Daytona Beach, FL – A 23-year-old West Virginia man remains in lock-up after officers say he locked up 3 puppies in a hot van without water while he was at the beach.
As of 1:30pm Monday, Shanton Penn is held on $1,500 bond at Volusia County Jail on 3 charges of cruelty to animals.
Volusia County Beach Safety & Ocean Rescue says the pit bull puppies – all between 5 and 7 weeks old – were overheated and in distress when beachgoers found them in the van around 3:15pm Sunday along the 1400 block of South Atlantic Avenue near Silver Beach Avenue.
According to Penn’s arrest report, a group of beachgoers flagged down VCBS officers and told them that, 15 minutes earlier, an African-American man had locked 3 puppies in a dark Chevy minivan and walked back to the beach.
Beach Safety says some of the van’s windows were cracked open an inch or two to get air inside, but despite that, 2 of the 3 dogs were seen by officers panting heavily and another was lying on its side with its eyes closed.
It was at that point that officers entered the van, took the puppies out and were given water from a VCBS patrol vehicle, which the puppies drunk “aggressively”, per the report.
The report noted that officers used a shower at a nearby hotel to cool the puppies down further because the dogs felt hot to the touch and that there was food left in the van for the dogs, but no water.
Other VCBS officers found Penn around 500 yards away from his vehicle and led him back to the van, where he cursed out the officers who entered his van, per the report.
The report noted that Penn insisted that VCBS pay for the damage caused to the van by the officers breaking in to get the dogs and insisted that officers had no right to break into his van because he had left the windows open.
Officers also wrote in the report that Penn decided to move into a shaded area while speaking to VCBS because his bare feet couldn’t handle the “extreme temperature” of the paved parking lot and that he had been warned beforehand to take the dogs off the beach because they weren’t allowed there.
The puppies were placed temporarily in the care of the Halifax Humane Society, per the report.
VCBS says the high temperature for the day was 90 degrees, with a heat index of 92 degrees and a relative humidity of 62%.
Photo above of Penn’s dogs courtesy of VCBS.
Shanton Penn (mugshot courtesy Volusia County Jail)
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