Three Easton residents are charged with animal cruelty after Lower Saucon Township Police say they killed two pit bulls in December and then left the animals’ bodies on train tracks near Riverside Drive to make it appear they’d been killed accidentally.
A file photograph of a pit bull
In a news release issued Thursday, police said the dogs’ owner, Michelle Lorish, of the first block of N. Warren Street, and Brandy Pfeiffer and Jeff Everitt, both of the 1100 block of Ferry Street, have been charged with multiple charges of animal cruelty, conspiracy to commit animal cruelty and other charges following a two-month investigation.
The investigation began Dec. 5, police said, when a township police officer was flagged down at Redington Road East and Riverside Drive by two employees from the nearby Center for Animal Health and Welfare, and told of their search for two missing pit bulls who were said to be dead “on the railroad tracks near a gun club.”
Police said the officer checked the tracks near two local gun clubs and subsequently found both dogs dead and dismembered.
Later in the investigation, a tip to police led them to Lorish, who authorities said was identified as the dogs’ owner via a social media site.
“As the officer continued to investigate the incident, other evidence came to light that there were two other people involved in the incident,” who were identified as Pfeiffer and Everitt, according to the news release.
Police said necropsies performed on the dogs at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., “showed that both pit bulls were killed prior to being left on the tracks, where they were left to be struck by a train by the defendants to make it appear that the dogs’ death was accidental.”
Following their arraignment Thursday, police said Lorish, Pfeiffer and Everitt were sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of 10 percent of $15,000 bail each.
A preliminary hearing for all three is currently scheduled for April.