time, officers had already secured the house, and “no one could enter the house until the search warrant came.”
Polly-Matthews attempted to grab officers as they were stopping Tolliver from entering the home, Dixon said.
Guilford County Animal Control was called to assist in the investigation and recovered the body of the deceased dog, five other dogs — three inside and two outside — a number of birds, guinea pigs and a rabbit, all allegedly belonging to Tolliver.
“It appeared to us that none of the animals had water,” Dixon said. “None of them had food.”
Water at Tolliver’s residence had been turned off at the end of September, and police suspect she hadn’t lived in the house for approximately three weeks, though the animals remained there.
Police were unsure the breed of the dog or how long it had been deceased. Dixon said animal control was investigating the dog’s cause of death.
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