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Aftin A. Perez (Photo provided by the Waterford Police Department)

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Waterford police said they arrested a 28-year-old woman on multiple animal cruelty charges Wednesday after finding seven sickly dogs living in confined and filthy conditions at 471 Mohegan Ave., along with the rotted carcass of an eighth dog.    

The chihuahuas, Rottweilers, pit bull and mixed breed dogs were removed from the Quaker Hill home of Aftin A. Perez to local shelters and provided with veterinarian care after Animal Control Officer Robert Yuchniuk executed a search warrant on Feb. 19.

Perez turned herself in to police Wednesday after learning they had obtained a warrant for her arrest.

She was arraigned in New London Superior Court on eight counts of animal cruelty, eight counts of having unlicensed dogs, six counts of failing to vaccinate dogs for rabies and three counts of risk of injury to a minor.

The Department of Children and Families checked on the welfare of three children in the home, ages 1, 3 and 5, and left the children in the home with their father, Nathan Epperson, according to testimony in court.

Judge Omar A. Williams, who had set a bond of $30,000 when he signed Perez's arrest warrant Tuesday, reduced it to a promise to appear in court when she appeared before him in handcuffs on Wednesday.

Williams noted Perez had turned herself in to police within 24 hours of the issuance of the warrant.

He ordered her to attend a mental health and substance abuse evaluation, scheduled for Thursday by the bail commissioner's office, and to comply with any treatment recommendations.

He also ordered her to introduce no new pets into the home and continued the case to March 23.

The investigation began on Feb. 11, when Brittany Spera, a friend of Perez, called to report a cat and multiple dogs died in the home over the past several months.

Spera said Perez was keeping the dogs to breed and that they were living in their own waste in crates in an unheated basement without vet care.

Spera said Perez told her she pounded one of the dogs on the head with her hands and a rubber mallet after it attacked and killed her cat and then "threw the mutt out in the snow without food, water, nothing."

The dog, a Rottweiler named Cha'ley, was left outside in freezing temperatures for three days in an outside kennel with no protection from the wind and an uninsulated plastic dog house with hay on the ground, according to the affidavit.

There was a bowl of frozen water and pieces of bread frozen to the ground, but no fresh footprints in the snow.

Veterinarian Mark Beebe from Goodfriends Animal Hospital examined the dog and estimated he was 40 pounds underweight.

Cha'ley had hip and rear problems due to prolonged crating, a contusion to the left eye which could have been due to blunt force trauma and scrape marks and callouses on his nose which could be caused by rubbing his face on a kennel door, according to the warrant.

The deceased dog, named Biz, was located in a cardboard box in the basement.

Perez told Yuchniuk she thought her mother, who was a nurse, may have poisoned the dog and that she had taken it to the vet to be euthanized four months earlier because it could not stand up.

She said she brought the body home "in the event they wanted to do an autopsy."

The carcass had not been frozen or refrigerated, and had decomposed to mostly skin and skeleton, according to the warrant.

A female pit bull named Bella, her nipples elongated and stretched from suckling multiple litters of puppies, was locked in a small bathroom in the home with a male pit bull.

The white fur on her paws and belly was stained yellow from prolonged exposure to a feces and urine-soaked environment, according to Yuchniuk.

Bella had a broken tooth, which Beebe believed was the result of biting and pulling at a kennel or cage door in an effort to escape.

She had numerous scars and her ears appeared to have been cut off with scissors.

The male pit bull, Shine, had swollen testicles and scrotum that were crusty with scabs and open sores and several broken teeth that were likely caused by biting and pulling at a cage door in an effort to escape.

His ears also appeared to have been cut off with scissors, and like the other dogs, he tested positive for parasites.

A malnourished female Rottweiler named Sasha was locked inside a soiled wire crate with no food or water and she showed signs of prolonged confinement, including caked feces on her fur.

An underweight male Rottweiler named Lucien was locked in a plastic crate, filthy from its own waste.

Two female Chihuahuas, Mia and Bella, were housed together in a crate with a small litter box and two bowls, giving the animals living space of approximately 12 by 18 inches, according to the warrant.

Mia was severely malnourished, had a scarred and deformed left ear and severe dental disease.

Bella was skittish and hand shy but appeared to be in good condition.

Chuggles, a mixed-breed dog, was living in a crate with a filthy blanket and piles of dried feces, according to the warrant. He had empty eye sockets, and the vet said he likely had suffered an injury or infection that went untreated, causing the eyes to rupture and shrivel up.

Perez was unable to produce vet records or rabies certificates for most of the animals.

Because the dogs were suffering from hookworm and giardia parasites, which can be passed on to humans, Yuchniuck was concerned for the children in the home.

He said Perez refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing.

k.florin@theday.com