Couple accused of torturing 2 dogs left in hot cage

A husband and wife were arrested Saturday after police accused them of leaving two dogs in the sun trapped in a cage that had reached more than 145 degrees. One of the dogs died.

About 3:10 p.m. Saturday, a neighbor called Metropolitan Police Department officers to a home on the 800 block of North Lamb Boulevard, near Washington Avenue. The neighbor said that about 2 p.m. Saturday he was in his backyard when he saw two dogs at his neighbor’s trailer in the sun, inside a cage with no food or water, according to the arrest report.

The neighbor told police the two dogs — one black and one white — “looked weak and the black dog had his nose stuck to the cage,” the report said. The neighbor and his daughter were able to get the white dog out of the cage, but they were unable to rescue the black dog.

When the neighbors realized the dogs were dying, they called police. But by the time an officer arrived, the black dog was dead, according to the arrest report.

Police then contacted 22-year-old Lisandra Aguero Ruiz, who said she and her husband, 21-year-old Jorge Monte Agudo, owned the dogs. Aguero Ruiz told police she did not leave the dogs outside in the cage and that she believed the dogs had water.

“Lisandra stated she does not know how there was no water inside the cage,” the report said. “Lisandra was then advised that one of the dogs had died, Lisandra stated she did not know that had happened.”

An animal control officer who was called to the scene measured the temperature inside the cage at 146 degrees, the report said. According to the National Weather Service, the official high in the Las Vegas Valley reached 104 degrees on Saturday about 2:10 p.m.

The white dog was in “critical condition,” and the black dog died “from hunger and thirst,” an officer wrote in the report.

“Lisandra and Jorge willfully and knowingly tortured their dogs by placing them outside in the sun in a small cage with no food or water,” the officer wrote in the report. “Lisandra and Jorge made no arrangements for the welfare of the dogs causing the black dog to slowly die while trapped in the cage alone.”

Animal control took the white dog into its custody, the report said.

Aguero Ruiz and Monte Agudo were booked into the Clark County Detention Center on Saturday but were released after posting bond, court records show.

Both face a charge of willfully or maliciously torturing or killing an animal, court records show. They are scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 19.

In a separate case, two women were also arrested Saturday after they left two dogs inside their apartment locked in cages without food or water for nearly 20 days, resulting in the dogs’ deaths, police said. Esmeralda Martinez, 22, and Blanca Perez, 21, were arrested a day after neighbors reported a “foul smell” coming from their apartment, and Las Vegas police found the two dogs dead inside cages.

The women left for Florida on June 1 and did not make arrangements for the dogs’ care, according to an arrest report. Both dogs — named Ace and Athena — were 8-month-old pitbull-type dogs, the report said.

Martinez and Perez face two counts each of willfully or maliciously killing an animal and are scheduled to appear in court on Friday.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg.