SLIDESHOW: Campbell man sentenced to five days in jail in cruelty case involving 91 animals
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CAMPBELL, Ohio - A Campbell man will be spending just five days behind bars in an animal cruelty case that involved 91 animals.
Sixty-two-year-old Pavlo Santiago was handed a sentence of 90 days in jail with 85 of those days being suspended. He also cannot own or house any animals for five years with the exception of one dog he keeps inside his house.
"The circumstances of this case were serious enough that they warranted it," said Campbell Law Director Brian Macala. "The conditions on the premises with the numerous fowl, pigeons that had accumulated on the property, the affect this had on the neighborhood, simply just having a suspended jail term and giving him the restriction against companion animals would not be enough."
Santiago was sentenced on charges of cruelty to animals stemming from an incident from March of 2023 in which Campbell police officers found 91 animals, including a dog that, for three years, had been living in a garage at Santiago's home on the 300 Block of Whipple Avenue.
"The garage is the worst conditions I have ever seen by far," said Campbell Police Officer Jim Conroy. "It was a one car garage. The dog had been in there three years, I don’t think that it ever left that garage. There was an 18-inch floor of feces that covered the entire area along with a shredded couch, like a washing machine, bicycles, lawnmowers, all laying around, this dog had really nowhere to go."
It wasn't just the garage that was neglected either.
"In the backyard was where I saw the pigeon coop and rabbit cages and they were just filled with feces as if they had never been cleaned," Conroy said.
Other animals found on the property included numerous rabbits, chickens and pigeons.
Campbell Law Director Brian Macala hopes this outcome sends a strong message.
"Not only a necessity to have punishment against the individual here, there is also a necessity to send a message that the city is not going to tolerate this type of conduct on the property," Macala said. "From what Patrolman Conroy had reported to me and the photographs I saw, there were conditions, specifically I recall with the pigeons where there was a pen that was maybe to house four or five pigeons, that there were sixty of them in, so, this is not something that in Campbell we tolerate."
According to a police report, humane agents at the scene said many of these animals were underfed and underweight.
The dog that was living in the garage has since recovered and was just recently adopted.
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