DES MOINES, Iowa (WHDH) — A woman in Iowa allegedly bound her dogs’ mouths shut with hair elastics to keep them from barking, leaving the pups with deep indentations, abrasions and scarring around their muzzles and jaws.
Elisa Andres of Ankeny faces two misdemeanor counts of animal neglect after she admitted to muzzling two out of three dogs that she dropped off to the Animal Rescue League (ARL) of Iowa earlier this month, WHO reported.
The ARL determined that two of the dogs named Maddy and Beau had been tightly muzzled on multiple occasions for extended periods of time due to their barking, the rescue league posted on Facebook.
“We can only imagine the pain they would have been in and the confusion they must have felt,” they wrote.
Andres originally told police that she bound the dogs with bungee cords after investigators found the cords in their kennels; however, she later told WHO that she actually used hair ties, the news station reported.
ARL says Andres also dropped off an 11-week-old puppy named Roxy who did not appear to be harmed.
“Who knows what would have happened had she not found a safe haven with us now,” the ARL wrote on Facebook.
The rescue league added that Maddy and Beau remain fearful but they can look forward to living in loving homes.
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