AndrewBlakeWest Palm Beach, Fla. – A 26-year-old woman was sentenced to four months in jail after she allowed her dog and cat to starve to death after she moved out of her home to live with her boyfriend.
Investigators said the cat may have died after eating the remains of the dead dog, Boca News Now reported.
Ashley Alicea pleaded guilty to two counts each of felony cruelty to animals and unlawful abandonment or confinement of animal. Her brown Pomeranian-Chihuahua mix named Moose and her gray and white cat named Pablo both died, the Palm Beach Post reported.
Police contacted Alicea in May after someone complained there was a foul odor coming from her apartment and flies could be seen swarming around the windows of the residence, according to the arrest report.
According to police, Alicea gave conflicting accounts of where she was while her pets died from a lack of water and food.
She first told police she was out of state and then changed her story to say she was at her parent’s house in Orlando. She eventually admitted she was somewhere in Delray Beach, according to the Palm Beach Post.
Alicea then said she moved in with her boyfriend in Boca Raton in January.
She said she allowed a man, whose name she had trouble recalling, to move in to her apartment. Alicea said the deal was that man just had to pay the electricity and water bills while she kept on paying the rent.
Alicea told police she couldn’t bring her pets to her boyfriend’s residence, so she left them with that unknown man at her apartment.
She said she never specifically told the new tenant that he had to take care of her pets. Alicea said she just figured he would take care of the animals since she was paying the rent.
A veterinarian did necropsies on her pets and found they died from lack of food and water.