DANIA BEACH, Fla. – A Dania Beach man left his 3-year-old pit bull “Keys” in his backyard with “no proper shelter, food or water,” deputies said.
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They said when they went to Anthony Vonterr Louis’ home in late May, they found the dead dog tied to a lawn mower handle and “covered in maggots and already decomposing.”
Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Louis, 58, on a warrant following a traffic stop on Sunday.
In court Monday, prosecutors said he admitted to leaving the dog in his backyard and driving to Jacksonville.
BSO Detective Dimos Charoudis wrote in an arrest report that when he went to Louis’ home in the 300 block of Northwest Fifth Avenue on May 26, he saw dry dog food and a “dirty” five-gallon bucket “half-filled with green mildew water.”
Charoudis wrote that he also found a broken doghouse that had been provided to Louis by Broward County Animal Care.
Deputies said BCAC had provided him with the doghouse in May 2023 after receiving a complaint about him leaving the dog outside without shelter, food or water.
The report states that BCAC received a second report about Louis in March 2024.
Louis “intentionally neglected his dog for years,” Charoudis concluded, resulting in its “cruel death.”
Deputies said they saw Louis getting into the passenger’s seat of a pickup truck Sunday and, knowing he had a warrant out for his arrest for nonsupport of a parent, pulled the vehicle over on Interstate 95 at Hollywood Boulevard.
As of Monday, Louis, facing a felony animal cruelty charge, was being held in the BSO Main Jail on a $25,000 bond.