STACI MILLIGAN BAKER and MATTHEW AMBROSE BAKER facing charges after 83 dogs removed from 3 locations
- voiceforus
- Apr 25, 2022
- 4 min read
- Utah, USA -
On March 31, 2022, an Animal Control Deputy with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office responded to a home on River Bottoms Road near Spanish Fork to investigate a report about dogs who were malnourished, did not have food or water, and were covered with feces.
At the home the deputy met with 38-years-old STACI MILLIGAN BAKER and as he was talking to her, he “saw two small puppies laying or sitting in feces in a 2’x2’ kennel on the kitchen floor”, said the sheriff’s office in a press release. The deputy reported that both furbabies were “listless and appeared to be in distress.”
BAKER told the deputy that she runs a breeding operation and sells her dogs.
The deputy asked BAKER whether the puppies were receiving treatment and she said they had been seen by a veterinarian in Provo and showed the deputy some animal medication the vet gave her. It turned out that BAKER lied about the puppies being seeing by the vet as well as the medication.
In fact, the veterinarian in question, told the deputy that BAKER only talked to him about a Parvo issue a few months earlier and denied examining the puppies and prescribing medication for them.
The deputy later learned that a call was recently made reporting that at the same property there was a large shed with dogs inside kennels so he returned to the home to talk to BAKER again.
This time, the deputy waited on the road near the shed and he could see multiple dogs in small outdoor kennels. The poor souls had no water, no food and appeared to be malnourished.
He could also smell the odor of feces coming from the shed.
In conducting the follow-up, the deputy discovered that BAKER and her husband, 48-years-old MATTHEW AMBROSE BAKER, owned additional properties.
Several dogs were discovered on a property in Orem and on a property in Provo.
All the dogs were being kept in unfit conditions just like those in River Bottoms Road.
Repeated attempts by the deputy to contact STACI MILLIGAN BAKER failed.
In the meantime, it emerged that the woman had a business license for the Orem location, but that was only to be used as executive office space under the name Maple Mountain English Cream, LLC.
Furthermore, it turned out that she had no kennel permit at any of the three locations, and no business license to operate in the River Bottoms Road or Provo locations.
At that point the deputy drafted a “Notice of Action” notice, and posted it at the home on River Bottoms Road.
The notice required STACI MILLIGAN BAKER to have the two sick puppies the deputy saw earlier, examined by a veterinarian within 14 days.
The deputy kept trying to contact the woman via phone calls and text messages but she did not respond.
Given the conditions the deputy observed at River Bottoms Road, Orem, and Provo properties, he drafted an affidavit for a search warrant for three locations.
That search warrant was approved by a judge and on April 13, while conducting surveillance on the Orem home, the deputy saw MATTHEW AMBROSE BAKER outside the home. He called for assistance from other deputies because the man “is known to get violent”, stated the release. Deputies then approached him and took him into custody.
Arrangements were made to execute the warrant at all three locations simultaneously on April 14, 2022.
The following agencies assisted with this operation:
· Utah County Sheriff’s Office Animal Services Deputies
· Utah County Sheriff’s Office Detectives
· Utah County Sheriff’s Office Evidence Technicians
· Utah County Sheriff’s Office Deputies
· Orem Police Department Animal Control Officers
· Orem Police Department Officers
· Provo Police Department Animal Control Officers
· Provo Police Department Officers
· Spanish Fork Police Department Animal Control Officers
· Spanish Fork Police Department Officers
· Payson Police Department Animal Control Officers
· Springville Police Department Animal Control Officers
· Staff from both the South Utah Valley and North Utah Valley Animal Shelters
In total, 83 dogs were seized from the three locations. That includes 2 dogs at the Orem home, 26 dogs at the Provo home, and 55 dogs at the River Bottoms Road home.
According to the press release, when the rescued dogs were given water, a couple of them “drank voraciously then immediately got sick.”
The sheriff’s office also said that it is very difficult to describe the situation inside the kennels at all three locations. “It appeared that most, if not all, of the kennels hadn’t been cleaned for an extended period – if they had ever been cleaned at all. Some of the kennels were raised or had grated platforms in an apparent effort to allow feces to fall through and to the ground or floor. In many of the kennels this space was filled up to and over the bottom of the grated platforms.”
According to the release, in many of the kennels the feces and urine created a muddy mixture that ran along the ground or floor while in others there were piles of feces.
Most of the dogs had nowhere clean to go. They would lie down on the dried or still wet, sometimes moldy urine-feces mixture. Many of the dogs had dried, crusted feces on their coats. Others had coats that were soaked with a foul-smelling urine-feces mixture.
At the Orem home there was an area just over a fence with a large pile of feces that appeared to have been thrown there from inside the fenced property.
Many of those involved in the operation said it was difficult to stay near the kennels, especially for the ones indoors, for very long because the odor of feces and urine was so strong.
As the dogs were catalogued and photographed, most of them seemed thrilled to have the attention and they tried climbing on those holding them.
The VOICELESS VICTIMS were taken to the North and South Utah Valley Animal Shelters where staff bathed and vaccinated all of them.
After four of the dogs tested positive for Giardia, the veterinarian ordered that all the dogs be treated for Giardia rather than testing all of them. Several dogs also had serious eye infections.
The sheriff’s office advised that this case is still active, and deputies are still investigating.
“We expect there will be separate charges related to the violations in Orem, Provo, and on the location on River Bottoms Road”, stated the release.
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Details may be removed or additional information may be provided in future should such sources report an update.
Pictures shared from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office
Additional Source:
Breeders! Damn these irresponsible horrific people! Adoptions save lives & shelters are full of poor innocent souls that need homes. I pray all these Precious Souls get better & find for homes with people who will love them.