Itawamba County Woman Arrested On Animal Cruelty Charges

ITAWAMBA COUNTY, MISS. (WCBI) – An Itawamba county woman has been arrested and charged with animal cruelty after officers discover Great Danes and other dogs in cages, without food and water.

Twenty six year old Jayla Rogers was arrested Sunday and is charged with five counts of animal cruelty.

Investigator Mike Newlin says the sheriff’s department received a tip Sunday about malnourished and mistreated dogs at a residence on Joe Wheeler Brown Road.

Newlin says officers found eighteen dogs, most of them Great Danes, in cages, without food or water.  Two of the dogs were deceased.

Rogers was interviewed by investigators, and arrested and charged.  Investigator Newlin says he is thankful for the tip that led to the discovery of the dogs and the arrest of Rogers.

“Without the community and without people in the community, we don’t know a lot of times these things are going on, we are thankful this call came in because this would have got worse and more animals would have been deceased than just the two that were in the house, a lot of them animals needed immediate medical attention, glad they will be able to get that now, if the community a lot of times don’t let us know, we don’t know,” Newlin said.

A rescue agency took all of the dogs , while Game and Fish officers rescued a raccoon that was caged, without food or water.  Each count of animal cruelty carries up to six months in jail and up to a one thousand dollar fine. Newlin believes Rogers was breeding the dogs and selling them.