‘That’s really sad’: Neighbors upset over deaths of 17 animals at Hall home

Neighbors say a couple should have sought help in caring for more than a dozen animals found dead at their Hall County home.

Channel 2 Action News reported when Animal Control officers were called to a house along Yellow Creek Road in Murrayville Monday, where they found 13 chickens, three ducks and one dog dead.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

They also found one dog “severely underweight” in a kennel with a dead dog and three dogs inside the home that appeared malnourished.

K.C. Alan Parker and Montana Enola Adkins, both 20, were arrested and charged with 21 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. They were released from jail Tuesday on a $50,400 bond each.

TRENDING STORIES:

• Georgia mayor admits to tracking police chief’s vehicle; entire full-time police force resigns
• South Fulton woman says she’s been swatted 9 times, fears for her family’s safety
• Douglasville woman bought a new home for her family. Now she says it could cost $534K to fix

Channel 2’s Bryan Mims went to the home and knocked on the door to seek comment from the suspect, but nobody answered.

“It’s hard to have words when you animals were treated badly and they were emaciated,” said Kimmy Buckallew, whose husband is a veterinarian.

She owns a business just down the road called Angel’s Pet Grooming. Her sister, Michelle Widdows, works in the shop with her. Both own several animals, including dogs, cats and a tortoise, and they have rehabilitated wildlife such as fawns and squirrels.

“That’s really sad,” Widdows told Channel 2 Action News. “I mean, whether it’s chickens or ducks or dogs, it doesn’t matter. That’s someone that should have taken care of that animal and didn’t.”

The Hall County Animal Control incident report said Parker told officers that his girlfriend left him and moved out, and he could not afford to take care of the animals. He also said he did not have a driver’s license and had no way to drive the animals anywhere. An officer asked why he didn’t call anyone to help him. Parker said “people would help when they could.”

The two sisters down the road said they would gladly have taken in the animals had they known.

“It’s hard to reach out, so I would say for anyone to just reach out,” said Buckallew. “Reach out to your vet, reach out to your groomers. If you love the animals and you want to take care of them, then reach out. Because that shows love.”

Two neighbors told Mims that the couple lived in the house for several months and that it was Adkins, the ex-girlfriend, who came to the property Monday to discover the animals.

Officers said the couple arrested “failed to supply adequate food, water and sanitary conditions” to the animals. In Georgia, misdemeanor cruelty to animals carries a punishment of up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine for each charge.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]