Andrea Rosebrock 
Last week police were called to a house in Canfield, OH after a woman saw three sickly looking dogs running loose in the picturesque neighborhood. When police arrived, they found Brian Spin, 38, in the yard of the house at 535 Brookpark Drive along with the 3 sick dogs. Further investigation revealed that three sick dogs were only the tip of the problem that turned out to be a house of horrors in this Canfield house!
“The entire house was completely uninhabitable,” Canfield Detective Brian McGivern said. “It was like walking in two inches of maple syrup. That’s how saturated the rugs were with urine and feces.”
Piles of trash, debris, feces inches thick, dirt, mold, human waste were found in the home that was inhabited by Brian Spin, his wife Betsy, 32 and they two young sons, 2 and 7 as well as animals, dogs and cats.
“They were filthy, very poor hygiene, but they were in good health,” he describes the children who were covered in bug bites and found in an upstairs bedroom with Betsy Spin’s mother. “The 2-year-old was still being breast fed by [Betsy Spin] every two hours.”
The children were removed and placed in protective custody where they will remain at least 30-day and be thoroughly evaluated.
“Trash was piled so high inside the house, and the animals were just running wild that he couldn’t just climb over it,” he said.
There were 9 dogs found in the house, all in deplorable condition! It took 4 days to search the 4,596 sq. ft home, worth (at least it was) almost $350k to even find the dogs. The dogs ranged in age from about a year old to about 6 years old and they were covered in mange, open sores, feces and urine. Three of the dogs died en route to the pound and the other six had to be euthanized because they were so sick. Days later yet another dog was found living in a mattress in a pile of debris in the back yard. The little dog was barely alive.
“There was so much stuff in this home, and so hard to see, we had to have air packs and containment suits on. When we did get [the animals] out of there, they were in such bad shape that they had to be put down right away,” said Mahoning County dog warden Dave Nelson adding that the feces was 6-8 inches think is some areas of the house.
Brian and Betsy Spin were changed with 9 counts of animal cruelty and 2 counts of child endangerment, all misdemeanors to which they have pleaded not guilty. They are due to be back in court in December.
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As horrific as this whole situation is, what makes it even worse is that the only charges that can be leveled are misdemeanor charges!! Ohio has no provision in place for felony animal cruelty charges even after the the horror at High Caliber K-9 Kennels last year where dead and starved dogs were found, brutalized at the hands of the man who was supposed to be caring for them. Croley got a plea deal and for 7 dead dogs and 12 starved dogs, all Croley wound up being charged with was 4 misdemeanors, a measly 30 days in jail and a fine.
Liz Raab, who owned one of the starved, dead dogs, Nitro, a once beautiful rottweiler that when found could not even be determined what kind of dog he was he was so skeletal, has been lobbying, begging and petitioning for stronger animal cruelty laws Ohio. In March, legislation was introduced but so far nothing has happened and dog deaths continue to pile up with no more than misdemeanor charges!
In August there was another case where a dog was bludgeoned to death for barking. A 71-year-old man, James Mills, grabbed a metal pipe and went into the kennel of his son’s girlfriend’s 9-year-old rottweiler mix and brutally beat the dog to death. He said he was tired of hearing the dog barking. In court he admitted to beating the dog.
He says he was splitting wood and he went to the cage because the dog was running around inside of it making a racket, so he thought Penny needed water.
He says he feared the dog getting out of the pen and if that happened he would be in danger, so he stuck the metal post through the fence and “belted” her to settle her down.
“I tried to get her to slow down so I could give her water” he said.
“She was four feet away from me number one, because she was running alongside the dog house, and when she went by I hit her but like I say i couldn’t hit her too doggone hard because she was four feet away and i only had a six foot post” He Admitted to Fox 8 News.
“I hit her in the hind quarters, hit her in the front quarters and hit her alongside the head, and finally she settled down” he admitted to Fox 8 News.
When asked if he ever considered leaving and not doing any harm to the dog Mills said “No, because she was low on water, and she had plenty of feed and I thought well i don’t know what the problem is, I don’t know why she’s acting like she is but if I give her water maybe she will settle down, maybe that’s what she wants.”
The explanation is not good enough for Penny’s owner who was also in court.
“He always said he hated that dog, yeah always, since the day he met her he said he hated that dog. She didn’t like him very much either.” said Sturdivant. (Fox 8)
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Again, a misdemeanor charge for the brutal killing of an innocent dog!
When is enough going to be enough in Ohio? These are only a few of the animal cruelty cases in which misdemeanor charges don’t come close to being justice!! It is beyond time for the laws to change, for Ohio to get serious about animal cruelty. It’s time to stop screwing around and pass HB 70. It’s time for justice!
Ohio is only 1 of 5 states that do not have felony animal abuse legislation in place! Hey Ohio, don’t you think it’s time you got with the times?? Ohioans, contact your reps and tell them, enough is enough!! You can find contact info HERE.
James Mills you are a lying bastard ,I hope you have a heart attack and die today .It would take such force and many many hits to kill a dog .
a heart attack would be to quick and easy, this PUKE needs to suffer like the kids and the animals!!!
This state needs to tighten up their laws big time!! What kind of people are these who would do such brutal things to defenseless animals and get a slap on the wrist? Bless those poor dogs. I can’t imagine the fear and pain they must have gone through before their deaths which were no doubt a welcome relief. They are safe now forever at the bridge, but justice must be carried out for the scum that are guilty. RIP sweet angels!
This is just another sign of the retarded attitude of the people running our legal system.Why should there ever be a big debate and road blocks thrown up about something that go’s without saying and so obious.The brutal treatment of any animal should be automatic prison time. They used to have a place for lepers. Well they need a place for animal abusers since they won’t put them out of their misery, like needs to be done. God will deal with these mutants, severly.I see in the video that the son was not present at the courthouse. Does that mean he is standung behind this piece of worthless trash. If that were my dog at the most, that stupid SOB would have been put in traction in the hospital.
THE LEGAL SYSTEM SUCKS~
Those other two worthless pieces of trash need to be stomped into the nothing that they are. The childen taken away, them fixed so they can not have anymore children, and ordered to never have anymore pets after they got out of prison and the mother that was upstairs, unless she has a physical handycap that prevented her doing something about this abomination, then she needs to get the same punishment. This is deplorable
MY GOD! Even if you LOATHE animals (I don’t understand that mindset, but hey…these people exist), what about the CHILDREN?! A misdemeanor?!
What is WRONG with these people that they could allow their own BABIES to ‘live’ like that?!
Lazy, dead in the head mutants – thats what
Not only is Ohio one of five with no felony animal abuse, it is also the one state where the legislature tried (and thank God failed the first time around) to pass a STATE WIDE BSL against pits with no grandfathering in place. If that in itself is not animal abuse, I do not know what is. And these were the elected officials for the State. Guess that explains why there are no felony animal abuse laws on the books.
As for the Snips, deranged seems to be an apt word. Let’s hope that they courts do not return the children, and that includes the idiot grandmother, but also forbids them from ever having animals again.
Mr Mills, age is not an excuse. This is to be one of the biggest liars and sick %$#)%(& to come around in a long time. Heaven forbid, he would ever want to calm a baby down in order to give the poor kid a bottle. A misdememanor my foot. Ohio has lots and lots of great people as well as animal rescuers, they just need to all get together and see that felony based charge laws are passed. Working together, they were able to kill the House proposed statewide BSL legislation, so it would seem that this same commitment and drive could help Ohio pass felony animal cruelty laws.
We need to beat James Mills to death for speaking. OMG what is wrong with people? Is it the water he’s drinking or what? This man doesn’t deserve to live. How horrible is this? And those two POS that let 9 dogs die because they are druggies is just horrific. I hope they never get those children back. Can you just imagine how these children will turn out. Put them on that island for experimentation. They don’t deserve to live amongst us. Those poor babies that didn’t stand a chance. How could you not clean up after a poor fur baby and those children. They look like they didn’t suffer one bit. These type of people don’t belong in society or near animals and children.
What I also want to know is how this scum could afford that house?
Ahhh…I see Moego1 likes my island as well. Excalibur, you wrote the following “If that were my dog at the most, that stupid SOB would have been put in traction in the hospital.” I do believe, knowing you, on this site, as well as the rest of us, you meant “at the LEAST”, rather than “at the MOST”. Because, at the LEAST, that lying SOB would have been hung by his ****, and beat with-in an inch of his life (want him to stay alive to feel the pain), if that had been my sweet baby, then put on the “Island of Human Research”. Man! I sure wish there really was a way to start that island. I can not even BEGIN to imagine the number of animals that would never have to suffer at the hands of research for human product use another day! AND…don’t ya’ think we would get a better idea how these products hurt and indanger humans, if they were tested on HUMANS, rather than animals???? Gee…what a thought!
You are right, Feel the pain!
Well if I ever get the money, I’ll let you know : )
That sounds good to me Jessie : )
I keep on saying…I wish they would open ALCATRAZ ISLAND back up so all th ANIMAL ABUSERS, MURDERERS, RAPIST, CHILD PREDATORS, GANG MEMBERS>>>ETC, can all get sent to the island and kill each other for all I care…I am sick and tired of these people being allowed to live in the same society as we do when we pay taxes to PASS THE LAWS to lock the SOB’s up…and GOD knows that never happens…they can have the rope to hang each other and the stones to stone each other to death…now what a reality show that would make…LOSERS! The justice systems sucks in this country BUT I believe OHIO takes the cake, I would never live in or visit a state that was so LAG with their justice….just think of the crap that goes on behind closed doors that we do not hear about!
That would be a start Shelly, but I’m afraid that the place wouldn’t be big enough : ( Now since they won’t execute this garbage and put them our of their misery, like needs to be done there are a great number of deserted islands, well there would be animal life on those. So perhaps a man-made place that once you are in, you never never get to leave. Like the movie” Escape From New York City ” Now that was an awsome movie and a very simple solution. E veryone would have to be fixed so they couldn’t get pregnant.And toss their a***s in and let them swim or sink.
Yes but you see Excal~ if you put all of them together BELIEVE me they would not last too long, the gangbangers would kill each other, thinking some of the murderers would hate child abusers nad animal abusers I do not think they would last oo long either..I am soooo sick of the scum on this earth and wish out legal system would CLEAN IT UP….they are the ones with the power…eh??? If it were on us, we could be vigilantes for the animal abusers….I really am tired of this crap, everyday it is worse and worse and nothing gets done about it. I wonder what this sorry world will be like in another 100 years…sad thing to think about!!!
oh and one more thing…I also would like to put my vote in for testing on these lowlife POS instead of testing on animals…they are definately missing a HUGE part of the thing in their head called a BRAIN!
Hi everyone…I am Penny’s owner. Please know that we are banning together and working very hard on Ohio Laws. As far as these two idiots, I personally think they aren’t right in the head and maybe should be going straight to a looney bin. They’d get more time that way too. Otherwise they’ll do what Croley did and plead out and barely get any time. And hopefully they’ll never get those children back either. Sickos!!!
And fixed so they can’t have any more children and banned from being 150′ from any animal or ever having another animal.
Start by contacting a councilmember who is on the Mayoral track.
Have a clear idea of what you want to pass in the way of a law.
I understand you are angry but that isn’t a law. Killing the SOB isn’t a lw. Making it hard to operate this type pof operation isn’t a law.
Meet with a dedicated group of activists and hopefully one or two in the group will be attorneys. keep it simple and stay under the radar until you get what you want- don’t let the opposition get wiond of what you’re doing before your movement gains strength. Good luck.
The Rev1953, How do you go about doing that. In the last elections I simply wanted to know which candidates for Mayor were animal friendly and you would have thought that I was asking for some top secret information. I live in Great Falls, MT., and there is a great deal of insensitivity towards animals, which I find totally appauling. There are a lot of animal lovers here to but the ones that are runnimg the show don’t seem to be that. Or why couldn’t anyone answer a simple question, crazy
this senseless suffering makes my heart ache
Enough is enough : (
CROLEY is another one I would love to see HUNG in the town square by his b*&%( and let the town stone his ass to death , for what he did to Nitro and the rest of thise dogs, that man should not be taking a breath today….how someone could walk on what he did is enough to cause a major riot….MAJOR RIOT….piss of S&%^&!!!!!!!!
Age does not matter – you have two different extremes in age here – and yes, OFF TO THE ISLAND.
I was sick when I read about the Spins – what the hell is wrong with them? That yard looked like crap, and that poor little one was found, thank God, but to live in filth? Obviously they don’t give a hoot about their children either. If our judicial system gives those children back to these two nitwits, we better think about all of our judges in the system. What these judges are giving out as sentences is pathetic.
And Mr. Mills – go have another bottle of beer or whatever it is you drink. You are a waste of space you rotten sob. I know it is wrong to think an eye for an eye, but I am sorry, I would like to take a metal pipe to this sob. I wonder why the dog did not like him, hell, I hate him. I would go to the aid of the dogs before I went to aid any pos like him. Let him die a slow miserable death and bleed to death. I will rescue any animal before I aid an ahole like that.
The first case (Spin family) sounds like an extreme case of hoarding, which is a different psychological issue than the ones causing people to beat and torture animals. Often, hoarding is a result of OCD or similar anxiety disorders, where people continue to collect, even if the living conditions become unsafe and the items are useless or unsanitary. In their case, it sounds like they collected animals (who they can’t take care of properly) and their excrement. These people need to be treated for their hoarding before being allowed near animals or children.
Many of the other cases on this site, the cruelty issues are psychopathic. A lot of serial killers start out by torturing animals before moving on to humans. Those are the people who should be put in jail for much longer, because there is intent behind what they’re doing to the animals.