Police: Man left injured dogs to die in backyard

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A man is facing animal cruelty charges for failing to get medical attention for his three dogs which later died.

Animal Control found three dogs in an overgrown yard left to suffer, die and decay.

Anthony Porch, 50, lives inside the home and is admitting to the neglect, according to a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office police report.

Investigators said Porch told them the dogs were fighting and he didn't want to stop them.

Porch said he waited three days before checking on them, and when he finally did he saw that one dog's jaw was nearly ripped off.  But he did nothing about it because they were his ex-wife's dogs and he could not afford a vet.

“It's a bad situation. The dogs should have gotten taken the first time they came out,” said a neighbor.

One neighbor Action News spoke to didn't want to be seen on camera, but said someone notified Animal Control that the dogs had been outside with no food or water for days.

Neighbors also told Action News that officers sent Porch a warning, but nothing more about three weeks ago.

Not long after, neighbors said they started smelling the dead animals.

“It was flies everywhere around here,” a neighbor said.

It became so bad they had to put up flypaper just to control them.

Neighbors said it wasn't until a week later that the dogs were picked up and Porch was arrested on animal cruelty charges.

Porch was also arrested in 2005 on charges of firing a gun in public.

WJAX