The Ansonia Seymour Veterinary Hospital on South Main Street in Seymour.
ANSONIA – In an animal cruelty case that began after over a dozen animals were seized from a Condon Drive home on June 6, authorities say they suspect the house may have been used as a puppy mill.
Jeanie Roslonowski, Ansonia’s animal control officer, said last week that the dogs in the house were brought to the animal shelter in emaciated conditions.
“There was a mastiff in there that weighed 51 pounds, that should have been anywhere from 90 to 110,” she said.
Javon Coverson, 30, and Assante Coverson, 26, face several charges of animal cruelty and were arraigned in Superior Court in Derby. A third resident of the house, Hezekiah Johnson-Coverson, could face similar charges, according to court documents.
Court documents provided further details on the dogs that were recovered.
According to a police incident report written by Officer Jonathan Edwards, officers were serving a search warrant on the house when dogs were found in the basement, upstairs bedroom, and garage. That search warrant is connected to a separate criminal investigation police haven’t talked about.
According to the report, the garage “had an odor of animal urine and feces that was so potent once the doors opened up it could be easily smelled from the outside.”
Six dogs were recovered from the garage, while, in the backyard, officers found the corpse of a mastiff in a trash bag inside a wheelbarrow.
In total, 14 animals were removed from the house, including 11 dogs and three cats. Veterinarians at the Ansonia Seymour Veterinary Hospital found several ear infections, bruises, and emaciated conditions among the dogs. Two dogs were in such poor condition that they were put to sleep at the vet’s office.
Another two dogs had parvovirus at the time they were brought in, causing the animal shelter to go into a quarantine that was still ongoing as of last week.
Separately, another dog in poor condition suspected of belonging to Javon Coverson was recovered from an address in Shelton, according to Shelton Animal Control Officer Michelle DeAngelo.
Investigation Continues
Roslonowski said that it wasn’t Javon Coverson’s first run-in with animal control. She said that she had been in touch with him previously, after three dogs belonging to him escaped and broke a man’s leg.
She said that Coverson had stopped returning calls from her recently, and that the latest incident came as a surprise to her.
The City of Ansonia is expected to have a hearing in Superior Court to take formal possession of the animals on July 11. Ansonia Corporation Councel John Marini said that formal possession will allow the city to make more decisions on behalf of the animals, including sending the corpse of a deceased dog in for a necropsy.
That necropsy could provide further details on the abuse suffered by the dogs, Marini said. He said he suspects the house was being used as a puppy mill, but that further confirmation would be needed.
In the days following the arrests, Facebook pages connected to the Ansonia Animal Shelter put out calls for donations. The initial call for donations, posted on June 13, received over 150 shares.
Donors responded en masse, sending in packages of rice, dog food, and chew bones from as far away as Texas. Roslonowski said that she was overwhelmed by the support. One girl’s lemonade stand raised $500 for the shelter, Roslownoski said.
The shelter ran out of space to store donations on June 21, according to a Facebook post, but monetary donations are still being accepted. Checks can be made out to the Ansonia Animal Shelter.
Donations can also be made to the Ansonia Seymour Veterinary Hospital. For more details, call their number at 203 – 735 – 9915 and choose no. 2 when prompted.
For now, the animal shelter is taking things day-by-day. There are still two active cases of parvovirus, and Ansonia has been coordinating with animal controls in Woodbridge and Oxford to keep the dogs as healthy as possible.
“It’s something new every day,” Roslonowski said.
