Pit bull ‘starved to death’ under Animal Services’ watch – but whose fault was it?

Update: The original version of this story discussed a canine behaviorist position, which was terminated on Oct. 28, according to the county. We have updated the story to reflect the changes.–LINK nky editorial, Nov. 3, 2025.

Blake Jordan, the founder of Miami Valley Pit Crew, a private animal rescue in Dayton, Ohio, told LINK nky he had been expecting to receive two puppies and a German shepherd mix to foster after coordinating with Kenton County Animal Services.

The dogs weren’t directly in the county’s care, but animal control officers had been called out to the house where the dogs were being kept following a neighbor’s compliant.

Only one dog showed up.

“I was informed that earlier in the day, around 2 o’clock, the second puppy had died,” Jordan said. “So, that is how I ended up with one puppy and found out that the second dog was starved to death.”

The Pit Crew had dubbed the dogs Romulus and Remus, after the mythical founders of Rome. Like in the myth, Romulus had survived his brother. Unlike the myth, Remus’ death seems to be attributable to the consumption of debris or toys in his environment; LINK nky got differing accounts in the details, but they all pointed to a lack of food for the animals, a lack to which Remus eventually succumbed.

The backlash was quick. The Pit Crew made several posts accusing Kenton County Animal Services of failing to properly intervene to help the animals.

Animal Services responded with their own post, saying the animal control officers had been working with the people who were keeping the dogs – the dogs’ true owner was from Boone County and had given them to a relative in Kenton County to take care of “with the intention of helping them and rehoming them, and we worked to connect the caregiver with a potential rescue partner.”

To investigate, LINK nky interviewed volunteers at the shelter and examined data and internal correspondence through public records requests.

While there were aspects of Remus’ death that were arguably out of Animal Services’ control, testimonies from people involved in the shelter suggest the incident was indicative of a beleaguered institution straining under a stressful labor environment, declining morale, deteriorating conditions for the animals and a sluggish response from county higher-ups.

“This pit bull dying is absolutely tragic, and maybe just a canary in the coal mine about how difficult things have gotten there,” said Animal Services Volunteer Maria Sanders.

Mythic origins

In the aftermath of the dog’s death and the online backlash, Kenton County Animal Services invited the public to make a public records request for communications and timelines related to the incident.

The county shared this 52-page document with LINK nky, which consists of redacted text messages, emails and other communications between animal control officers, the family holding the dogs and the rescue. The communications are front-ended by a summary and timeline of the events.

Animal control officers got a complaint about the house where the dogs were being kept on Sept. 25, a Thursday. Officers went out to investigate, found the dogs in the backyard, and “learned the dogs had been at the home for roughly a month and belonged to the homeowner’s sister and the sister’s boyfriend, who were recently evicted from their home in Boone County,” according to the summary provided by animal services.

In cases like this, animal officers have two options: If they think abuse or neglect is occurring, and they have enough evidence of said abuse or neglect, they can take possession of the animal and bring it to the county animal shelter. Alternatively, they can help the owners create a plan of improvement to address any issues, which may include handing the animal off to a private rescue.

The county’s timeline states animal control officers believed the residents in the house were “trying to do the right thing about these dogs” and “gave the caretaker a two-week period to show improvement or find a rescue partner,” lest the dogs be impounded.

Text messages revealed the dogs were known, not by Romulus and Remus, but by Mocha and (in a weird mythic coincidence) Taurus, respectively. In Greek mythology, Taurus represents a bull.

The animal control officers took pictures during their initial visit and made several other observations.

First, there were three chihuahuas in the house that appeared to be hale and healthy, and there was a third pit bull, as well, which the officers describe as “lean and of weight,” whereas the two from Boone County were “emaciated” but friendly.

Text messages between the control officers noted that the homeowner had been trying to “feed them in small increments but they keep throwing up and they’ve been throwing up objects as well like toys.”

An animal control officer contacted Miami Valley Pit Crew on Friday, Sept. 26. The rescue responded the following Sunday, saying they could take the animals.

On Monday, the officer reached back out to the caregivers and asked if the dogs were still there; they were, the caregiver said. After some more back and forth, the caregivers informed the control officer that her sister and her sister’s husband, the dogs’ original owners, would be the ones dropping off the pair (the shepherd mix mentioned before, which county documents show was an unrelated case already in the county’s custody, would be transported separately).

The control officer texted the caregiver on Tuesday, Sept. 30, to inquire if the dogs were being transported.

The caregiver responded, “they are on their way,” around 3 p.m.

By this point, unbeknownst to both the animal control officer and Miami Valley Pit Crew, Remus was already dead.

The control officer contacted Miami Valley Pit Crew around 4:45 p.m. to check on the hand-off. After talking with the rescue, the officer texted the caregiver.

“There is only one dog?” the officer texts.

“Yes, the really skinny one died around 2:30 today,” the caregiver explained.

“And you have other animals?” the officer responded.

“Of theirs??” the caregiver texted.

“Are there any dogs at your house?” the officer clarified, somewhat forcefully.

The caregiver said she had both her own dogs, the chihuahuas, and that her family member was coming to pick up the others. The caregiver texted pictures of her chihuahuas sitting plump and alert on blankets.

“How did this happen?” the officer texted.

The dog had refused to eat the day after the officers had initially been out to the property. The caregiver had tried mixing some rice, green beans and cooked catfish in with the dog’s food, but even then the dog “was eating it only in small amounts.”

The day the dogs were set to be picked up, the caregiver said, the dog was weak and couldn’t stand. She said she called her sister, admonishing her that the dog “needed to get to the rescue cause I didn’t know if he was gonna make it.”

The caregivers laid the dog on the couch. Around 2 p.m., the dog began throwing up, the caregiver said. Her daughter had the dog’s head in her lap when it finally stopped breathing around 2:30 p.m.

The owners from Boone County retrieved Remus’ body and the living dog, who was doing well when LINK nky spoke with Miami Valley Pit Crew, to take to the rescue. Since the dog’s body was transported across county lines, Kenton County Animal Services could not perform a postmortem to determine the exact cause of death.

Other sources who spoke with LINK nky believe the dog died after swallowing objects in its environment, a conjecture that’s at least partially corroborated by the testimony in the text messages. The whereabouts of Remus’ remains are unknown.

Animals outside

At the first meeting of the Kenton County Fiscal Court after Remus’ death, the current director of Kenton County Animal Services, Kelly Sauer, read from a prepared statement about the incident. The meeting took place on Oct. 7.

Sauer said the animal control staff “acted in accordance with state law and departmental standards, but we recognize policies and best practices are only as strong as our ability to continually evaluate and improve them. In response, our team has already begun comprehensive review of this incident to identify where communication procedures or decision making processes might be strengthened. Our goal is not only to understand what happened, but to learn from it, to ensure we have every possible safeguard in place for future cases.”

Sauer’s statement did little to stifle the criticisms of two county residents who attended the meeting, both of whom believed Animal Services was letting other cases slip through the cracks.

“This is the worst shelter crisis in my lifetime; something’s got to change…,” said Rebecca Hicks, animal advocate and daughter of local decorated veteran Frank Hicks. “The inaction from the Kenton County Animal Services has been a pattern year after year after year, and really the ones that suffer are the dogs and the community members.”

Hicks told the fiscal court that she had reached out to discuss conditions at the shelter, but had “gotten nowhere.”

Hicks finished her statement and went to return to her seat, but before she could do so, Kenton County Commissioner Jon Draud asked if she had sent him an email. Hicks said that she had not, but had reached out to others. When she tried to continue her statement, Kenton County Judge/Executive Kris Knochelmann stopped her.

“We’re just going to cut the conversation off,” Knochelmann said.

“Can I just ask one question?” Hicks asked.

“No, because you’re not saying correct things; they’re not true,” Knochelmann said. “So, therefore, we’re going to continue. We’re going to move on.”

Hicks’ criticism offers the first glimpse into community concerns about animal services and the shelter it maintains, specifically the argument that the county’s protocols for dealing with dogs, especially, are often slow or inadequate.

LINK nky interviewed Hicks in the weeks after the meeting, and she cited cases dating as far back as 2013, three specifically, for which she argued the county had failed to act in a timely manner. Hicks still lobbies for various animal reforms and education throughout the region.

Hicks isn’t the only one to make these kinds of complaints.

Mike Bianchi, a retired police officer and Erlanger resident who spoke both at the fiscal court meeting and with LINK nky directly, talked about his experience with a large, sometimes friendly, sometimes aggressive Cane Corso owned by his mother’s neighbor in Independence.

Aptly named, in yet another mythic coincidence, Loki, after the Norse god of mischief, the dog had a tendency to get out and roam the neighborhood, at times even getting onto his mother’s property. Cane Corsos are large breeds that can weigh more than 100 pounds, according to the American Kennel Club.

County records have complaints about Loki dating back to 2021.

The dog’s owner, according to both county records and Bianchi’s testimony, has been warned multiple times about the dog repeatedly getting out. Bianchi captured the dog on a Ring camera when it was out throughout the summer. He shared the photos with LINK nky. Bianchi either witnessed or photographed the dog twelve times this summer alone.

Finally, in July, according to county records, the owner was cited. In spite of this, Bianchi has witnessed the dog still out and about in the neighborhood.

Like Hicks, Bianchi was frustrated with what he viewed as inaction on the part of Animal Services.

“What would happen is, essentially, the police would say we need to call animal control, and animal control would say we need to call the police,” Bianchi said.

Neither Bianchi nor Hicks was involved in the case of Romulus/Mocha and Remus/Taurus; however, for them, the incident served as evidence that changes were needed.

“My situation didn’t end in a death of a dog like the pit bull, but it’s the same pattern of deferral and inaction,” Bianchi told LINK nky. He expressed a similar sentiment before the fiscal court.

Kenton County Administrator Joe Shriver responded to Bianchi’s comments at the meeting, saying that the situations with the pit bulls and Loki were “vastly different” and that Animal Services’ response to the pit bulls was timely and appropriate.

“To say that they were non-responsive, I’m going to say that’s not true,” Shriver said. “Everything about the record that was presented tonight shows that the animal control was trying everything they can to get the dogs into the rescue.”

Later in the meeting, Shriver discussed the general situation with Animal Services, particularly as it related the animal shelter’s no-kill status.

“Our kennel is full, and that’s why we are working with every resource possible – fosters or with rescues – to try and keep animals from coming into the shelter and staying there,” Shriver said. “If we can get them placed in rescues and get them to where they’re not coming into the shelter. It’s not a financial thing. It is a care situation because we don’t want to bring them into a shelter… that already is at capacity or very close.”

Animals inside

Kentucky counties are also legally required to have publicly funded animal shelters. Boone, Kenton and Campbell Counties’ animal shelters all have no-kill status, which, in spite of its name, doesn’t actually mean they refrain completely from euthanasia.

A shelter achieves no-kill status when it has a 90% or greater live outcome rate, meaning the animals within are either adopted out, returned to their owners or transferred to other facilities.

Euthanasia that does occur is often done so for health reasons, age or if the animal is deemed dangerous (the last point is more relevant for dogs than cats). These days, most shelters view euthanasia as a last resort.

County records indicate the shelter took in 2,878 animals in 2024. Its live outcome rate was roughly 94%. Animal intakes peaked last year in July at 348. Intakes declined in the fall and early winter months and steadily rose from January onward. Euthanasia peaked in August of last year at 33 animals of various kinds.

The volunteers and fosters who spoke with LINK nky all expressed roughly the same concerns, namely that gaps in labor have created an “untenable” situation, as Sanders, the volunteer who spoke before, put it. Volunteers who spoke with LINK nky said this was especially true as it related to the care of the dogs, which tends to be more labor intensive than the smaller animals.

“They have usually two people working,” said volunteer Carol Franzen, who’s also an elected member of the Independence City Council. Franzen has been a frequent advocate of the shelter in public meetings and often encourages Independence residents to volunteer.

“Because they’re so grossly understaffed, those two people have to man the desk…, which leaves the back of the house empty, which means the only people they can rely on to do anything are volunteers,” Franzen said.

Franzen and others spoke to a general decline in the care of the dogs at the shelter. She said cleanliness has deteriorated: vomit and feces in the dog shelters have increased beyond acceptable levels, she said. The guillotine doors in the kennels are often left closed, she’s observed, restricting the dogs’ movements. Both the dogs and the cats, as well, are at times at risk of going all night without water.

“If I had not filled their water bowls,” Franzen said, relating one instance, “they would have been without water overnight.”

Several volunteers were critical of Sauer’s leadership. Sarah Adams, who has served as both a volunteer and a foster, told LINK nky that she has been volunteering less since Sauer came on.

“I would say the overall morale of the facility has gone downhill tremendously,” Adams said. “Like the day-to-day workers, they’re absolutely amazing. They’re obviously there for the animals. I don’t think she is, to be honest.”

Adams and others worried Sauer was unwilling to take up the slack to keep the shelter running well, especially in the face of a dwindling workforce and an increased reliance on unpaid volunteers. Others worried about the haphazard application of behavioral checks and other intake protocols.

Lauren Eten, a foster and volunteer, said that when she was having trouble with a dog she was fostering, one that ended up being dangerous, she couldn’t get a hold of anyone at the shelter. She had called the shelter’s foster line, but no one picked up.

“I ended up having to call Kenton County Dispatch,” Eten said, “and Kenton County dispatch had to dispatch the animal control officer to come to my house to get the dog because the dog attacked me.”

This incident occurred in August, Eten said. At the beginning of October, Sauer sent an email informing staff members that foster inquiries should be routed through a new foster email address, adding that “in the coming weeks, we would really like to start shifting the foster phone’s use to a more emergency based service.”

There was also a feeling among volunteers that Sauer simply didn’t like dogs and that her decisions about what to do with them were arbitrary.

As mentioned before, total euthanasia in the shelter peaked last year in August, prior to Sauer’s hire. Dog euthanasia did increase after Sauer’s hire, peaking in July to its highest level since January 2024, but the numbers alone don’t provide enough insight into the circumstances surrounding those decisions.

Emails between Sauer and the staff discuss several cases of dog euthanasia in August and July, often due to bites or other behavioral problems.

Another email from August informed the staff that two key employees were no longer with the organization: the shelter manager and the canine behaviorist. The email is light on the details, but county records indicate the fiscal court accepted the shelter manager’s resignation at the end of September. The behaviorist was terminated on Oct. 28.

“What happens from there is that there’s no one to manage the shelter,” Sanders said. “There’s no one to assess and work with the dogs, and these are two centrally important roles to day-to-day operations and also to ensuring that it’s a safe work environment for the staff and volunteers.”

The consent agenda from Oct. 7 included the hiring of a single animal shelter technician, a full time position that carries an annual salary of roughly $38,000.

As of Oct. 13, prior to the behaviorist’s termination, records indicated Kenton County Animal Services employs 18 full-time staff members: four animal control officers, an animal control sergeant, a volunteer coordinator, an assistant shelter director, six shelter technicians, three veterinary staff, the behaviorist and Sauer.

As a reminder, Animal Services took in 2,878 animals over the course of last year.

In spite of the criticisms and the tragedy of Remus, Sanders still encouraged people to adopt from the shelter.

“People should feel secure that if they’re looking to foster or adopt, this is the agency to come to,” Sanders said. “We have amazing pets that still desperately need homes, regardless of who the leadership is and regardless of what [people have] read on social media.”