2 Hazelwood men charged with abusing 6 puppies

Two Pittsburgh men were jailed without bail Wednesday on dozens of animal cruelty charges that accused them of cutting off six puppies’ tails at their Hazelwood home, among other abuse.

The botched docking of the tails led some of the dogs to need surgery and at least one to death.

Pittsburgh police last week arrested Ryan Chavers, 34, and Garrett Harper, 47, after they found the six puppies and three adult dogs June 5 inside their Blair Street home. The dogs were cane corsos, an Italian breed of mastiff.

Inside the home, “the smell of urine and feces emanated from the front door,” according to a criminal complaint.

Police charged Chavers with 42 counts of aggravated cruelty, cruelty and neglect of animals. Eight of the charges are felonies.

Harper was charged with 59 similar counts, 15 of them felonies.

District Judge James Motznik Wednesday denied both men bail and sent them to the Allegheny County Jail, court records show.

“Defendant is a danger to the community,” he wrote in each record.

Neither man had an attorney listed Wednesday in online court records.

All six puppies, which were about eight weeks old, “had bloody tails” after the two men had “docked” them, the complaint said.

Docking is a procedure by which part of a dog’s tail is clipped in its first week of life, police said.

The American Veterinary Medical Association opposes tail docking for cosmetic purposes.

Chavers and Harper appeared to have done the “docking” procedures at home — “illegally and unsafely,” police said.

The puppies were taken to a veterinarian, where doctors treated the wounds and infections that the docking caused, the complaint said.

One puppy’s tail “was partially docked and still hanging off, the inside of the tail completely exposed,” the complaint said. Two other puppies needed to be sedated while doctors surgically repaired the botched work.

Another dog, police said, had an elastic hair band wrapped around the tail.

One puppy was unable to walk and later died due to medical complications, the complaint said.

One of three adult dogs also couldn’t walk, having injured both hind legs.

Another adult dog was pregnant and suffering from “severe medical issues,” including blindness in one eye and an enlarged heart. She was euthanized.

A witness, who police did not name, had captured multiple videos and pictures of additional alleged abuse since September, the complaint said.

Videos showed Chavers striking the dogs on numerous occasions “as the dogs are screaming and whining in pain,” the witness told police, according to the complaint. In some videos, Chavers hits the dogs with “a large, pipe-like object,” the complaint said.

“The video clearly shows the dogs are in physical pain as Chavers yells at them: ‘You stupid dogs!’” according to the complaint.