Brevard sheriff: Abused pups get new homes; owners go to jail

PALM BAY, Fla. – Two neglected dogs have found new homes, according to Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey, but so did their owners -- in jail.

Deputies last week rescued the dogs, who were left to starve when their owners abandoned them after moving out, according to the sheriff’s office.

A concerned neighbor called the sheriff’s office to report that they had not seen their neighbors on SE Babcock Street in Grant-Valkaria for weeks.

The dogs were in poor condition, Veterinarians at the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Animal Care Center have been helping the dogs as they recover from severe neglect.

“Amazing volunteers nursed them back to health after they were near death,” Ivey said in an email to News 6.

The dogs, now named Mowgli and Baloo for the Jungle Book characters, have recovered enough to be placed in foster homes, until they are ready for adoption.

Veterinarians use a scale of one to ten to rate animal conditions, zero being dead. Mowgli and Baloo were a one when they were found, said Joe Hellebrand with Brevard Animal Services.

"They're doing amazingly well," Hellebrand said. "For these dogs to be running around and playing after just two weeks ago they were near death, it's incredible."

Criminal investigators in the Animal Cruelty Unit on Thursday tracked down and arrested the dogs two owners. Daniel Compton Puranda, 38, and Catherine Oyuela, 36, were arrested at a home in Palm Bay.

“While our animal care team found new homes for the poor helpless abused animals our fugitive unit brought the abusers to their new home at the Brevard County Jail where I personally greeted them to make certain they got the very best accommodations we have to offer,” Ivey said.

Both suspects are charged with two counts of animal cruelty and two counts of abandonment of an animal, according to the sheriff’s office. Oyuela’s bond was set at $16,000 and Puranda's set at $21,000.