A man and woman in North Carolina are charged with cruelty to animals for allegedly killing and skinning a puppy. The animal's meat was used by the couple to feed other dogs, police said.
Gina Marie Alfano, 43, and Kevin John Diers, 52, of Newport, were also charged with failing to dispose of a deceased domesticated animal. Both suspects posted a $25,000 bond and were released from the Carteret County Jail.
"It is definitely one of the most bizarre animal cruelty cases," Captain Jason Wank, of the Carteret County Sheriff's Office, told The Huffington Post. "I have not seen one where a dog was actually skinned and gutted, and probably won't see another."
County deputies and animal control officers responded to Alfano and Diers' residence on December 6, after they received a complaint from an anonymous source. Deputies were given consent to look in a storage building on the property and were shocked by what they found.
"Inside the shed was a black dog eating the leg of an eight-week-old puppy that was previously skinned and gutted," Wank said.
WARNING! GRAPHIC CASE PHOTOS: (ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)
(The following slideshow contains graphic images of the dead puppy after it was skinned.)
Gina Marie Alfano And Kevin John Diers
The investigation revealed the eight-week-old Labrador puppy's internal organs and meat had been fed to the other dogs.
Upon further examination of the shed, another dog, a Maltese, was found dead in a cage. Both animals were collected for a necropsy to be performed. Those results are expected Friday.
Alfano and Diers are scheduled to appear in court on January 6. A petition on the website change.org is asking for the "maximum sentence allowable under law" for the couple. It has nearly 2,000 signatures at the time of this writing.
According to Wank, neither suspect has offered any explanation for their alleged crimes.
"We received information that they possibly didn't have food to feed to the other dogs," he said. "We could possibly speculate and say they were trying to feed the other dogs with the body of a dead dog. They are not talking at this point. It is really hard to tell, [because] only they can tell us what in the world they were thinking."