04-23-2019, 10:06 AM
Coachella woman arrested after dumping seven puppies in the trash, authorities say
![[Image: pjimage-2019-04-22t174702.295.jpg?quality=65&strip=all]](https://heavyeditorial.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/pjimage-2019-04-22t174702.295.jpg?quality=65&strip=all)
On the grainy surveillance footage, it looked like the woman driving a white Jeep Wrangler was just looking for the best place to ditch a load of trash.
She drove up to a row of dumpsters outside an auto-parts store in Coachella, Calif., and hopped out with a plastic bag. She looked inside one bin but moved on, tossing her bag at the next dumpster, which already overflowed with refuse.
It was a simple, seemingly innocuous act of disposal.
And thatâ€s what, authorities say, makes it so chilling.
Because it wasnâ€t everyday detritus inside that bag; instead, the bag was full of puppies — seven of them, all just days old, said investigators with the Riverside County Department of Animal Services.
The incident, which happened Thursday, set off a mad dash for information on the woman driving the white Jeep and led to a countrywide outpouring of support for the puppies, terrier mixes that officials said were about three days old.
On Monday, authorities arrested Deborah Sue Culwell, a 54-year-old Coachella resident they had identified as a suspect earlier that day. Sheâ€s facing seven counts of felony animal cruelty.
The puppies — which would each fit snugly in the palm of a human hand — survived, thanks to a passerby who found them just in time. Theyâ€re now about a week old.
“Weâ€re talking about seven pups tossed in the garbage like they were trash,†John Welsh, a spokesman for the animal services agency, said in an interview. “Itâ€s a pretty serious case as far as animal cruelty goes."
Typically, animal cruelty cases in the Southern California county donâ€t result in much jail time, he said, but because this case is so egregious, it may be an exception.
Itâ€s the second case of puppy dumping in a month, reported the Palm Springs Desert Sun, noting a March incident when animal services found two puppies in a trash bin at a recycling center in the same county.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2...edirect=on&utm_term=.0146ed9644e2
On the grainy surveillance footage, it looked like the woman driving a white Jeep Wrangler was just looking for the best place to ditch a load of trash.
She drove up to a row of dumpsters outside an auto-parts store in Coachella, Calif., and hopped out with a plastic bag. She looked inside one bin but moved on, tossing her bag at the next dumpster, which already overflowed with refuse.
It was a simple, seemingly innocuous act of disposal.
And thatâ€s what, authorities say, makes it so chilling.
Because it wasnâ€t everyday detritus inside that bag; instead, the bag was full of puppies — seven of them, all just days old, said investigators with the Riverside County Department of Animal Services.
The incident, which happened Thursday, set off a mad dash for information on the woman driving the white Jeep and led to a countrywide outpouring of support for the puppies, terrier mixes that officials said were about three days old.
On Monday, authorities arrested Deborah Sue Culwell, a 54-year-old Coachella resident they had identified as a suspect earlier that day. Sheâ€s facing seven counts of felony animal cruelty.
The puppies — which would each fit snugly in the palm of a human hand — survived, thanks to a passerby who found them just in time. Theyâ€re now about a week old.
“Weâ€re talking about seven pups tossed in the garbage like they were trash,†John Welsh, a spokesman for the animal services agency, said in an interview. “Itâ€s a pretty serious case as far as animal cruelty goes."
Typically, animal cruelty cases in the Southern California county donâ€t result in much jail time, he said, but because this case is so egregious, it may be an exception.
Itâ€s the second case of puppy dumping in a month, reported the Palm Springs Desert Sun, noting a March incident when animal services found two puppies in a trash bin at a recycling center in the same county.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2...edirect=on&utm_term=.0146ed9644e2
![[Image: CCTV.jpg?ve=1&tl=1?ve=1&tl=1]](https://a57.foxnews.com/a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2019/04/640/320/1862/1048/CCTV.jpg?ve=1&tl=1?ve=1&tl=1)
