By Emily Bennett
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Police raided a Belle Vernon residence Wednesday following the death of one dog and complaints from neighbors that residents were neglecting their animals.
Authorities were called to 321 Main St. on Monday, after a caged dog “began convulsing and continued to convulse for approximately 30 minutes before it stopped,” according to court records. The affidavit also noted the dog had foam and vomit coming out of its mouth. It was transported to a veterinarian and was pronounced dead upon arrival, police said.
State police arrested Christopher Foreman, 35, and Rachel Bonacci, 36, of Main Street. They are accused of allegedly intentionally torturing their animals and knowingly leaving their dog in a cage outside with no shelter, food or water, resulting in the death of the dog, according to court records.
Clusters of bystanders watched on Wednesday as five dogs, one cat and one lizard were taken from the home.
One of the bystanders was Nicole Bonacci, next-door neighbor and sister-in-law of Rachel Bonacci. Nicole Bonacci said she has been making calls and filing complaints with both the police and animal control “for months.”
“After a while of nothing getting done, you just kind of give up,” she said. “So I called animal control again on Monday.”
Nicole Bonacci said that after calling animal control, they led her to a woman with connections to the state police. Animal control officials assisted state police and removed the animals. As the van was driving away from the house, an unidentified animal control agent said to bystanders, “There has been a lot of death in that house.”
Main Street resident Denise Stasko claims she was attacked by their dogs last October while walking to the school bus stop with her five-year-old grandson.
“There were four dogs that came after us,” Stasko said. “They came charging out of the front door. There were three black pitbulls and one tan pitbull.”
Stasko said the three black pitbulls surrounded her grandson, and the tan pitbull bit her on her side.
“I told my grandson, ‘don’t make eye contact,’ and we started to try to walk back to the house, and the tan one came up and bit me in the side,” she said.
Stasko said that during the attack, both her cell phone and coffee cup fell to the ground, spooking the dogs away. Stasko notified authorities of the incident, but never saw anything come of the filed complaint.
Stasko was present at the raid on Wednesday because she saw police cars and heard commotion while sitting on her pool deck.
“The police started yelling for them to open up and if they don’t open up, I guess they just force their way in,” Stasko said. “They started taking dogs out and a bunch of cats ran out of there. There were five dogs taken out.”
Nicole Bonacci claimed she and Stasko were not the only two that have filed complaints against the two.
“Actually, everybody around here for the most part, has made a complaint against them for their dogs,” Nicole said.
Foreman and Rachel Bonacci are each charged with a felony county of aggravated cruelty to animals, misdemeanor counts of cruelty and neglect of animals and citations for having no dog licenses and proper vaccinations for their animals.
They were both arraigned and sent to the Fayette County Prison in lieu of $30,000 bond each.
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