300 dogs seized in animal cruelty investigation
Some 300 dogs were seized Monday from a Nye County property during an animal cruelty investigation, authorities said.
The Nye County Sheriff’s Office said that the county carried out the investigation at a property in Amargosa Valley.
NCSO deputies and animal control officers remained on scene throughout Monday night to investigate and care for the dog’s, the sheriff’s office said.
Authorities said Oskana Higgins and Vasili Platunov were arrested on suspicion of felony animal abuse and neglect.
Higgins and Platunov run a kennel business in Amargosa Valley and it’s not the first time animals have been seized from their possession.
The pair was forced to move there operations from Pahrump to Amargosa Valley more than a year ago following a four-year battle with local officials and neighbors who complained about the excessive number of dogs they kept on a 2.3-acre plot on Camelia Street in Pahrump. While initially permitted to care for 30 dogs there, the two were found to be maintaining up to 150 dogs on there property in early 2020.
Animal rescue organizations have been asked to help find care and temporary shelter for the dogs.
“The dogs are under court order at this time and are not adoptable until the resolution of the court process, thus this will be a foster situation until the process is complete,” the sheriff’s office posted on Facebook on Tuesday.
If you are interested in assisting, please e-mail sheriff@co.nye.nv.us.
The news came as Nye County officials were set to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday morning for its new 19,000-square-foot animal shelter at 1580 E. Siri Lane in Pahrump. It’s unclear if any dogs consfiscated from the Amargosa Valley kennel will be transported there.
Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.
Robin Hebrock and Brent Schanding contributed to this report.
