Apr 15, 2010: Dearborn Dog House Being Demolished
AMY LANGE
It was a stunning scene, hundreds of dogs both alive and dead found inside a Dearborn home last summer. The smell from the house tipped off police to the nightmare inside -- 150 dead chihuahuas stored in freezers and over 100 alive, but in need of help. Now, this house of horrors is being destroyed.
Demolition on the Dearborn dog house started early Thursday morning. The good news is that all the chihuahuas that were rescued are healthy and living in loving homes.
Little chihuahuas were frightened, living in filth and eating their own feces. Authorities in full Hazmat suits rounded them up and herded them to safety. 105 of them ended up at the Dearborn animal shelter..." More & video
By: Steve Pardo
The Dearborn man found with hundreds of live and dead Chihuahuas in his home last summer will avoid jail and instead serve five years' probation while being supervised by Wayne County mental health personnel.
Kenneth Lang, 56, pleaded guilty today to an animal cruelty charge this morning in front of Wayne County Circuit Judge James Chylinski. Lang's attorney, James Schmier, had been working with prosecutors for weeks on an agreement that would keep Lang from being incarcerated. He faced up to four years in prison on animal cruelty charges.
Lang is not allowed to own animals and must make a $3,000 restitution to the Animal Legal Defense Fund. He was also ordered to pay restitution to the city of Dearborn, although that amount hasn't been set..." More
By Sean Delaney
DEARBORN -- The arraignment of former Dearborn resident Kenneth Lang Jr. was adjourned Friday in Wayne County Circuit Court until Jan. 12.
Lang, 56, is accused of keeping more than 250 animals inside his former home on Orchard Street.
Authorities discovered in July that Lang was hoarding the dogs, mostly Chihuahuas and Chihuahua mixes. They say some of the dead dogs found in freezers in the home may have been killed with an injection to the heart or partially eaten by other dogs.
Lang was evaluated for mental competency and criminal responsibility during an Oct. 5 hearing at the Michigan Center for Forensic Psychiatry. He was found competent, his attorney, James Schmier, said.
The Dearborn resident is charged with two counts of cruelty to 10 or more animals — one count related to the living dogs and the second for the dead dogs. He waived his right to a preliminary examination earlier this month in 19th District Court...." More
Dearborn -- Two of about 100 Chihuahuas and Chihuahua mixes taken in by a Detroit-area animal shelter this summer following a hoarding case are getting some big exposure this holiday season.
The dogs, named Poco and Amigo, appear on the front of greeting cards being sold by the group Friends For the Dearborn Animal Shelter. Another set of cards being sold to help the shelter features a black cat.
Cards are being sold online for $10 for a package of 10, plus shipping. They're also for sale at the Dearborn Animal Shelter..." More
By Sean Delaney
DEARBORN — Kenneth Lang Jr. will return to court Friday to face to two counts of animal cruelty after undergoing a court-ordered mental competency evaluation in October.
The evaluation was ordered Sept. 11 by 19th District Judge William Hultgren after authorities found more than 100 live dogs and 150 dead ones inside Lang’s Orchard Street home.
Authorities discovered in July that Lang was hoarding the dogs, mostly Chihuahuas and Chihuahua mixes. They say some of the dead dogs found in freezers in the home may have been killed with an injection to the heart or partially eaten by other dogs..." More
Dearborn, Mich.– Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced today that Dearborn dog hoarder Kenneth Lang Jr is being charged with two counts of cruelty to 10 or more animals, after more than 100 live and approximately 150 dead Chihuahuas and Chihuahua mixes were removed from the filthy home this past July. The national non-profit Animal Legal Defense Fund provided a grant of $3500 to allow the Dearborn Police Department to conduct necropsies on 10 of the Chihuahuas whose bodies were removed from freezers on 56-year-old Lang’s property. ALDF offers grants for necropsies, DNA testing, and other forensic support nationwide to ensure that local law enforcement is able to collect the necessary evidence to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in cases of criminal animal abuse.
Once relegated only to primetime dramas, sophisticated forensic techniques are increasingly being used to help prosecutors put together airtight cases against animal abusers. However, because such tests can be prohibitively expensive, abusers often walk free—even when the appearance of guilt seems obvious. Meanwhile, former prosecutors who now staff ALDF’s Criminal Justice Program train law enforcement around the country in animal abuse crime scene investigation, the use of cell phone data and fingerprint analysis in abuse cases, and in handling costly hoarding cases like the Lang case. In addition to the horrific animal cruelty involved, hoarding creates such highly unsanitary conditions that the properties of hoarders, contaminated with fecal matter and urine, are often condemned. In this case, Dearborn paid more than $37,000 to clean up Lang’s home, which has been deemed unfit for human habitation and might be demolished.
“Establishing cause of death is key in any fatal animal cruelty case,” says Scott Heiser, director of ALDF’s Criminal Justice Program. “We are more than happy to help the Dearborn Police Department with this critical part of their casework, as they seek justice for the hundreds of Chihuahuas who suffered so much—and the suffering of dogs who die of starvation and untreated disease in hoarding cases is truly horrific. By providing direct funding for forensic investigation of crimes against animals, we hope to ensure that attorneys have the evidence they need to put abusers in jail—while the surviving victims are allowed to heal from their trauma.”
ALDF was founded in 1979 with the unique mission of protecting the lives and advancing interests of animals through the legal system. For more information, please visit www.aldf.org..." More
Sept 11, 2009: Chihuahua hoarder to have mental exam
by Jonathan Oosting
Kenneth Lang Jr. faces two charges of animal cruelty after police in July found more than 100 living chihuahuas and 150 dead dogs in his Dearborn home.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced the charges yesterday, providing additional details of the shocking conditions:
• Some dogs were kept in tupperware-type containers without food or water.
• Some of the dead dogs appeared to have been euthanized via an injection to the heart
• Many of the living dogs were emaciated from poor nutrition
• The last known veterinary check for any of the dogs was 2003
Despite the alleged conditions, attorney James Schmier told Fox 2 his client cared deeply for the dogs..." More
By: David Runk; Photo: Paul Sancya
DEARBORN, Mich. — Police on Friday found about 150 dead dogs packed in freezers in the basement of a Michigan house littered with feces and trash where more than 110 live dogs, mostly Chihuahuas, were rescued this week.
Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad said the 56-year-old man found Wednesday in the suburban Detroit home with the animals may have been living with an increasing number of dogs for up to three or four years.
"The house was in complete disarray, very cluttered and, with 100-plus dogs running around in there, very filthy," he said.
A criminal investigation was under way at the two-story brick home, Haddad said. He said the case could be forwarded to prosecutors for possible animal-cruelty charges.
Haddad said 112 live dogs had been removed from the home as of Friday, and police believe about five more may be hiding inside. He declined to release details about the breed of the dead dogs.
The man living in the house was taken to a local hospital for observation. He had no health insurance and a mental impairment that stemmed from rubella as a child, and had lived for years alone in the home after his parents retired to Florida..." More
More than 100 dogs removed from house
By: Tanveer Ali
Dearborn -- City officials say an unassuming home appears destined for demolition as they continue a rescue operation that has saved more than 100 Chihuahuas living among waste and squalor.
Nick Siroskey, director of the city's residential services, says it could take up to six months to take down the house on the 7800 block of Orchard, saying the condition authorities found it in was uninhabitable.
"There's trash from the floor to the ceiling," Siroskey said of the home where feces and urine were found throughout. "Based on the fact that the house is in the condition it is, it will probably be a required demolition."
Animal control and shelter workers began clearing the home Wednesday, less than a week after animal control officers were called to the home to address a stench permeating the area.
Kenneth Lang Jr., 56, who lives in the home, gave officials consent to enter the home on Wednesday. Forty-two "ailing and feces-covered" dogs were recovered. Authorities returned Thursday with a search warrant and donned hazmat suits to empty the home of trash so they could locate other dogs. By Thursday afternoon, 103 dogs had been found. Authorities are expected to continue searching today..." More
