Pups in Pembroke Pines animal abuse case find forever families months later
When Alexa Goldman walked into her usual hair appointment in February, she didn’t expect to do anything more than sit back, relax and leave with a blowout.
Instead, she saw Peaches, a 2-year-old French bulldog rescue visiting the salon with her then-foster family, and instantly submitted her application to adopt the pup.
“When I walked in, I was like, ‘Oh, my god, look at this beautiful dog!’” said Goldman, who lives in Fort Lauderdale. “Her face, and she was so chill, so soft, you know? I fell in love with her right away.”
Peaches — who now goes by Ginger — is one of three dogs living out a rags-to-riches tale after being rescued by police from squalid living conditions.
Pembroke Pines Police Department officers found the pups underfed, covered in urine and feces, and cramped in a crate outside a home in February, later arresting their owner — 24-year-old Jaylen Holmes — under animal cruelty charges.
Staff at Pooches in Pines, the agency’s partner rescue that nursed the dogs to health, dubbed it “the most severe case of malnutrition” they’d ever seen.
Months later, all three have bounced back and found their forever families.
“If you do the right thing, it always usually comes back tenfold. We are firm believers in that,” Angela Goodwin, Pooches in Pines president, told the Pembroke Pines News about taking the pups in.
“Sometimes we get in situations and we’re like, ‘Oh, how are we going to get the money to do this or how are we going to raise the funds?’ And then something always miraculously happens for us ...”
The rescue
PPPD officers discovered the pups on Feb. 1, caged in a 4-foot-by-5-foot crate on Holmes’ front patio, following a neighbor’s tip to police.
They were found shivering in the 40-degree weather during a two-day countywide “freeze watch” that forecast feels-like temperatures dropping into the 20s.
“The dogs were unable to move due to being in such close proximity to each other and restricted,” Holmes’ arrest report reads. “The bone structure of all three dogs was visibly apparent, including their ribs, spine, and midsection.”
Inside the home, police spotted piles of urine and feces on the floor and in a crate, adding that the home was in “extreme disarray and unsanitary condition.”
Several overturned food bowls looked unused for a long time, they noted, and there was no water for the dogs to drink.
“They all had hookworms. ... Peaches was anemic and (Lana) was anemic,” Goodwin said. “They all had infections on their ears and were all covered in pee and poop from sitting in the crate that they were found in.”
Holmes was arrested after police surveyed his home and booked into Broward Main Jail, where he’s since bonded out.
Broward prosecutors dropped the two third-degree felony charges of aggravated animal cruelty Holmes faced in late April, per court records.
He still faces 12 misdemeanor charges — cruelty to animals, enclosing animals without air and confining animals without sufficient food or water — and is scheduled to stand trial in October.
Where are the dogs now?
What home life looks like now for the pups is night and day from what it used to, according to the new owners.
Ginger, who Goldman says is “a wonderful addition to our pack,” spends most of her time playing tug-of-war with Goldman’s cockapoo or climbing onto her senior dog.
“Now she’s full of energy,” said the Fort Lauderdale dog mom of four. “She bounces around, and when I open the door, she’s always right there.”
The Frenchie proved the hardest to match thanks to her highly coveted marbled “Merle” coat that raked in “way more applications” than the other two and the breed’s known medical issues, according to Goodwin.
“(Ginger) hops up on our bed easily and onto the couch. ... I’m not too worried at this point. We have another dog ... with ongoing eye issues and he also has that short nose, so we’re accustomed to the snoring,” Goldman said. “She just fits right in ... she really has a very good life.”
Sisters Sasha and Lana — who now goes by Lulu — were a testament to “love at first sight” with their foster families, who adopted the 7-month-old mixed-breed dogs shortly after being placed.
“(Lulu) and her sister take puppy class together, so she still sees her sister every Saturday,” Paula Kordi, Lulu’s adopter, told the Pembroke Pines News. “She ended up being adopted by a great family too. All the girls are doing really good right now.”
Kordi, who lives in Miramar and heard of the pups through a TV news story, received Lulu when she weighed just 4 pounds and remembers her being “very dehydrated” and feeding every three to four hours when she first arrived.
She now weighs 20 pounds, has blossomed into a playful and curious pup, and can often be seen hanging around Kordi’s 10-year-old Pomeranian, her cat or her young kids.
“I knew that I wasn’t gonna let her go. She’s just so sweet and she’s such a good dog,” Kordi said.
“Lulu just looks at me and you can tell that she’s just so thankful, you know? She’s precious, and she’s amazing and she was a good addition to our family. We couldn’t be happier.”
