Morgan Kinder

DALTON, Ga. — A Dalton woman wanted by the Dalton Police Department for aggravated cruelty to animals was arrested on Thursday.

Morgan Kinder, 26, is charged with six counts of aggravated cruelty to animals (felonies) and 16 counts of cruelty to animals (misdemeanors).

The charges stem from an investigation by the police department after an officer was sent on Feb. 3 to meet an individual in the parking lot of the Red Lobster. That individual was meeting with Stephen Kinder, 42, Morgan Kinder’s husband, to pick up a dog that had been at Stephen Kinder’s dog training business in Cleveland, Tennessee. Because of apparent neglect, the officer referred the dog owner to law enforcement personnel in Bradley County, Tennessee. Bradley County authorities arrested Stephen Kinder and charged him with four counts of animal cruelty.

The Dalton Police Department was told that some of the animals from the Cleveland business were being kept in Dalton. Detectives got a search warrant for the Kinders’ residence on Mattie Street and executed it on Feb. 7. The house was said to be in “deplorable condition,” and “there were 16 dogs in the residence, along with two baby goats, two turtles, a snake, and in the back yard there were nine ducks. There was also a dead turtle and also several dead snakes. The animals were malnourished and living in filth, with the dogs all in kennels and many of them covered in their own waste,” the police department said.

Stephen Kinder told a detective that day he would meet with investigators at the residence but investigators were later told by Bradley County officials that Kinder had apparently killed himself with a self-inflicted gunshot in Cleveland.

Whitfield County Animal Shelter representatives worked with several animal rescue groups to find housing for the animals that were still alive.

Morgan Kinder is charged with six counts of aggravated cruelty to animals in connection with five dead snakes and one dead lizard that were found in the home, the Dalton Police Department said. She is charged with 16 counts of cruelty to animals for 16 neglected dogs.