ROCKLEDGE, Fla. – A disturbing scene met investigators at a Rockledge home after a woman left her pets there for months, according to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.
In a release on Wednesday, Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey said that the woman — identified as Christianna Miller, 23, a vet tech — had abandoned her two dogs and a cat at an apartment sometime in December.
“(Miller) claims she paid a pet-sitter to go and take care of them,” Ivey explained.
But by April, a pest-control worker came by to spray the apartment, only to find “hundreds of flies” and the decomposing remains of Miller’s pets, Ivey stated.
And despite Miller’s claims of leaving them with a pet-sitter, Ivey said she couldn’t identify the sitter.
“She said she found somebody on social media that she paid money to,” Ivey continued. “No records of paying anybody, can’t tell us who it was or anything else.”
Ivey went on to say that Miller had left the animals in the bedroom with their food up on a shelf.
“She abandoned two dogs — Opal and Rudy — and a cat named ‘Gnocchi,’" Ivey revealed. “Abandoned them, left them, food up on the shelf, so these poor pets could actually see their food. They just couldn’t get to it.”
However, this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened, Ivey added.
“In ‘24, up in Volusia County, (she) had another dog that she was supposed to take care of that was found completely emaciated and died as a result, too,” the sheriff said. “So guess what? They didn’t do anything up in Volusia. But that ain’t gonna happen here in Brevard.”
Miller was ultimately arrested and now faces three counts of animal cruelty; three counts of unlawful confinement without sufficient food, water or exercise; and three counts of animal abandonment. She is held on bond of $28,500.