WISCASSET, Maine — A Somerville couple faces felony charges of aggravated cruelty to animals after allegedly starving a chihuahua to death and leaving a boxer mix nearly dead.
Michael P. Hutchins Sr., 43, and Sandra Hutchins, 41, each pleaded not guilty on Sept. 24 to the two Class C felonies, which prosecutors say result from incidents reported to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office on June 9.
The case was reported to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office by a teenage girl who knew the couple and often visited the dogs, according to a civil case filed by Lincoln County Animal Control Officer Benjamin Cook.
Cook sought and was granted custody of the couple’s three American bulldogs, Whiskey, Diesel and Lucifer, according to court records.
The teen reported that the health of the boxer mix, Dodge, and the chihuahua, Lily, had deteriorated in recent months.
She said Lily had been “kept in a crate in an office closet space because she barks” and the bulldogs, at the time between 8 months and 1 year old, were kept in a 3-foot-by-2-foot kennel divided into three parts, except when they were let outside for brief periods.
She reported that when she saw Michael Hutchins give Dodge water, he attempted to drink a lot of it, but Hutchins would then take the water away.
Michael Hutchins allegedly told the girl that the two dogs were thin and weak from illness.
But when Cook visited the house on June 9, he found Dodge “in emaciated condition” and Lily dead and buried.
Dodge, who weighed 31 pounds — about 40 pounds less than the average weight for a dog his age — “had been starved to the point that all the fat in his body was gone and his body had been consuming his muscles for energy,” Dr. Robin Elms, a veterinarian, wrote. “He was a few days away from death.”
She reported that he had a large number of visible growths related to a painful gum condition that “must have been present for years.”
Photos from February show both dogs in good condition, and Elms reported that it appeared Dodge had been deprived of food just recently.
A subsequent x-ray showed a healed spinal fracture on Dodge, Elm wrote. A witness said the dog had allegedly been thrown by Michael Hutchins when he was not behaving properly.
Lily, the chihuahua, weighed 5.5 pounds when she died, a necropsy determined. The normal weight would be 12 to 15 pounds, according to Dr. Nicole King, who performed the necropsy, reported.
“It is more probable than not that she was starved to death,” King wrote.
Michael Hutchins reportedly told Cook that Lily was not his dog, but belonged to “my ex,” although she was in no better situation to care for her than Hutchins was. He allegedly admitted Lily lost a drastic amount of weight in a short time but he took no action.
Cook wrote that Hutchins told him he thought Dodge was losing weight because he was old and sick, and he planned to take him to the veterinarian as soon as he could pay a back bill there.
When Lincoln County Deputy Brendan Kane arrived at the home, Sandra Hutchins allegedly told him the animals had refused to eat and were sick, and that a veterinarian had told them there was nothing more they could do for them.
Kane wrote in an affidavit that Dodge “was the most severely emaciated dog that ACO Cook had ever seen in person that was still alive at all.”
The Hutchins’ attorney, William Avantaggio, did not immediately return a phone call.
They are next scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 22.
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