Chicago — A Far South Side woman is charged with felony animal cruelty for allegedly leaving her Goldendoodle caged in her backyard during a driving snowstorm at Christmas time. The dog, who was under a year old, died.
“The court is struck by the depravity in this case,” said Judge Kelly McCarthy after hearing the allegations against Pariss Sago on Friday.
“All you had to do is give it up to a proper home if you couldn’t care for it,” McCarthy continued. “You knew there was a problem and left this dog to die.”
Prosecutors said the manager of Sago’s residence had received “numerous complaints” from neighbors about Sago’s treatment of the dog since she bought it at the age of 6 weeks last summer.
Neighbors allegedly reported that the dog was often heard crying outside, and they said they saw it crated in the yard during rainy, snowy, and windy weather. They never saw the dog outside its crate and said Sago occasionally covered the crate with a blanket to quiet the dog’s barking, prosecutors alleged.
The dog died after Sago allegedly left it in a metal crate on a concrete patio during a winter storm on December 26 and 27. A custodian who works in Sago’s building found the dog deceased.
When police spoke with Sago about the dog on December 29, she allegedly told them that she went to work at 5 a.m. on the day of the snowstorm and left the dog with no food or water. She said she forgot about the dog when she returned from work at 5 p.m. and did not check on it.
A necropsy determined that the Goldendoodle died of hypothermia and was severely malnourished, prosecutors said.
Sago’s public defender said she is a mother of four and works full-time as a nursing assistant. She has no criminal background.
McCarthy, the judge, ordered Sago to pay a $1,000 bail deposit to go home. She also ordered her to have no contact with animals.
