Police charge North Side man with animal cruelty after finding malnourished dogs

A Pittsburgh man was arrested Sunday on animal cruelty charges after one of the dogs in his care died and police found three others “severely malnourished” inside the man’s North Side home.

Xavier Williams, 37, of Pittsburgh’s Marshall-Shadeland neighborhood was arraigned early Monday on a total of 29 charges, including eight felony counts of aggravated cruelty to animals and four misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals.

Pittsburgh police were dispatched Sunday to Williams’ North Side apartment after his ex-wife found one of their dogs, a male brown Pitbull puppy, “laying in the cage barely breathing with urine and feces inside the cage,” according to a criminal complaint in the case.

The dog was “severely malnourished” and its bones “were protruding and easily visible,” the complaint said. The dog was taken to an animal hospital, where it later died.

Three other dogs police found in the home, each of them gray Pitbull mixes of various ages, also were “severely malnourished,” caged amid urine and feces and “unable to move on their own,” the complaint said.

Police said the dogs did not appear to be adequately fed and their “deplorable conditions” resulted in visible wounds.

Williams told police he “had trouble caring for the animals” and could not afford veterinary care, the complaint said.

The suspect also said he tried to give the dogs to his ex-wife but she did not take them “so she is the one to blame,” police said. His ex-wife told police she had been sending Williams money to care for the dogs.

Williams was taken Sunday to the Allegheny County Jail, police said.

A judge arraigned him around 1:40 a.m. Monday and released him on nonmonetary bail, court records show. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 3.

Williams’ attorney was not listed in court records.