A couple traveling from Las Vegas to Boulder City was arrested on March 29 on multiple misdemeanor charges related to cruelty to animals.
Authorities said more serious charges are expected to be added out of Las Vegas.
Lt. Thomas Healing of the Boulder City Police Department said that on the date in question, their department had received a call related to a vehicle traveling to Boulder City that may contain animals that were either in danger or deceased. Officers found 51 animals in the vehicle, both alive and dead. The caller appears to be a member of an animal welfare group with knowledge of the couple involved.
“This case ties into a case Las Vegas Metro is investigating and I believe those are felony cases,” Healing said Tuesday at the police department.
Metro obtained search warrants and found 30 dogs (10 already deceased) inside a hotel room, the city stated in a press release. The search warrant on their house found 15 dogs and an unspecified number of guinea pigs.
“Once our officers stopped the car, they made contact with the occupants and through some good police work they gained consent to search the vehicle and discovered multiple animals inside,” he said. “They were covered in plastic totes with a lot of dirty clothes on top. Unfortunately, many of the Guinea pigs had died.”
BCPD stopped the vehicle for a broken taillight. Upon probable cause, the officers searched the vehicle and found 11 deceased Guinea pigs and rabbits. Four more have died since the stop. “The initial officers who made the stop and made contact with the occupants said there was a smell of dead animals inside the car,” Healing said. “It was kind of a hoarding situation inside the car.”
Healing said all the information given to them by the reporting party matched up with what officers were seeing in the vehicle.
Taken into custody were 79-year-old Timothy Miller and 72-year-old Carolyn Luke, both of Las Vegas. They were taken to Henderson Detention Center on 11 misdemeanor charges out of Boulder City (first offense) each for tortured/injured/abandoned/starved animals.