What started as a report about cats sitting in a truck in the Arizona heat led authorities to a dead kitten, rattlesnakes, and 22 alleged counts of animal cruelty.
In Golden Valley, Arizona, authorities said the situation grew into something more serious than a basic neglect case, with risks for both the animals and the officers responding.
What happened?
According to AZFamily, reports to the police on June 20 brought Mohave County Sheriff's Office deputies and animal control officers to a home near Arizona Highway 68, where a truck was parked in direct sunlight. The bed of the truck contained several cat cages.
Inside the cab of the truck, officers also found a separate cage full of kittens, one of which was dead, per AZFamily. The outlet reported that within the truck, in total, deputies found 15 cats (six of which were kittens), in addition to five rattlesnakes (two of which were deceased).
The truck's owner, David Leslie Cox, 75, from Hesperia, California, later told police that his truck contained a baby Mojave green rattlesnake within an "aquarium-type habitat."
Cox was subsequently booked on 22 counts of animal cruelty and a felony endangerment charge after deputies said he did not warn the police officers about the snakes before they entered the truck.
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Why does it matter?
Heat can turn a parked vehicle into a deadly space. Animals trapped inside without relief from the sun can suffer dehydration, organ damage, heatstroke, and death.
Keeping the animals so close together may have posed a danger to both species, let alone creating intense fear among the kittens.
Deputies said snakes hidden inside and around the vehicle also put responding officers at risk during the rescue.
Thankfully, the authorities responded immediately by sending deputies and Mohave County Animal Control officers to the scene, saving the surviving animals.
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