On the morning of Tuesday, March 18th, 2025, a young woman from Winchester named Sarah Smolak was arrested on two warrants of animal cruelty regarding a case that started in February. The next day, a man named David Reid turned himself into police after claiming he was in cahoots with Smolak. The case flared up after multiple reports of missing and neglected animals. Upon the arrest, 27 dogs, originally thought to be 24, were confiscated from the home. Both the dogs and suspects are currently under investigation.
After the arrest at 6:30 AM, Smolak was taken to court, where many truths came out. First, her attorney explained that “she had been working with rescues and looking after critical care dogs.”
Smolak has now strayed away from helping animals and, unfortunately, gone to hurting them. Locals must have somehow sensed a change and reported her for neglect in February, to which nothing suspicious was found.
A lot has changed since that month, as NBC Connecticut shares that during the search on Tuesday, Police Chief Ciuci “found mistreated animals, malnourished, neglected, sores, things of that nature.”
NBC also shared information from the state prosecutor, who said, “The electric collar that had been placed around their neck were so tight, the tightness of the collar caused the skin to effectively meld into the collar, causing serious injury,”.
The court session ended with Smolak being fined “on a $150,000 court set bond ($75,000 for each count)“. She will return to court on May 8th. Reid, though not having said much about him, will go back on April 23rd.
This peculiar case has resulted in nothing but shame for the duo. Their disgusting, careless actions have cost them many animal ownership privileges, which is good for the animals’ sake, but obviously not for them, seeing as to how much they truly yearned to work in pet care. As the case goes on, they will face much more consequences for their awful behavior towards innocent animals.
