Trigger Warning: This article contains references to graphic depictions of animal dismemberment that some readers may find distressing.
The case of Shannon Marie Morgan from Florida in 2022 shook the entire country.
On the evening of December 7, 2022, officers from the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office were called to a Beverly Hills residence where a young child was living allegedly in extremely unsafe conditions.
Upon arrival, police deputies and officers from animal control discovered a child living in a home filled with feces, trash, urine, insects, and more than 300 rodents that had “completely taken over” the residence.
Deputies said that they could “smell a foul odor from the residence even while standing in the front yard,” according to an arrest affidavit. Inside the home, an officer wrote in the affidavit, it “immediately became difficult for me to breathe due to the ammonia from fecal matter and urine.”
Detectives also said that the home’s living area was allegedly filled with cages and aquariums with rodents and snakes. The cages had visible fecal matter and didn’t contain food or water.
According to the document, the snake and rodents’ cages were covered with roaches, flies, and other insects due to the feces infestation and urine. An officer said he observed a deceased rodent in one of the cages. It appeared that the rodent had been there for some time as it was “almost completely covered by bedding and other rodent feces.”
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The first bedroom had a ferret and a dog stuffed in cages “littered with urine and feces” and were deprived of food and water. Police found the young child in the second bedroom with trash and food everywhere. “I observed empty drink cans and bottles lying all over the floor.” The child’s mattress was reportedly lying directly on the ground and was covered in roaches.
The affidavit added that multiple cats in the child’s room were eating and dismembering a dead rat, with blood on the ground. “There was blood on the ground and throughout the room from the rat. I did not observe food or water anywhere in the residence for any animal. I did not observe any bowls lying around in order to provide the animals with food or water.”
When Morgan answered the door, an officer said there were about 50 rodents inside the cages and another 200 to 300 rodents that were “running freely.” “I then observed from the doorway the rodents had completely taken over control of the bedroom.”
According to the affidavit, Morgan was aware of the situation but didn’t get any help until that day. She said, according to the document, that she didn’t live at the residence anymore and only came to “check on it nightly due to the state it’s in.”
“The conditions of this residence and the animals in this case were so bad, Sheriff’s Office personnel were cautioned about making entry,” Sheriff Mike Prendergast said in a statement.
Morgan was arrested and charged with one count of willful child neglect and 12 counts of animal cruelty—torture/infliction of pain/serious injury.
During interrogation, Morgan allegedly said that she was depressed with her living conditions and was attempting to “sabotage the animals and kill them so she didn’t have to deal with them.”
Disclaimer: The Inquisitr could not independently confirm the facts of this incident and is reporting based on the information available within the public video record.
