Polk County police executed a search warrant Wednesday at a location on Puckett Road where they found 35 dogs in the animal cruelty case that includes about 105 canines.
These dogs, like the 70 found Monday behind a home on Cashtown Road in Aragon, belonged to Devecio Ranard Rowland, 32, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Rowland is facing 70 counts of animal cruelty, officials said. He was arrested after police made the initial discovery.
Late Wednesday, Channel 2 confirmed this is now a dogfighting investigation.
“I’m not really sure what the purpose of having 70 dogs tied to a tree in the woods is unless you’re in some kind of breeding,” Polk police chief Kenneth Dodd said.
Dodd said the people who were initially questioned about their knowledge of the dogs at the second property cooperated with authorities, northwestgeorgianews.com reported. There are no plans to charge them since Dodd said his department doesn't believe they were officially involved with the dogs.
Both locations were discovered through tips.
Police told Channel 2 that Rowland’s parents own the home on Puckett Road and that his mother used to own the Cashtown Road home until it went into foreclosure.
Some of the dogs are at rescue centers, police said in a Facebook post. Others at animal control shelters in Polk, Paulding and Douglas counties.
But there’s a catch.
“The problem here is that we don’t own these dogs yet. Our suspect will not sign these over,” Dodd told the news station. “So we’re going to have to go through the court process to get these dogs, and that may take 30 days.”
The dogs can’t be adopted until then, so the department is looking for temporary foster homes.
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