A 46-year-old woman from Michigan was arrested in the Toledo suburb of Sylvania Township after police were called to a WalMart to investigate a call of a dog left unattended in a vehicle in the parking lot on a summer day when temperatures were 92 degrees.
Police say when they arrived at the Walmart just before 6:00pm on Tuesday, July 15th, they observed a “smaller dog panting in the front seat” and two crates in the backseat of the vehicle that contained two cats and four kittens. One of the kittens appeared to be deceased.
Police then made a public address announcement in the store in an attempt to locate the owner. Nobody came outside so police called the Lucas County Dog Warden for the dog and a local nonprofit rescue for the cats.
Police were eventually able to identify the driver as Dawn Wiard of Alpena. During questioning Wiard told the officers that the dog was her service animal and that she only ran inside to grab a few things.
Upon exiting the store Wiard allegedly hit an officer in the face and put the officer in a headlock.
Wiard was arrested and charged with assault on a police officer, a fourth-degree felony; seven counts of animal cruelty, all second-degree misdemeanors; and resisting arrest, also a second-degree misdemeanor.
She was given a $30,000 bond.
The 2-year-old-female greyhound dog was seized by the Warden. The cats and kittens were turned over to the Toledo Humane Society due to being severely underweight with urine scaling in their paws.
