Ex-Horry County shelter worker accused of mistreating animals at her home now faces upgraded felony charge
HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — An Horry County woman jailed this week on more than a dozen county of mistreating animals has had one of the charges upgraded to a felony, according to police.
Kaylee Gasque, 20, now faces one count of ill treatment of animals/torture and seven counts of care and treatment. She remains in the J. Reuben Long Detention Center after waiving a bond hearing Friday morning.
She worked at the Horry County Animal Care Center as a kennel attendant but was fired after the allegations, which officials said occurred outside of the workplace.
According to a police report, authorities went to Gasque's home on Nichols Highway on Wednesday and found a dead dog. A necropsy determined that it had died because of malnutrition and starvation.
While at the home, officers found two other dogs running loose on the fenced-in property, the report said. One of the dogs appeared to be showing signs of an eye infection.
Gasque wasn't home when officers arrived but returned home after they called and give them permission to check on her animals. In addition to the two dogs that were outside, Gasque told officers she had two more dogs inside the home and another one in a kennel in the backyard.
She also told officers that she had another dog that had died the day before and that she had planned to bury it on Wednesday, the report said. She told officers it had been sick and she had been giving it different medications that did not help it.
Officers found the dog under a shelter in the backyard tethered to a chain with no food or water in the area, the report said. It appeared to be emaciated, and when officers questioned Gasque again about when it died, the report said she told them it could have died on Monday.
As officers continued investigating, they got permission from Gasque to go back inside the home, the report said. Being going in, she told them that she had been remodeling and that she also had two rabbits and a third dog inside that was sick but isolated from the others.
One of the two dogs loose in the house appeared to be underweight and flea-ridden, the report said. The officers also noticed animal feces, urine stains and trash scattered throughout the home.
When officers found the sick dog, the report said it could stand and walk but appeared to be emaciated.
As a result of the investigation, the report said officers seized a total of 8 dogs, including two that were dead. They also seized three rabbits, one of which was dead.
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Dennis Bright is the Digital Executive Producer at News13 . He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on, Facebook , X, formerly Twitter , and read more of his work here .
