Bertie County women charged after PETA finds dogs dead and ‘severely decayed’

BERTIE COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) - A PETA welfare check on dogs in Bertie County led to an investigation and charges against a mother and daughter.

On Monday, deputies with the Bertie County Sheriff’s Office went to a home on Highway 13/17 South after PETA field workers found three dogs dead.

When deputies arrived, officials say PETA field workers notified them that they were doing a welfare check on the dogs when they found them dead. PETA field workers say that the dogs were severely decayed, and they died while they were chained.

Deputies made contact with the owner of the home and her daughter and found out that they hadn’t been living at the home for a while, and they had someone who was supposed to care for the dogs.

Friday, the sheriff’s office obtained two counts of animal cruelty and two counts of abandonment of an animal on 47-year-old Tanikia Peele and 1 count of cruelty to animals and 1 count of abandonment of animals on 23-year-old Sha’lexia Peele of Windsor.

Sheriff Ruffin thanked PETA field workers for reporting this incident and urged residents that if they can’t care for their pets, call someone and surrender them.

Tanikia and Sha’lexia Peele are both scheduled for court on December 17^th at 10:00 a.m. in the Bertie County District Court.